A mom has recently divided the internet after she said she’s allowed to snoop through her kids’ phones because she is the one that pays for them.
Laura Muse, a North Carolina mom, has left the internet divided with opinions after stating that she is allowed to go through her kids’ phones because she is the one paying for them.
The mom admitted to confiscating her teenage kids’ phones—one 15-year-old son and another 17-year-old daughter—before they go to bed so that they can get a good night’s sleep instead of being hooked online.
And while most people thought that she also kept them away and ensured her kids’ privacy, they were wrong, as the mom also spent some extra time going through them to make sure her teens were behaving.
Speaking to The New York Post, the 41-year-old emphasized that because she pays for their phones, she’s allowed to do it.
“I own their phones; I pay for the phones. I can go through them whenever I want,” she said. “People might think [it] is a sign of disrespect or an invasion of their privacy, but this is how I manage my ship.”
What started off as random, weekly checks when her children were around 11 years old carried on well into their teen lives, with the mom-of-two occasionally still asking them for their hand-held devices to look through.
Muse says that she trusts her kids’ but goes through their phones in order to keep them from engaging in inappropriate exploits while simultaneously protecting them from online predators and scammers.
However, that doesn’t mean the 41-year-old, who is a mental health clinician, hasn’t also caught them out. In the past, it was reported that she caught her son, Cohen, posting shirtless pictures of himself online. Of course, the hawk-eyed mama got him to delete the content.
“If I do find something that’s an issue, we talk about it and turn it into a teachable moment,” she added. “I’m not perfect; I don’t expect my children to be perfect, but it’s important to keep an eye on things.”
