Scott en Aztlán wrote:

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 08:41:25 -0500, "Dave C." wrote:

That *is* ridiculous.

Mom pays for the phone, she pays for the computer, she pays for the
electricity; she has the right to monitor the communication taking
place using her property

No, it's not ridiculous at all. The mother can ALLOW the child to use the
phone. If she does, then the child has an expectation of privacy while
using it.

Why does a child have an expectation or privacy but an employee does
not? And forget that crap about how you "signed your rights away" when
you joined the company; I've worked plenty of jobs in my life and
never signed such a document, yet I know that my phone calls and email
can be monitored by my remployer at any time.
--------------------
They provide the equipment solely for you to perform their business,
not yours.


It's a basic right the
employer has - I don't need to sign anything for it to be in effect.
------------
True. But the relationship is inherent, like using their printer.


If the mother can't live with those terms, then the child
shouldn't be on the phone at all.

If the child doesn't want to be monitored, she can buy her own phone
service. Pre-paid cell phones are widely available - no credit check
required.
-----------------------------
When you let anyone use your telephone, you surrender your control
of it and have no right to invade their privacy. When you provide a
phone ONLY for THEM to perform YOUR business purposes, the burden is
quite different.

When you try to bar your child from using a phone in their residence
for their own private purposes, you're asking for them to do hateful
things to you which you will fully deserve.


Put another way . . . if you don't trust
your child to use the phone without illegally spying on him/her, then your
child shouldn't be using the phone, period.

I guess you feel the same way about the GPS tracking device I have
installed in the car that my teenaged son drives?
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Creative vandalism. Somebody sure must have wanted that GPS, Pop!
Steve