If I ever have a daughter, I'm going to name her Nipples. ---- http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB973467133455018998.htm November 6, 2000 It's Not Big Brother Invading Kids' Privacy, It's Mom and Dad By ANDREA PETERSEN Staff Reporter, of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Lindsey Bargo, 15 years old, was triumphantly strolling out of a Gap store with her new $149.99 black leather jacket when her cell phone rang. It was her mother. "A leather jacket? Are you sure this is what you need with your money?" Julie Bargo recalls saying to her daughter. Although Ms. Bargo was more than a hundred miles away in her State College, Pa., office at AccuWeather, she still knew what Lindsey was doing. Every time her daughter buys something with her debit card, Ms. Bargo, an Internet executive, gets an instant e-mail from PocketCard Inc. (www.pocketcard.com), with details on how much Lindsey spent, where she spent it and the date and time. Sometimes, as in this case, it even tells her what the money was spent on. "I told her, 'You can't hide from me,' '' Ms. Bargo says. In the age-old battle between independence-seeking teenagers and worried parents, the older generation is packing some new weapons. Caller ID tells parents who is calling their kids. Cell-phone bills detail every local number the kid has called. EZ-Pass, the electronic toll-taker, records the exact time and place that junior starts cruising along the New Jersey Turnpike, and puts it all on statements. New computer programs track just about everything -- every Web site visited, every e-mail sent -- that a teenager does online. And parental reconnaissance is going to get a lot more intense. New technologies will soon allow parents to download live Web-cam videos onto their cell phones, showing exactly what is going on at home while they are away. Companies such as SnapTrack and Trimble Navigation are launching technologies that will turn cell phones into homing devices so parents will always know where their kids are. Daniel Rosen was brought down by an electronic version of a trail of bread crumbs. While the 13-year-old from West Chester, Pa., has his own computer and access to America Online, his parents use AOL's parental controls, which permit Daniel to go only to those Web sites deemed appropriate for young teens. But that wasn't enough to keep Daniel from wandering around the Web. While his parents weren't looking, Daniel broke into his father's AOL account and visited some X-rated Web sites. "He cracked my password," says the boy's dad, Mike Rosen, who is the chief executive of an Internet software company, 2Ce Inc., in King of Prussia, Pa. "He just tried everything he could think of." Daniel says it wasn't all that hard; the password had been saved on the computer. Mr. Rosen might never have known about the security breach, but his son left electronic fingerprints. Mr. Rosen started getting unsolicited e-mail messages from pornographic Web sites. Curious, he looked at the browser cache on his computer -- the record of sites visited -- and found addresses with risque names. Mr. Rosen then checked his cookie file. The porn sites had sent a number of cookies -- little computer programs that recognize a returning visitor and track his movements -- onto Mr. Rosen's hard drive. Daniel was in big trouble. "I scared the hell out of him," Mr. Rosen says. "I told him he could go to jail for going into somebody's computer." Daniel fessed up. His punishment? A month without using the computer for anything but homework. "I got busted," Daniel says sheepishly. "I think my dad can see wherever I go." Many parents can do exactly that. Norm Zurawski, a locksmith in Schofield, Wis., and the father of three children, uses a computer program called Spector to track everything his kids do on the computer. The program takes frequent electronic "snapshots" of the computer screen and lets Mr. Zurawski replay the action later. The kids don't know how he sees what they are doing. Mr. Zurawksi's elder son, 17-year-old Nate, has felt the effects, however. When Nate was caught visiting some pornographic Web sites, his father forbade him to go online for a week. But after Mr. Zurawski unplugged the family's high-speed DSL Internet connection and went to sleep, Nate plugged his computer into a dial-up phone line and got to the Internet using a friend's AOL screen name. "I knew what was going on because I got these AOL screen shots," Mr. Zurawksi says. Circling the Posse Even when kids aren't caught red-handed, their parents' technology tools can cramp their style. Brandon Diamond, 16, got a pager earlier this year, and most of his friends have cell phones. The kids use them to stay in touch with one another -- and with their parents -- during afternoons hanging out in the pool halls and bowling alleys of Pace, Fla. But Brandon says the cell phones and pagers have made it easier for parents, who've got all their numbers, to keep track of everybody in his posse. "It is like the parents' secret service," Brandon says. "All the parents check in with each other, so you've got to be good and not act stupid." The pager does have one advantage for Brandon. He isn't expected home at night now until 10:30 (his old curfew was 9:30) because, he says, his parents feel more comfortable knowing they can always reach him. But being in touch can ruin a tender teenage moment. Aaron Fleishman, 16, was at his girlfriend Moira's house when his mother called him on his cell phone to find out when he was coming home. The young couple was busy making out and the call, Aaron says, killed the mood. "My girlfriend was sort of upset," he says. "It is kind of annoying that my parents can call me anytime." Couldn't he have just turned off his cell phone? No, he says -- he'd get a lecture from his parents. Of course, for every new parental trick, there are kids figuring out ways to thwart it. Zak Ellsworth's parents tried to keep tabs on him by installing caller-ID on their home phone and looking through the browser cache and cookie file on his computer. "My parents keep me on a short leash," he says. But they were no match for Zak, a 17-year-old high-school senior in Reno, Nev., who maintains the computers for his school's Junior ROTC program. After going online, Zak simply erases any tracks by clearing the computer's browser cache ("There's a little button in Internet Explorer that says 'erase history,' " he says.) He also cleans out his computer's cookie file. If teenagers think they have it bad, they should be thankful they aren't in their little brother's and sister's shoes. Companies are getting ready to unleash more powerful methods of surveillance. Xanboo Inc. (www.xanboo.com), in New York, plans to begin selling a $179.95 home-surveillance system in January. It will include a camera and a motion sensor, so worried parents can get an e-mail at work telling them when the front door is opened. A camera will beam live video of all who enter. PacketVideo Corp. (www.packetvideo.com), in San Diego, Calif., is taking the idea even further. Early next year it expects to offer technology that will send streaming video to a parent's cell phone. "You'll be able to check on your kids from anywhere," says Jim Carol, PacketVideo's chief executive. Kids on the Map A number of companies are creating global-positioning system technology to embed in cell phones and electronic personal organizers. Qualcomm Inc. is already shipping chip sets with built-in GPS technology to cell-phone hardware manufacturers. They can be used for everything from beaming driving directions to keeping track of elderly parents. "You could imagine logging onto a Web site and typing in a cell-phone number, and a map pops up to tell you where your teenage kid is," says Steve Poizner, president of the company's SnapTrack subsidiary. Applied Digital Solutions, in Palm Beach, Fla., is getting ready to unveil Digital Angel, which it plans to put in everything from cell phones to bracelets and luggage tags. Not only will Digital Angel tell where a person wearing the device is located, it can also record heart rate and body temperature. So the device will suit cardiac patients and nervous parents alike. The company has a patent for a device that can be surgically implanted beneath the skin.