Exploring children's perspectives on parental surveillance in Belgium

Abstract

Academics have warned against the normalization of invasive monitoring of children. Limited effort, however, has focused on the perspective of children and their preferences. In this article, we shift our attention to children’s view on parental surveillance. Using an in-depth interview study with 31 children (aged 9 to 12) we found how new media and surveillance technology, somewhat paradoxically, may actually pave the way to more autonomy and privacy. Our results show no constant parental surveillance, let alone a complete internalization of the parental gaze. More than a normalization of parental surveillance, there is an expectation for parents to always be available when needed. Overall, our research underscores the importance of prioritizing children’s agency and voices, rather than assuming that they are subject to a totalizing and constant surveillance experience.

Impact summary Prior state of knowledge While there’s much concern about parental surveillance of children via new media and surveillance technology, little is known on what children think about this and whether surveillance factors into their concept of a good childhood.

Novel contributions We found that for children aged 9–12, parental surveillance through new media was not seen as a threat to their relationship with their parents. Instead, they viewed these tools as helpful aids for navigating the transition into the teenhood phase.

Practical implications It’s not so much the normalization of parental surveillance that’s problematic but rather the normalization of parental availability, where it has become standard for parents to always be ’on-call’ for their children.