Parents spying on their children's communications seems hard to reconcile with the principles in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child[1] which most coun

Parents spying on their children's communications seems hard to reconcile with the principles in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child[1] which most countries are signatories to, in particular articles 13 and 16: "Recognizing that the United Nations has, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenants on Human Rights, proclaimed and agreed that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, ... "The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice. ... "No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation. "The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." Given that Microsoft is a US company and the US is one of very few countries that hasn't ratified the convention[2], the concept of children having human rights might seem strange and foreign to them, but almost everywhere else, the state is (it seems to me) obligated to protect children from this kind of intrusion. (Maybe the EU could look into forcing them to release a special spyware-free edition...) [1] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx [2] http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30225.html http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30225.html