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.…