Author: FlexiSPY

Update — 7/7/2015

You can now spy on up to iOS 8.4 with FlexiSPY! Learn more by checking out our post about this release, on the blog

Update — 1/7/2015

You can now spy on up to iOS 8.1.2 with FlexiSPY.

To do so, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone, which we’ve provided a guide for — here

Both FlexiSPY PREMIUM & FlexiSPY EXTREME are compatible with this latest jailbreak.

Update 10/24/2014 — Now Outdated

Pangu has now released a jailbreak for iOS8 / 8,1, it’s still advised that you not update your phone to iOS 8 as the jailbreak just released is not stable and FlexiSPY doesn’t support this latest jailbreak yet (as well as all other mobile spy software)

Some of the information Below is out of date, but still contains important information:

Original Post — Now Outdated

Currently FlexiSPY (And all other mobile spy software) Do Not Support iOS 8 as there isn’t a jailbreak out for it yet.

Please Do Not Update To iOS8. You can prevent the iOS 8 update by reading the section in the article called: Can You Stop iOS 8 From Being Updated By The User And Losing The Jailbreak?

With the release of iOS8, the iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 plus, many people are wondering if it’s still going to be possible to install mobile spy software onto their Apple devices. The answer in short, is yes, You will be able to Spy on an iPhone 6, an iPhone 6 Plus, a device running iOS8, and possibly even the iWatch. However, the question that can’t be answered definitely yet, is: When Can I Spy On These New Devices?
In this article we will answer some of the most common questions that we get from people, if you have after finishing the article, please contact us in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

A Date For Spying On iOS8 Devices Hasn’t Been Set Yet

Mobile spy software for iOS devices (such as the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, etc) all rely on the target phone being Jailbroken. This means that no mobile spy software can claim to work on an iOS device unless there’s been a jailbreak released for that iOS version. And currently, there is no jailbreak for iOS8.

So again, Without the ability to jailbreak any iOS 8 device such as the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or Apple Watch it is not possible yet to install any spy phone software onto the device.

How Long Will It Be Before I Can Jailbreak The iPhone 6?

No one really knows.

The time it takes for the latest version of iOS 8 to be released and the time it then takes for clever hackers to jailbreak the iOS (it is not something done by FlexiSPY in any way) can vary significantly. Actually it is taking longer and longer for a jailbreak to appear after the release of the latest version of iOS due to Apple making it more and more secure and thus fixing the exploits that jailbreak teams such as Evad3rs used to jailbreak the device.

Ironically, when Apple released iOS 6.1.3 (which killed the iOS 6.1.2 jailbreak by Evad3rs) they actually credited the Evad3rs team for helping them fix it by finding the issues and exploits that Apple patched to make iOS 6.1.3 possible.

Please be aware that there are currently many scam sites already advertising ways to jailbreak iOS 8 and these are all false – please be careful. You should follow one of our social media channels if you want to be the first to know when the jailbreak comes out.

We know they’re false because:

At the of publishing this article, iOS 8 was not even released yet to the public
There is no jailbreak of any kind available yet for the finished version of iOS 8
The video on the site shows how to jailbreak iOS 7 (if it really could jailbreak iOS 8 then why post bogus videos for an older iOS that anyone can jailbreak?)

Here’s what one of these sites can look like, so be careful.

Why is it taking so long to jailbreak iOS 8?

iOS beta versions can be jailbroken but this does not mean the final version can be.

At the time of writing (September 11^th 2014) iOS 8 is not even out officially to the public and neither is the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the Apple Watch is scheduled for the early part of 2015 so unfortunately you simply must wait.

Once iOS 8 is released publicly people will start to look at ways to jailbreak it. This could be easy, it could be hard. For those that are unaware the last jailbreak for iOS 7.1.x came from a Chinese hacking group and was called Pangu. During tests of the jailbreak it still worked on the iOS 8 beta versions but this is no way indicative to say that the same jailbreak will work on the final version of iOS 8.

iOS 8 Tethered and Untethered Jailbreaks – What Are They?

Untethered jailbreaks are always the best but take longest to arrive and no jailbreak is truly permanent.

Once someone figures out how to jailbreak iOS 8 when it is released to the public it will be tethered only to start with. This is always the case. A tethered jailbreak is essentially the ‘quick and dirty’ way just to prove a jailbreak can be done and it is usually complex (the process is as technical as it gets before it is streamlined to make it easier for public consumption) and it also has one main caveat which is explained below.

Tethered jailbreak – As soon as the iPhone is turned off or rebooted or loses power the jailbreak will be lost and, to boot up the phone to even use it you must connect it to your PC and then you have to jailbreak again and the process repeats until the phone is rebooted or loses power or turns off (rinse and repeat).

As you can see, this is not ideal at all and this is why FlexiSPY does not start to develop software until an untethered jailbreak is available. For a tethered jailbreak, not only would the person need to keep rejailbreaking the phone but every time the jailbreak is lost FlexiSPY would need to be physically installed again and this is just not ideal. Of course if Apple update iOS 8 in the meantime and people upgrade to that then it can mean the tethered jailbreak no longer works which further means the wait for an untethered jailbreak increases.

FlexiSPY understands that people cannot get the iPhone’s they wish to track all the time to keep jailbreaking it all the time if the jailbreak is tethered. Furthermore, from a development perspective, an untethered jailbreak is far safer to work with than a tethered one because an untethered jailbreak is permanent unless the iPhone is factory reset.

A tethered jailbreak is the first to be available but is not really worth it.

Untethered jailbreak – An untethered jailbreak takes the longest but it is the jailbreak that everyone wants and FlexiSPY prefers. An untethered jailbreak is permanent once applied unless the device is factory reset or upgraded to a new iOS version from Apple that fixes the exploits used in the untethered jailbreak (which means it is back to square one – waiting for a jailbreak for the new iOS 8 version and this is nothing to do with FlexiSPY).

Untethered jailbreaks are what everybody really wants, including FlexiSPY, but the wait for them to appear gets longer and longer.

Can You Stop iOS 8 From Being Updated By The User And Losing The Jailbreak?

Nobody knows at this time but, in theory, if you can do it on iOS 7.x then iOS 8 should be able to also – given time.

Now there are Cydia tweaks for iOS 7.x that you can get such as Recoveryguard that trick iOS in to thinking that the version installed is the latest one which stops the iPhone owner from being able to upgrade the iOS directly from the iPhone itself.

However this does not apply if the iPhone is factory restored in iTunes as iTunes always checks for the latest iOS version before it restores or if the iOS is updated from ITunes itself.

Please note that at the time of writing nobody knows if Recoveryguard is compatible with iOS 8 once it is released but it works fine in iOS 7 providing you have jailbroken the phone.

You can install RecoveryGuard by adding the Cydia source http://cydia.pushfix.info to your list of Cydia sources and then tapping that source and finding RecoveryGuard and installing it the same as you installed FlexiSPY or any other Cydia program.

Unfortunately though RecoveryGuard is a tweak you can only get through Cydia and you get Cydia by, yes, you guessed it, jailbreaking the phone so the people who create these tweaks also have to wait for iOS 8 to be jailbroken so that they can update their applications and make them compatible – the same as FlexiSPY.

Can I Spy On Someone’s Apple iWatch?

We are not sure if people want spy phone software for the Apple Watch. If you are interested,  let us know in the comments and we will be sure to look in to it.

The Apple Watch still requires an iPhone to be tethered to it in order to receive notifications (you basically look at the watch on your wrist instead of pulling the iPhone out of your pocket instead – but not much more than that) so it may just be better to wait for FlexiSPY to fully support iOS 8 (which will run on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5 C, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch and all iPad generations starting from the iPad 2) instead so you can spy on the actual iPhone tethered to the Apple Watch and not the Apple Watch itself.

How long do we need to wait for FlexiSPY?

The Gold Master (final version) of iOS 8 was just released so our developers are getting to grips with that to see the new features and how we add even more great new features in to FlexiSPY but, as said, with no jailbreak there is not much we can do right no except speculate what we can do and just wait for any kind of jailbreak (tethered or untethered) and test our theories and get FlexISPY working.

In the meantime though don’t forget that FlexiSPY still works on iPhone’s and iPad’s that have been jailbroken.  This is something we will of course retain in our software for iOS 8, our software can hide Cydia too meaning that, whether it is iOS 7 or iOS 8 you have just jailbroken to install FlexiSPY you can hide all traces of the jailbreak (Cydia) and our software also hides itself completely too for complete stealth.There’s actually a guide for doing so, here.

That’s All For Now | But Stay Up To Date

Currently this is the latest situation regarding FlexiSPY and iOS 8 and the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. However we will be sure to update this article with any new information regarding when FlexiSPY is available for iOS 8 but, in the meantime, join us as we all patiently wait for the iOS 8 jailbreak to arrive. To make sure you’re up to date with the jailbreak, please follow us on one of our social media channels.

«You’ve probably heard about the celebrity pictures that were stolen and linked all over over the internet.. Furthermore you probably also know that Apple’s iCloud was -at least in part- at fault»

But what you may not be aware of is just how easy the whole thing was, and how, using applications that are simple to find, you too can gain access to practically anyone’s iCloud account — and you don’t need to be a hacker to do it.

Notice: Everything in this article is for educational purposes only. Apple most likely have fixed the exploits that lead to the data leak so this is just a proof of concept article showing how it was most likely done. FlexiSPY is not responsible for any damages, loss or anything else that incurs if you do try to recreate these steps.

How Did The Leak Happen?

According to reports it was simply due to the accounts that were compromised being unsecure. For example they failed to turn on two-step notification for their account or their password was just too easy to guess. Once access was gained in to the accounts, and because most iPhone users happily let their device upload all pictures to their iCloud account without ever thinking of the consequences, a second piece of software was used to then download all backups of said iPhone.

Once those backups were downloaded the same program was used to explore its contents and this includes the pictures and videos that are now all over the internet and are being investigated by the FBI

So who is to blame? Apple for not making it clear enough that iCloud backs up everything? Apple for not making sure two-step sign up is mandatory? The user for not really fully understanding the implications of having their data stored in the cloud which can potentially be hacked?

If you own an iPhone every picture you take is uploaded to your iCloud account once you have signed in to the iPhone using your Apple ID. However this can be easily turned off (we stress that Apple have fixed the exploits so that passwords cannot be guessed by brute force which makes this hack no longer possible) so that you are no longer vulnerable.

The process that led to the leak consists of several steps.

2 Ways It Might Have Been Pulled Off

1. First off, the hackers needed to have access or know the email address of the persons targeted.
2. They used those email addresses to login to iCloud and guess the security password
3. They gained access to the account and then proceeded to download any iCloud backups.

Or it could have been done this way:

1. The hackers knew the email addresses of the people they wanted to target.
2. Hackers used a brute force tool and password list to guess the passwords.3. They gained access to the acocunt and then proceeded to download the iCloud backups.

Either way, one thing that hasn’t come to the surface yet is how the hackers got the email addresses to start with.

However there are many darknets where information like this is traded via the use of the encrypted TOR browser.

Replicating The Hack

This is done entirely for educational processes and, from the latest information, Apple have already fixed the iCloud vulnerabilities. So, for this we will just show you, hypothetically how it was done but we will investigate the software used to download and extract iCloud backups in more detail.

The first thing is to obviously know the email address of the people you wish to target. We are using our own Apple ID that we have set up which already contains an iCloud backup. However the program that is being pointed at to guess the passwords was called iBrute.

This is a small program written in Python that will try to brute force (guess the password) of all email addresses in the mail.txt file using the passwords in the passlist.txt file. However in the release notes it confirms as we have said, Apple have patched the exploit which means the program will no longer work.

So, for this, we are going to assume that we already have an account (Apple ID) whose password we know (which we do) so, because Apple fixed the exploit the next step is written from the perspective that iBrute worked and gave us an email address and password.

Before we proceed to the next section we need to understand just how iCloud works on an iPhone after you enter your Apple ID which is like this.

1. Enter your Apple ID on the iPhone – iCloud is enabled by default which photo sharing enabled.
2. Set up a new photo stream on the iPhone and add pictures – wait for them to be uploaded to iCloud
3. For PC download and install the iCloud Control Panel
4. Once it is installed you are asked to log in to iCloud.
5. You then click the Options button under Photos to see the photos that were be uploaded to iCloud
6. You can set the options to upload all photo streams from the iPhone to iCloud.
7. You can then see the iCloud photos that are stored on your PC.

What you may not be aware of is that even though photo sharing is enabled by default it is not as easy as logging in to any iCloud account and viewing the pictures online. iCloud does not work that way and even though we have set up a photo stream as a test it will not appear on the iCloud website.

Below you can see the photo stream on our PC we are using. We have added 3 extra pictures (you can just drag and drop any image file into the iCloud photos folder and it will sync.

So, if we log in to iCloud directly we see the following – no pictures of any kind.

So how does iCloud actually work?

1. Sign into iCloud on any iDevice using your Apple ID
2. Set up photo streaming and photo sharing in iCloud
3. Take some pictures or videos on the device
4. Login to a new iDevice with the same account.
5. All pictures and videos taken will appear on the new device.

So essentially iCloud is the backend that hosts and shares all pictures and vides (and other content such as emails and contacts) between all iDevices your account is logged in to but this also means that picture and videos backed up to iCloud are only visible on the specific iDevice.

So how do you get access to the pictures or videos if you cannot do it directly from iCloud itself?

This is the next thing we will discuss and where things get clever.

Backing Up To iCloud

Apple makes it pretty damn easy to back up data to the cloud, in-fact, it’s enabled on a persons iOS device by default. This includes automatic backup of photos from the camera roll.

All you need to be back up the phone is to make sure that your phone is charging, connected to wifi, and is locked. Once the device is backed (specifically iCloud) you’re able to perform the same steps that the hackers used to get access to the information.

Apple, for some strange reason, do not allow any iCloud backup to be password protected so it essentially means that should someone find software that can download all backups from an Apple ID and the respective iCloud account then they potentially have access to very personal or sensitive information.

This is what the hackers did

And this is what we will show you too (for educational purposes only)

The first thing you need is the PC software that was used which is called Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker.  This is from a Moscow based company and the software is sold on the basis that it allows you to recover files from phone backups from variety of different manufacturers (Apple, BlackBerry, and Microsoft) and is to be only used for legal purposes only.

However looking at their main menu for a start tells you that this software could definitely be used for all the wrong reasons.

Decrypt Backup – Simply drag and drop any iPhone or iPad backup made within iTunes in to this option for it to be decrypted and for you to be able to view all data stored inside the backup.

Explore keychain – The keychain is encrypted by Apple and contains all the passwords on the device (iPhone or iPad). Again, just drop an iTunes backup on to this option to view all passwords used on the phone across all installed applications that have been stored in the keychain.

For those who are interested the keychain stores the following information:

1. Secure certificates
2. Tokens (e.g. Twitter, Facebook etc.)
3. Browser stored passwords
4. Wi-Fi passwords for all networks a device was connected at least once
5. Passwords, tokens and certificates stored by various applications

And the final option is what we are looking for — Download backup from iCloud.

It is obvious that the hackers just entered the email address and passwords of the people in question (which they obtained illegally as we explained) and then the software does the rest. For us we will be getting the data from the phone we just backed up.

So we put in the username and password of our Apple ID that we set up for this exercise and then we sign in and our backup is clearly listed at the top.

We then click the Download button and after a short time we can then choose any kind of information we want from inside the online backup.

All we are really concerned about is the camera roll as that is where all videos and pictures are stored but this software allows us to grab any and all information from an iCloud backup associated with the Apple ID that was used to sign in.

Essentially you just wait for the data to be downloaded to your PC and then you can pretty much do anything with it as you wish.

Apple makes this possible due to iCloud not having two step verification when you sign in (e.g. you sign in with a username and password and then answer a security question) which means that, as we have shown, just get the email address and password of an Apple ID and you potentially have access to phone backups which contains clearly sensitive and personal information.

How Can You Stop This From Happening?

The easiest way to stop yourself and your iDevice from becoming the next victim is simple.

1. Make sure your Apple ID password is strong
2. Turn off iCloud backups on the iDevice itself
3. Use a cloud system with better backup and security such as Dropbox

Apple have since patched the brute force method used but they have still not improved iCloud security to encompass two step verification although, in the wake of this scandal, we hardly think Apple will rest and leave their premier cloud backup solution with such a gaping hole in it for the whole world to look in.

We hope that you have found this article useful. Don’t forget that you can actually use FlexiSPY on your own iPhone or iPad to act as a secure and effective device backup tool so, if this interests you, why not check out a 24 hour demo of FlexiSPY right now?

We’re happy to announce that the latest version of FlexiSPY for Android is here! In this release, we really tried to act on the feedback that you guys put forward to us, and we’re very excited about the new offerings! So, what’s changed?

There’s also various other changes and improvements that we didn’t want to squash into this article, so for a more in-depth look into what the latest release gives you, check out our Android Page.

Most of these changes started off as great suggestions by people that have been fans of our software for a long time. If you suggest an improvement for FlexiSPY, we’ll review it, and it could eventually get passed along to our developers. So, why not brainstorm a few things you’d like to see, and leave your thoughts in the comments section below, it’s a win-win for everyone and we’d be delighted to hear from you!

 

You can now install and run FlexiSPY Premium & Extreme as well as FlexiSPY iPad on any jailbroken iOS device running iOS 7.1.2!

This now means that you can now get the same unrivalled IM capturing capabilities on iOS 7.1.2 as well as great signature FlexiSPY features such as spy call and call interception.

How can I get FlexiSPY on my iOS 7.1.2 device?

The first thing you need to do is jailbreak the device, we have a guide for that, which explains all the steps, that you can read, here All it takes is a few minutes and the TARGET device in your hand to jailbreak the device with help from access to a PC and you will be up and jailbroken in no time. After being jailbroken, the installation of FlexiSPY will be as simple as ever, so why not start enjoying FlexiSPY on your jailbroken iOS 7.1.2 device today!

Get FlexiSPY For iOS

For those who are not familiar with the world of gaming recently one of the most hotly anticipated titles dropped – Watch Dogs from Ubisoft. This open world sandbox game promised everything that the seminal GTA V offered except its focus was more on hacking the city in order to thwart enemies then relying just on firepower alone,

Watch Dogs takes place in a Chicago of the future where the entire city is hooked up to one main system known as CtOS. Obviously, those with any hacking knowledge could potentially hack in to the system and cause all kinds of chaos to the city and its inhabitants and that, essentially, is the crux of Watch Dogs.

Many people have already gone to task comparing just how plausible or possible the hacks are that you pull of as Aiden Pierce as you investigate who murdered your niece and this article is going to show you that parts of what you see and what you can do in the world of Watch Dogs is already very real and has been around now for quite some time.

The first thing is listening to live calls. At the start of Watch Dogs you happen to hack in to a bystanders phone and you can listen to the entire conversation on your own phone.

Call intercept allows you to listen in live to the phone calls of another person without the other person ever knowing you are there. Unlike Watch Dogs though which stretches the truth like all good Hollywood and TV to the point where you believe that anything can be hacked remotely (hint: it’s a lie) if you really want to listen to someone else’s phone calls using FlexiSPY you will of course need the TARGET device of the other person first so that you can physically install FlexiSPY on to it.

CALL RECORDING

During the course of Watch Dogs you uncover audio logs which are recordings that give more insight in to the lives of the people living in this futuristic version of Chicago. In the game Aiden simply hacks in to a computer and can then start listening to a stored audio log on his phone. The same principle is applied by FlexiRECORD with their FlexiRECORD product. Except in real life you need to first install the monitoring software, in this case FlexiSPY, on to the TARGET device and FlexiRECORD on to your own computer and connected Android phone.

After that it works the same way, all calls can be recorded and stored on your computer or you can save the recorded files to your phone to listen to them on the move.

Not only can you listen to live calls in Watch Dogs but you can also be privy to private conversations between Chicago’s inhabitants as you walk around. FlexiSPY also has this feature in real life – known as spy call – and it allows you to use your own phone to call the TARGET device and listen to what it taking place around the phone at the time you call.

FlexiSPY makes spycall incredibly simple, once you have installed FlexiSPY on to the TARGET phone you simply enter your own mobile phone number in the FlexiSPY online dashboard, enable the spycall feature and then you are all set.

Simply call the TARGET phone from your own to start secretly listening in.

Watch Dogs is all about hacking at the end of the day. There is nothing more satisfying then hacking traffic lights to escape a police pursuit, looking back seeing the police smash in to the puzzled drivers as you speed away or watching them get impaled on blockers you activate. But did you know that Watch Dogs allows you to hack the SMS messages of people too? That’s right, and, yes, in real life it can be done too. So this means that, at certain points during the game, you can hack someone else’s SMS messages to learn revealing information or even send them SMS messages to distract them and get their attention whilst you sneak past.

Whilst technology is not at the point just yet of allowing you to hack someone else’s phone remotely (although many scams are out there) you can indeed intercept and read someone else’s SMS messages using FlexiSPY.

FLEXIRECORD

Or how about hacking a bridge to raise up after you have escaped? Watch Dogs allows you to do all that and Ubi Soft even had Kaspersky onboard as advisers to make sure that the hacking performed in the game was actually real (although a lot of it was made more dramatic for effect – think the hacking movie Swordfish with John Travolta and Hugh Jackman).

So there is no doubt that right now Watch Dogs is the hottest game on the planet. With its innovative take on an interactive and interconnected city and society it makes you think about your own security. We are all too reliant on our computers or smartphones and it will only get worse and this means the greater the risk that all we care about digitally can be hacked. There is a classic line in the 2001 Ryan Philippe hacking movie ‘Antitrust’ which goes: “We don’t take anything seriously, unless it’s on a hard drive”

This is truer today than it has ever been with our devices now literally becoming part of us (Galaxy Gear and Google Glass) with a whole host of wearable devices set to launch very soon. It is getting to the point that are bodies are our data which is why health apps are now the next big application market to plunder.

There is no doubt that the release of Watch Dogs has raised issues and questions about how secure we are online or when dealing with digital data and how dependent we have become on our devices and how much control they have over us (let’s get this straight, they control us, we do not control them otherwise we would just turn them off and never use them).

It is the constant need to check Twitter, Facebook, SMS messages, voice mail all the time that keeps our devices turned on and always in our thoughts. All of this data, in the wrong hands or obtained unethically could have very bad consequences. But first the media needs to educate itself about what hacking really is and what it truly involves instead of sensationalizing it for Hollywood and TV.

With the release of Watch Dogs it would have been nice to get away from the stereotypical way of showing hacking as being done remotely which is just not true. It is this misinformation that allows for many illegitimate companies to profit providing scam software. When you think about the story of Watch Dogs even placing an entire city under control by one OS (it would be several ones surely? One for each infrastructure type — water, power etc.) is a little radical but make no mistake, this is where our lives are going.

WHO KNOWS

Maybe Ubi Soft will fix this in the sequel and will make Aiden have to physically install the hacking software on to the device you want to hack first and for multiplayer teams of hackers could fight it out online for control of specific subsystems of the OS (like capture the flag) to beat the opposing team – it would make the game more interesting and more realistic — or at least they could allow us to hide all the dead bodies we leave in our wake.

Worried about your teenager? Who are they hanging out with? What are they doing after school? Is my child being bullied? Is my child into drugs? These are all valid – and common – concerns of a parent. You probably bought your teen a phone – a cute iPhone or a techie android smartphone.

You can put a lot of fears to rest if you know what is going on with your child’s phone. You also can intervene, if necessary, to protect your child.

What are the legal implications of spying on your child’s phone? Can you be sued by your child?

Parent-Child Immunity: Historically, the Doctrine of Parental Immunity barred a child from bringing a claim against her parents. The parental immunity doctrine had its genesis in the United States in Hewellette v. George, 68 Miss. 703, 9 So. 885 (1891), in which a minor daughter was precluded from suing her deceased mother’s estate for damages resulting from mental suffering and injury to her character incurred during her confinement in an asylum for 11 days caused by her mother. The court gave this reason for its holding:

“ ‘The peace of society, and of the families composing society, and a sound public policy, designed to subserve the repose of families and the best interests of society, forbid to the minor child a right to appear in court in the assertion of a claim to civil redress for personal injuries suffered at the hands of the parent. The state, through its criminal laws, will give the minor child protection from parental violence and wrongdoing, and this is all the child can be heard to demand.’

The rule, as set forth in Hewellette is as follows: “So long as the parent is under obligation to care for, guide, and control, and the child is under reciprocal obligation to aid and comfort and obey, no such action as this can be maintained.”

All 50 states, legislatively or judicially (by a decision of the state’s supreme court), adopted the doctrine. California is a state that adopted the immunity judicially (Trudell v. Leatherby (1931) 212 Cal. 678 [300 P. 7] an unemancipated minor child may not maintain an action against his parent for negligence because an action by a child against his parent would «bring discord into the family and disrupt the peace and harmony of the household”).

The End of Parent-Child Immunity: Almost all states have now abandoned absolute parent-child immunity, particularly with respect to intentional torts against the child (i.e., child molestation and abuse). Many states have abrogated the doctrine for negligence claims where there is insurance coverage for the parent’s negligence, and allowing the child’s lawsuit against the parent would not disrupt family harmony, because the claim really lies against the insurance carrier for the parent (i.e., allowing automobile negligence lawsuits – now commonly excluded by insurance policies).

• The Goller Rule – immunizing ordinary parental negligence

Recognizing the continuing need to protect parental authority and family harmony, some jurisdictions have attempted to limit immunity to negligent conduct arising out of an «exercise of parental authority . . . [or] an exercise of ordinary parental discretion with respect to the provision of food, clothing, housing, medical and dental services, and other care.» Goller v. White, 20 Wis. 2d 402, 122 N.W.2d 193 (1963).

The reasoning is that parents have a right to raise their children according to their own beliefs, without undue interference from the courts. Parents should be free to determine the physical, moral, emotional, and intellectual growth of their own children. Every parent has a unique philosophy of rearing of children, and matters of parental supervision invoke these philosophical considerations. Neither a court nor a jury can evaluate such highly subjective factors without supplanting the parent’s individual philosophy.

The Wisconsin rule from Goller, which is followed by a majority of states, is as follows: The parental-immunity rule is abrogated except in these two situations: (1) where the alleged negligent act involves an exercise of parental authority over the child; and (2) where the alleged negligent act involves an exercise of ordinary parental discretion with respect to the provision of food, clothing, housing, medical and dental services, and other care.

• The Gibson Rule – The Reasonable Parent Standard

California has led the way in completely abrogating the parental immunity doctrine and many states are moving towards the California “reasonable parent” rule adopted in Gibson v. Gibson (1971) 3 Cal.3d 914. Decided after Goller, Gibson recognized that “a parent may exercise certain authority over a minor child which would be tortious if directed toward someone else. For example, a parent may spank a child who has misbehaved without being liable for battery, or he may temporarily order the child to stay in his room as punishment, yet not be held responsible for false imprisonment.”

Gibson adopted the following rule, now known as the “reasonable parent” standard: “Since the law imposes on the parent a duty to rear and discipline his child and confers the right to prescribe a course of reasonable conduct for its development, the parent has a wide discretion in the performance of his parental functions, but that discretion does not include the right willfully to inflict personal injuries beyond the limits of reasonable parental discipline. . . [A]lthough a parent has the prerogative and the duty to exercise authority over his minor child, this prerogative must be exercised within reasonable limits. The standard to be applied is the traditional one of reasonableness, but viewed in light of the parental role. Thus, we think the proper test of a parent’s conduct is this: what would an ordinarily reasonable and prudent parent have done in similar circumstances?”

Statutory Monitoring Required : Oregon’s Child Supervision Law

One could also make the case that communications and location monitoring may sometimes be necessary for parents with a child who has a history of criminal misbehavior. For instance, Oregon imposes criminal penalties (only a $100 fine) against parents whose children violate tobacco, alcohol, truancy and curfew laws. In order to escape liability, the parents must either show they reported the conduct to police, or that they took reasonable steps to control the child. (Oregon Revised Statutes, Sect. 133.07 (Failure to Supervise a Child)).

Parental Liability for Harassing a Child: Don’t Hack Your Child’s Facebook Account

While there are no reported cases of parents being sued by their children for invasion of privacy for spying on their telephone and internet activity, there is a recent case where a parent took her supervisory activities over the top.

The 17-year old son of an Arkansas woman left his Facebook page open on his computer. His mom read his entries on the page and was disturbed to find he was posting accounts of domestic abuse by his mother. She changed his password, and, over the course of several weeks, began posting numerous false and defamatory statements which, to the child’s facebook friends, appeared to be posted by the 17-year old himself. She also sent communications by sms and through facebook to her son which were vulgar.

Her son made a police complaint. The mother was arrested, tried, and convicted of harassment. She was sentenced to 1 year probation, ordered to pay a $435 fine, and attend anger management classes. (Denise New case)

A Parent’s Takeaway: Monitoring your child’s phone and internet activity is within your right as a parent, and it may be your duty. While supervision and monitoring are perfectly within the law, harmful intentional conduct which goes beyond parenting, exposes parents to both civil and criminal liability. Moreover, public disclosure of personal communications can, in some cases, lead to civil or criminal liability for defamation, harassment or invasion of privacy.