Some Bot to Watch Over Me; New York Times, 2/19/14

Steven Kurutz, New York Times; Some Bot to Watch Over Me:

"No parent wants a child smoking pot in the den with a gang of delinquents while he or she is at work. Still, is it a good thing that parents can so effortlessly watch children who are at home and unsupervised?

Torin Monahan, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the co-author of “SuperVision,” a book about surveillance in society, said that today’s youth are almost inured to being monitored, particularly when it comes to social media. But the justifications for doing so in this case are questionable, he said, because they are fear-based. And because of that there are developmental implications: “We don’t allow youth as much agency as perhaps they need to develop identities fully apart from their families.”

“Invariably people will spy on family members,” Mr. Monahan added. “I worry it could undermine trust relationships in families.”

Adam Sager, a security-industry veteran and one of the creators of Canary, disagrees with that assessment.

“The way we look at it — and we feel strongly about this — we believe Canary brings families and people closer,” Mr. Sager said."