Watch out! New things are making it easy for parents to monitor1 your every move—
当心！新鲜玩意儿正在帮助你的父母轻而易举地监视你的一举一动——
Last year, Ashley, a 16-year-old girl, was contacting a new cyberfriend2 when she childishly asked him how he was. “I'm high. High as Mars3 ,” he answered. The remark made Ashley frightened. It's not the kind of thing you want your mom to read— and no matter how quickly Ashley ended the exchange, she knew there'd be no way to hide it.
Hiding inside Ashley's computer was a kind of software that can reproduce every word that she types. Ashley's mother had installed4 the program, telling her daughter that she'd be usually checking whether Ashley had been up to anything bad, like visiting porn5 sites or using lewd6 language. Ashley wasn't shocked —especially when her mom wrote a sharp e-mail back to the boy—but it could have been worse.
Terrible? You bet. And Ashley is hardly the only teen being watched. Safety concerns have increased in the last year, and the technology keeps advancing, giving worried or just plain curious parents a lot of tools to choose from. In addition to monitoring computer move, they can learn what you buy before you tell them, and soon they'll be able to locate you through satellite and spy on you and your houseguests from miles away.
For some kids, this kind of inspection is already a reality. When Mary, 18, traveled to Australia as part of a student program last summer, she left her home with a new credit card and a sense of independence. Six weeks later, she returned with a deep appreciation for Australian culture and lots of surprise gifts for her family.
But thanks to a security feature on the credit card, Mary's mom already knew about the presents. Every time Mary had used her card at a shop or restaurant, an e-mail told her mom exactly what she had bought, for how much, and where. Mom liked having a window on her daughter, but Mary, while respecting her mom's desire to know she was safe, felt like she was traveling with someone. “My privacy7 was invaded8,” she says. “It destroyed the presents I brought back, it destroyed my stories.”
For Rose, just having her cell phone has already made keeping plans from her mother next to impossible. “One time, she called as my friends and I were about to go out to a dance club. Once she realized what was going on, she kept calling, and I ended up having to go home,” says Rose, 17. And it may only get worse for Rose. Soon cell phones will come with a global positioning system9, which will allow satellites to track them anywhere in the world. Then, even if Rose doesn't answer her phone, her parents would be able to locate it and her. That's not something she looks forward to. “I would feel like my mom was tracking me,” Rose says.
But the winner of all these is a network of cameras and sound and motion detectors10 , installed at home, that may end secret visits from your special someone. All parents have to do is download11 the software onto their office computers, sit back and wait for you to break the rules. Every time the front door opens, they'll get an e-mail and be able to watch who's entering the house—or, really for the controlling, your college dorm room. It can also pick up sounds like breaking glass, motions like a garage door opening, and temperature changes throughout the house, so forget about holding a crowded party with lots of exciting dancing. To the teens who may have to live with it, its powers are hardly reassuring12. “If parents think they have to watch their kids that much, they shouldn't leave them alone,” Mary says. “Teens need privacy or we go crazy.”
去年，16岁的少女阿丝莉正与一个新网友攀谈时，孩子气地问起了对方感觉如何。“我好兴奋。兴奋得犹如战神。”他回答说。这番话不禁让阿丝莉惊恐万分。这话可不是你愿意让你妈妈看到的——可不管阿丝莉多快结束交谈，她知道这根本是藏不住的。
阿丝莉的电脑里隐藏了一种软件，能够把她打的每一个单词都复制下来。阿丝莉的妈妈装了这个程序，并且对女儿说，她会经常检查阿丝莉是不是接触了什么不好的东西，比如访问色情网站，或是说些下流话。阿丝莉并不震惊——特别是当她妈妈给那男孩回了封言辞犀利的电邮时——可这种情况有可能变得更加糟糕。
很恐怖吗？没错。阿丝莉并不是惟一受到监视的孩子。去年安全问题越来越受到关注，而科技又在不断发展，这就为担心孩子或纯属好奇的父母提供了大量的工具供选择。他们除了监视电脑操作外，还可以在你告诉他们之前就知道你买了什么，而且很快他们就会通过卫星找到你的位置，在几英里之外就能监视你和你屋子里的客人。
对有些孩子来说，这种监视已成为事实。当18岁的玛丽去年夏天因社会实践前往澳大利亚旅行时，她带着一张新的信用卡和一种独立感离开了家。6星期后，她回来了，心里充满了对澳大利亚文化的敬仰，而且还给家里人买了不少的礼物，想让他们大吃一惊。
然而，由于信用卡上有一种安全装置，玛丽的妈妈早就知道了这些礼物。玛丽每次在商店或餐馆刷卡的时候，都会有一封电子邮件告诉她的妈妈她具体买了些什么、多少钱买的、在哪儿买的。妈妈想对女儿的一举一动了解得一清二楚，可玛丽虽然尊重妈妈关心自己安全的良好愿望，却觉得自己是在跟另外一个人一起旅行。“我的隐私受到了侵犯，”她说。“（它）破坏了我带回来的礼物，也破坏了我的经历。”
对罗斯而言，只要带上手机就基本上瞒不住她的妈妈。“有一次，我和朋友们正准备到舞厅去跳舞，她打来了电话。她一旦知道有什么事，就不停地打电话，我最后只好回家。”17岁的罗斯说。对罗斯而言情况可能会越来越糟。不久的将来，手机就会跟一个全球定位系统连在一起，卫星会跟踪孩子们到世界的任何一个角落。到那时侯，即使罗斯不接电话，她的父母也会找到她手机和她本人所处的位置。那可不是她想要的。“我会觉得我妈妈是在跟踪我。”罗斯说。
然而，所有这些东西中最厉害的恐怕要算联网的摄像机和音像监测仪系统——这玩艺儿只需装在家里，就可能使你的秘密交往毫无秘密可言。父母们要做的，只是将软件下载到办公室的电脑里，然后坐在那儿等着看你捣蛋的好戏。每当家门打开时，他们都会收到一封电子邮件，这样就能看到谁进了屋子——或者，玩玩真正的监控——看看是谁进了你的大学寝室。这套设备还可以测出打碎玻璃之类的声音，车库门打开之类的运动，还有整个屋子的温度变化，因此你可别想举办跳得热热闹闹、开开心心的舞会。对于那些只好与这些设备将就着“过日子”的孩子来说，其能耐很难叫人放心。“如果父母认为一定要把孩子看管得死死的，就不应该把孩子撇到一边。”玛丽说。“孩子是需要隐私的，否则我们就要疯掉了。”
1. monitor v． 监视；监听
2． cyberfriend n． 网友
3． Mars n． 火星；战神
4． install v． 安装
5． porn adj． 色情的
6． lewd adj． 下流的
7． privacy n． 隐私
8． invade v．侵犯
9． 简称GPS，卫星定位系统
10． detector n．监测仪
11． download v．下载
12． reassuring adj． 安心的, 可靠的