How do YOU monitor your kids online activity?
I just asked a privacy question about the electronic rights of my middle school kid and surprisingly received almost unanimous affirmation that monitoring kids activity through high school is the norm.
I am an IT professional and know how to keep track of the activity of my children and prevent activity where necessary. The parents of my kids friends don’t. I am appalled at the ignorance of some very educated parents in regard to monitoring (or how to monitor) their kids online activity.
I am very interested in your answers to this.
What measures do you have in place to monitor your kids online activity?
Could your kid get past your security if they wanted?
Lastly, are any of you getting flack from your kid because you’re doing this?
I don’t secretly monitor online activity. My kids are totally aware that I am viewing EVERYTHING.
Note that were talking about a middle schooler here.
Comments
I don’t allow her to be on the internet without me in the room most of the time. I check her history once in a while.
wow thats a major no no thats really an invasion of privacy and gonna cause some major trust issues.
I have their log ons set with parental controls. Our computer is in our living room and they are only allowed to use it when their dad or I is in the living room, no they don’t like it too much but they understand that it is our house and our rules. Computer also get turned off every night and we have a password to get access before anything can be used.
I don’t have kids yet, but when I do, I think I’ll teach my kids right and wrong and trust them enough so that I won’t have to monitor their activity. I think that’s basically telling your kids that you don’t trust them. I don’t think it’s very hard to tell your kids what sites are bad and that you shouldn’t trust people on the internet.
I use Spector. It creates a video playback of screen shots. I also use Norton parental controls. The spector is my fav though. My kids cannot deny what I show them on video.
I have Windows Vista on my system. It has AWESOME security features, automatically records anythign I tell it to. Since it is built in, and woudl require her having access to my password that she can NOT break to change anythign, no she can;t get past it. And I don;t get any flack form her abotu it. She has teh choice of keeping her butt off of my computer if she doestn liek things the way they are. Her father and I are divorced but he monitors her just abotu as strictly at home so she is used to it.
I am sixteen, so my view comes from the other end of the spectrum. There really isn’t a way to make everyone happy. I find it to be a horrible intrusion of my privacy, but I completely understand where parents are coming from. Just constantly remind your kids what is and is not okay and possibly scan the history every once in awhile. If you see something that could be harmful, then take a look, if not then you should be satisfied.
Well first off our computer is in the livingroom. We also have something called “Cyper Patrol” on the desk top with different settings based on age so my kids can browse the web safely.
I have an 11yr old, 8yr old & 6yr old. We like how Cyper Patrol works and also it has tons of ways you can monitor your child online.
I think the key thing is to have it in a public setting. The computer is in the livingroom and we don’t allow our kids to chat or IM.
I find online safety very important. I grew up when all this was just starting and as a teen I met guys online and I was date raped for months by one older guy I met online. I even once invited a guy I just met online over to my home and my parents had no idea!
Keep the computer in a public place, set up a good computer guard, talk honestly with your kids & stuff like that. Let your older kids watch “Lifetime” movies that show what could happen. Danger is out there and it happens all the time. I was lucky I wasn’t killed or worse. The guy who hurt me got off free because I was to scared to talk about it and felt I was to blame. So I plan not to let this happen to my kids! I’m glad parents these days know the dangers and help protect them.
Good luck.
The two internet enabled computers are smack dab in the middle of the living room and kitchen – both heavily trafficked areas of our small house.
Although, from years of watching my 16-yo stepdaughter on-line, talking to her about everything, teaching her about safety, getting to know who she is & how she thinks, we’d let her have an internet-enabled computer in her room. She’s not asking us for that, though, since she likes our company (as we do hers) & doesn’t want to shut herself away from us all day.
Put the computer near the kitchen.
All I can contribute is I think it’s great you are keeping track. My husband set us up to keep track of our computer activity and I think it’s a very good idea. I think it keeps us ALL honest and keeps morality in check.