Is social media a threat that parents should monitor To snoop, or not to snoop? That is the question on every parent’s mind after the cri de coeur from Tory MP Claire Perry, who has urged us to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged teenagers by taking arms against the pernicious threat of social media. David Cameron’s new adviser on childhood claims that we have a duty to hack into our children’s emails and monitor their texts.

Perry, who represents Devizes and has three children, accuses society of being “complicit” in creating a culture in which youngsters are free to make inappropriate contact with “strangers at all hours of the day and night”.

Not unreasonably, she suggests curtailing online activity late at night by unplugging the internet router. More controversially, she says that children have no right to keep their messages private and that parents ought to feel empowered enough to demand access to them. read more…