A lot of parents in the 21st century punish their children by taking away things like television, facebook, and the internet in general. While facebook seems to be a sort of lifeline for many teenagers, I think taking facebook away from them for a couple days is a fair punishment. Even though a lot of teenagers would say that is not a fair punishment, I think that it is. You're not supposed to enjoy your punishment, and you are definitely not supposed to like it. The whole point of a punishment is to learn from your mistakes and not do it again.
But I think that some punishments, such as taking away cell phones, can sometimes be a little unfair. While cell phones are typically used to text your friends, teenagers also use them to ask questions about homework and tests, get a ride to school, and to tell parents that they've gotten somewhere safely and what time they will be home. The parents could tell their child to stop texting, but then a lot of other things could be more difficult as a result.
Taking away a child's internet privileges is also a little bit unfair. While the internet is commonly used for facebook, email, and online games, a lot of students, especially ones in high school, have to use the internet for school projects. That includes research for a paper, blog posts for class, and getting notes off of a teacher's website. So if a parent were to stop their child from using the internet, they would have some problems with things relating to schoolwork.
Punishments that are more fair could be something like doing more work around the house, having restricted time on the internet, not be able to drive anywhere but work and school, or not being able to hang with friends during the weekend. Taking away facebook is not a bad punishment, but it could be hard to reinforce. A child could say they were doing homework and then get on facebook instead, and there would be no way for the parent to know.
I agree that taking away the internet is not a fair punishment. As technology use has increased in schools, the use of computers as a tool has become integral. Restricting use of Facebook would definitely be a punishment, but you are correct in saying that there would be a huge degree of trust required for the child to use the computer/internet and not Facebook. Of course, there are filtering programs that parents can install to lock out certain sites, but trust is more important.
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