High-Tech Hide and Seek

Technology Enables Parents to Spy On Kids . . . And Kids To Fight Back

Maribeth Luftglass uses GPS technology at work for surveillance. At home, she monitors how her preteens use the Internet and cellphones, sometimes reading text messages and checking their instant messages. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)

Maribeth Luftglass is a gumshoe mom.

The parent of three preteens periodically reads the text messages on their cellphones, monitors whom and when they're instant messaging and searches the Internet to make sure they haven't started blogging or set up profiles on social networking sites.

Her kids, in turn, sometimes attempt a little techno-judo to deflect her surveillance efforts: They change the text and background on the monitor to blue and black, making it harder for her to read the screen from across the room. They set their instant-messaging status to "invisible," so she can't tell they're online.

"I monitor all their online activities," and the kids are well aware that their technology-access privileges come with that cost, said Luftglass, who is the Fairfax County public school system's assistant superintendent of information technology.

The game of parental espionage and counterespionage gets ever more complex with technology.

Companies such as AOL LLC have long been in the business of marketing products to help filter Web content and keep children safe while online. Now that some cellphones come with Global Positioning Systems and that tracking software can log computer activity, parents are gaining new windows into their children's whereabouts and activities.

The corresponding transparency in most cases allows children to explore greater independence while at the same time tethers them closer to parents who, for the most part, are acting out of a desire for more knowledge and security. And as parents and children tussle over where to draw the line for privacy, some children say parental intrusion simply forces them to create more-sophisticated ruses to undermine the increased supervision.

Last month, Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced its Family Locator feature, the first major-carrier service that allows parents to receive text messages of the address closest to their child's location. Disney Mobile, the cellular unit of the Walt Disney Co., plans to launch its service with child-tracking next month, and still another, Wherify Wireless Inc., plans to launch a safety-focused phone for children in August.

More than half of parents of children between the ages of 4 and 12 said they had a high interest in such a service, said Clem Driscoll, president of research and consulting firm C.J. Driscoll & Associates, which last month surveyed 4,000 parents on behalf of industry clients. Many younger children are willing to accept the trade-off, he said. "The cool factor can override the fact that they're being tracked."

Interest in the service declines somewhat with parents of older children, Driscoll said. "Parents with teenagers have mixed feelings. Some of them feel like they don't want to infringe on their privacy," he said. Tracking might lead to resentment, some parents told him.

The Internet can also weave intricate traps and ruses for children and their parents.

Increasingly, schools are relying on software programs that allow parents to access their kids' attendance, homework and test and quiz scores online. Fairfax County Public Schools plans to pilot a program with that type of software this year. For the most zealous of snooping parents, there are even software programs that log key strokes and document the Web sites visited, allowing snoopers to trace old e-mail or instant-message conversations.