Hovering parents are nothing new. (Neither are hovering governments, the more likely consumer of these technologies.)

I’m working on writing up some ideas linked by the premise “Use It or Lose It” (Coming Soon to a Blog Near You!), which leads me to wonder: What happens when parents take responsibility for responsibility? When children don’t have to develop the skill and strength to do what’s right, because they are constantly watched? Do they lack the ability to make responsible, long-term decisions? Sadly, I suspect that may be so.

A very wise man I am privileged to know advises: It is better to let your children believe you to be a fool, than have them believe that you don’t trust them. In other words, even if you suspect that your children are doing things of which you don’t approve, it may be preferable to let them think they’re pulling the wool over your eyes than think that you don’t trust them.

Under normal, healthy conditions, a relationship of trust requires practicing trust, even if the kids aren’t always successful. Give them a chance to develop the right behavior through their own choices. Trust them to be (or at least, to become) trustworthy.

Brian Aladesuyi, 17, received a new Jeep in exchange for a promise: he would never drive it outside his hometown, Kennesaw, Ga. His father, Kayode Aladesuyi, chief executive of the security firm EarthSearch Communications, used EarthSearch’s Web site to map Kennesaw’s boundaries into the Jeep’s onboard computer, surrounding the entire city with an electronic fence. But when his father took a business trip to Brazil, Brian decided to try his luck, Mr. Aladesuyi said. Brian drove to Marietta, a neighboring town. Seconds after Brian breached the invisible wall, his father received a text message on his mobile phone. Mr. Aladesuyi sent a message commanding the computer to disable the Jeep’s engine as soon as Brian switched it off. When the Jeep would not restart, Brian had to call his father and confess he had broken their agreement. “I don’t think Brian really understood I could do that from Brazil,” Mr. Aladesuyi said.

Parents have now developed intercontinental capabilities in regulating (or interfering in, depending on your perspective) their kids’ lives. Is this the beginning of the end of the debauched spring break in Cancun?

[via Social Technologies’ Change Waves]