Should parents be able to monitor their teens' social media sites (facebook, etc.)?

[angel]

I hate those parents that are like "they may have zero privacy"
I don't think it's necessary. I'll explain why.
We talk to our friends about whats on our mind. The only reason parents want to spy on that is because they can. That's like reading someones diary. Some things they just don't need to know about. For example, "you are throwing a surprise party and they see it". Seriously if my parents had that rule, I wouldn't go on social networks, that's why I don't text, they can read it. I call my friend or tell in person , no trace. Parent's tracking my every move makes me feel violated. Like being stared at on the toilet.

[Courage]

I really think we have to figure out what is privacy and what isn't. When I was a teen, we had our own room, but we didn't have our own computer in the room, we didn't have a phone that our parent couldn't look and see who was calling (or pick up and listen in.) If you wanted to hide a book you could, under the mattress... otherwise mom/dad could see what you were reading because you were holding it where others could see it, and/or because it was sitting on a shelf. Today there is Kindle and other reading devices meaning that others can't see what you're reading. Teens seem to think that they should have a computer and full use of it and their parents don't need to see what they're doing on there. Same with cell phones and everything else. In the past, the way these things WORKED made it so that there was no worry about privacy... you couldn't have hidden it well unless you had your own place anyway.

Today, teens have the ability to do a lot more privately than any other generation before them, and on top of that the technology encourages a voyeuristic attitude of telling everyone what you're doing every moment of the day (do I REALLY need to know when my friends drive up to a fast food joint? Do I need to know about the person cutting you off in traffic? Do I need to know that you burned the mashed potatoes?

We have entire groups of people who's job is to look online and see what you've put online about yourself and then judge whether they should allow you to have a job with that company, or put you to the bottom of the pile. Complain about where you work, your teacher, your friend, and instead of writing it in a journal where no one really sees it, EVERYONE can read it, and the result is that you might have to pay through the nose for being such a gossiping big mouth.

I don't think teens realize how an online social site can bite them. And how long it can haunt them. The portion of the brain that helps you control impulsive decisions isn't fully developed until they're 24 years old. They're given so many freedoms and abilities that weren't given to generations in the past. To me, I really think that it's not an invasion of privacy to restrict access to some of these social media sites, and it's not an invasion of privacy to put strict rules on it and to monitor what's going on. Any more than it was an invasion of privacy for my mom to check what I was wearing around others.

It's an invasion of privacy when you're talking about reading someone's private journal that they don't SHARE with all their friends. Looking at what they're hiding under the bed, or in the box in the closet with the lock on it. The things they DON'T put up for all their friends to see. But if you're putting it up on a social media site, then it's not invading anything for parents' to see as well.