Analysis Of The Undercover Parent By Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben’s OpEd piece “The Undercover Parent” is a powerful piece written to convince parents that the benefits of spyware greatly outweigh the invasion of privacy. Throughout his essay, he maintains a friendly, parent-to-parent tone that one can compare to a conversation over coffee. As a college student without children, I found it difficult to understand the importance of monitoring children’s internet activities. However, when I forced myself to take on the perspective of a parent, I found Coben’s argument to be far more compelling, and found myself understanding the importance of spyware on computers that children have access to. In his article, Coben assumes that readers will have a negative response to the concept of spyware, but he uses his argument effectively to persuade the reader that spyware is not only harmless, but an asset in the toolbox of good parents. Coben begins the essay by relating to the initial reaction of the reader: “At first, I was repelled at this invasion of privacy. But now, after doing a fair amount of research, I get it” (Coben 65). This statement serves a dual purpose: to empathize with the reader while simultaneously imploring them to read further and understand why Coben now “gets it”. …show more content…
Parents can simply install it and get weekly reports of everything their child did on the computer. When reading this, like Coben planned, I was intrigued. At the time, the invasion of privacy still struck me as slightly strange, but I was willing to hear his argument. The main argument he uses to justify the use of spyware is that it can protect children from online predators and other inappropriate material on the internet. Using spyware can help to alert the parent, who can possibly intervene before it is too