16 Signs You Are A Social Media Snooper Parent

Children no longer have independence because of parents stalking them via social media, according to Jane Lunnon, Headteacher of Wimbledon High School.

Social platforms previously reserved for young people are now inundated by snooping parents and Lunnon worries this trend is stunting children’s independence.

Lunnon told the Telegraph: “Because of FaceTime, Snapchat, Skype, parents can be - if they want to - permanently overseeing the lives of their children and it's problematic."

Many parents use social media as a way of learning more about their children's lives, friends and what they're up to out of sight. But have you taken it too far and are you becoming a social media snooper?

1. You play it cool and pretend you don't need a reassuring text, because you know you have Facebook check-in.

2. You spend hours watching Snapchat tutorials on YouTube.

3. You accidentally like your son's status and flap around your living room wondering whether to unlike it.

4. You feel like you've lived through your daughter's-best-friend's break up with her.

5. Then you have to pretend you know nothing about it when she comes round for dinner.

6. You use the phrases snap, bae, IDK and FML in conversation.

7. You take daily Snapchat screenshots as evidence to add to the "my son has a secret girlfriend" conspiracy theory folder.

8. You spend hours analysing the chemistry between your child and every other person on their social channels.

9. Your child tells you stories you already know the ending of, because you watched it happen on their Snapchat.

10. When their phone flashes at the dinner table you try and read it upside down.

11. Other parents in the playground ask you for the latest gossip.

12. You correlate where your child says they are going against the Instagram geo-locater.

13. You have secret profiles under an alias for deep-level stalking.

14. Your child's friends have blocked you more than once.

15. You have seen so many things you wish you could un-see.

16. You won't stop stalking your child until the moment they leave home... and even then, maybe not.