[YCode]

It strikes me that the parents who install these apps are likely to be parents who are raising more challenging children.

That's not to imply they are bad parents, just that the kid went through a divorce, intense bullying, a change in schools, etc. and that trauma caused them to engage in activities that led to their parents installing the app.

I guess in a phrase have they shown causation?

[frostwhale]

Its also possible the parents are installing these monitoring apps after other more "natural" (non-tech) ways to limit the child's access failed. This could also explain why these kids exhibit the behaviors in the study, as it adds a bias to the sample.

[Mononokay]

On the flip side, I'd say it's more likely that parents who allow their kid to experience trauma caused by the parent's choices generally are more likely to have an authoritarian outlook on parenting.