Parental spying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Parental spying - Essay Example And because of the usage of the term â€Å"parental spying†, parental supervision was suddenly perceived as unethical where it may be deemed improper for parents to check on the activities of their children. This is aggravated by the fact that there are quarters in society who argue that children should be left on their own and that their private spaces should be respected without the presence of parents. As a result, children who are recipient of this idea complain that their parents are intruding too much that they no longer have their private space. Parents in turn became oblivious on how to deal with this new idea if it is really unethical to check on their children as what society perceives it to be. Looking at it however under the strict scrutiny and standard of morals (what is right and wrong), parental spying is not in fact unethical and has ethical and philosophical basis that it is carried out in the interest of the greater good and that it does not violate the moral rights of other. Anyone who is well verse on the basis of ethics will agree with the use of these standards in determining that it is indeed ethical to check on one’s children. The ethical and philosophical basis of parental spying can be derived from the philosophy of utilitarian ethics as espoused by the prominent 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill. The notion of having children closely monitored or spied upon on the basis that it is in the interest of greater good and does not violate the moral rights of others has in fact ethical and philosophical grounds. We can glean on John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian ethics which is the â€Å"creed which accepts the foundation of morals, utility or the greatest happiness principles holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness† (Oregon State University) which in this case the interest of greater good. It may even surprise people that Mill is also an advocate of personal liberty and limited government authority but will readily compromise personal liberty especially of children for the greater good of society. If one asks how parental spying serves the greater good, we can put forth the ideal that raising children to become good and responsible adults is in the interest of the greater good. Children are our future and it is only fitting that we should do everything at our own disposal to guide them so that they will not go astray. If children go astray or did not realize their potential or did not even become better, we can only imagine how our future society would become. If we let them astray and become criminals or despondent, then our society will be reduced to or slide back towards barbarism and crudity in the future. It is therefore in our best interest to prepare our children well for the future and the best way to do that is to exercise parental spying to make sure they are properly guided. Consider the opposite of parental spying which is the absentee parent where the child is left entirely on his or her own. They leave children at their tender age where their faculty to decide what right and wrong to decide for themselves or left them alone. As a result, children go astray because they became vulnerable to undesirable influences at an early age because they cannot discern what is good and bad for them which parents should have done for them. Thus, parental spying