Question

Though being a parent has never been easy, the Internet hasn’t made the job any easier. Just how seriously are parents taking their role of monitoring(监控) their children’s online behavior?

A new study from the Digital Future Project finds a sharp difference in parental ways of Internet supervision(监督). 70% of parents say they monitor their kids’ online activity while on Facebook and other social media sites. In contrast, 30% of parents don’t step in kids’ online life because they trust their kids, don’t want to show a lack of trust, don’t know how to use social media sites or don’t have time to. Such a divide is due to the fact that parents fall in multiple generations with many different types of parenting styles.

Many parents take a wide range of actions to monitor and police their teen’s online behavior. Nearly six-in-ten parents say they often or sometimes check which websites their teen visits. 46% have password to log in their children’s social media accounts. In order to combat unsafe websites surfing, some parents even download softwares such as Spectorsoft, which blocks, records and alerts parents by monitoring kids’ Internet use.

However, parenting expert Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, CEO of a parenting website PediatricsNow.com, advises against using such software as Spectorsoft unless it’s a unique situation. “You do things because you love your kids and you want to protect them,” she says, “But kids aren’t these evil(邪恶的) creatures. Not trusting the online world should not be your only consideration.”

With growing concerns, great efforts have been made globally to ensure Internet safety and quality for youngsters. The US government updated COPPA (the Child Online Privacy Protection Act) to increase protection for children’s private information. Europe has not only given people “the right to be forgotten” on social media sites, allowing them to wipe their browsing history clean, but has also limited companies’ access(进入) to personal information. “I like the idea,” a user of PediatricsNow.com says, “Kids and teenagers are just experimenting. Until they hurt other people, they should be free to be a kid and learn about life.”

Despite these efforts, government regulations(规章) are having a hard time keeping up as new websites pop up every day. Therefore, parents still have to step up and recognize they need to be involved in their kids’ lives and find that happy medium. They have to stop being so disbelieving and give kids chances and the benefit of the doubt.

1.What does the study from the Digital Future Project find?

A.It is hard to control children’s online behavior.

B.Parents are divided on monitoring kids’ Internet use.

C.There is a large generation gap between parents and kids.

D.Parents who monitor kids’ online activity don’t trust their kids.

2.The word “combat” in Paragraph 3 probably means “______”.

A.give up B.carry out

C.fight against D.join in

3.O’Keeffe advises against using softwares such as Spectorsoft because ______.

A.parents need to think more than the danger of Internet

B.children can surf the Internet without parents’ help

C.different people have different parenting styles

D.such software is useless in a special situation

4.The writer probably agrees that ______.

A.COPPA is helpful for collecting kids’ private information

B.enough space is needed for kids to experience the online life

C.allowing kids to clean webpage records may hide the truth

D.governments play a major role in protecting children’s online safety

Answer 1