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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Big Brother and Daughters' Cell Phones

Brityn Mykhail is a musician and a singer, and she's just 17-years old. She uses her cell phone to social network to promote her music. Most marketing experts would say that's a good practice. Unfortunately, when Brityn was 15-years old, she began receiving naked pictures from a man in his 30s. They had struck up a relationship via electronic devices, so the man could hide his age and his identity. The creep actually showed up at Brityn's school one afternoon. Not sure what he was expecting to accomplish.

According to a law enforcement official in Brityn's area, sex offenders are increasingly using cell phones to target their prey because computers are easier to track and easier for parents to monitor and to check with software.

So how's a father (or mother) supposed to protect his daughter against sexual predators on her cell phone? Bob Lotter has come up with a solution, but it's not without controversy. Lotter's company has created My Mobile Watchdog http://www.mymobilewatchdog.com/default.shtml

I have not used the product and I'm not endorsing the product. Fathers can do that for themselves by following the link above. The product basically consists of two parts: one is the software that's installed on your daughter's cellphone and the second is the webpage for fathers to monitor their daughter's activity and control functionality.

My Mobile Watchdog can monitor phone calls, text messages, photos/videos, address book changes, calendar updates and task updates. Fathers can coordinate, with daughters, an authorized contact list. If someone who's not on the list attempts to contact your daughter, it's blocked and reported. A father can receive an immediate alert of unauthorized activity, and that report can be printed. The paper trail helps law enforcement officers catch predators.

I'm not trying to plug the product because I haven't used it. But as a father of three daughters, I worry about sexting, cyberbullying and other behaviors that are difficult to detect and difficult to control. According to law enforcement statistics, there are 700,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. Since My Mobile Watchdog was developed, law enforcement has used this technology to arrest 315 sexual predators, 90% of whom had no prior record and were not registered as sex offenders. The technology is being used by a minute sample, a dozen agencies, none at the federal level.

Which leads me to today's parting thought/question. If a father were to have this technology installed on his daughter's cell phone, is it crossing the line of invasion of privacy, or is it justified until the daughter reaches the age of, say, 21 and is no longer a minor dependent living under your roof?

I always tell my daughters that I trust them...I just don't trust other people.

P.S. Don't forget to tell your daughter that you love her.

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