Parents find new ways of checking up on their kids

With the advent of the silver surfer, more and more people of the older generation are learning to navigate their way around the web. It was probably only a matter of time before parents realised the advantages of being friends with their offspring on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

When one considers the traditional role of the teenager in a conventional stereotypical family, words such as ‘uncommunicative’ and ‘secretive’ spring to mind. However, social media is designed to pull even the most taciturn personality out of their shell, and teenagers are no strangers to baring all online, sharing their deepest secrets and thoughts with friends through sites such as Facebook.

This has worked very well for years, since social media took off as a popular way to communicate with other people. However, there is apparently a growing number of parents who are learning to surf the net specifically to enter the shadowy world of their children’s online networks and discover what they are doing, thinking and feeling at any given time.

This new trend has been concretized by a site which has sprung up recently: www.myparentsjoinedfacebook.com. The site is dedicated to posting up Facebook screen shots showing conversations between shocked, outraged or funny parents and their offspring. The site is proving popular, having been showcased on a number of television shows recently as the ultimate example of social networking gone too far.

The examples of what parents say or do either to embarrass or shame their children are rather hilarious. Comments range from the sarcastic to the downright embarrassing, as doting mothers join the network to remind their children to stop smoking, clean their rooms, wash up or please call home. There is something extremely endearing about the fact that kids are prepared to highlight the teething problems from when their parents first join the site, and the lengths some parents will go to, in order to identify what their children are up to, Googling acronyms and trying to keep up with the net generation’s antics.

While still in its fledgling form, there is no doubt that this new site will grow in popularity and stature as more parents find their way online!

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