I must say, I'm pretty reassured that a couple of you have mentioned sentry parental controls as I've just bought this one and my husband put it on yesterday. Our daughter spends literally HOURS every night on the internet in chat rooms and she closes down the windows very quickly if me or her dad walk in...... so there is obviously something she's trying to hide which is making me worried!

It sent me a text message this morning saying that she'd been on a chat room, I had a look at what she was saying and it was all very innocent - just chatting with her friend but you never know...

My initial reaction to these programs were that they were very invasive and I was of the opinion that if, as parents, we didn't respect her privacy then she will never see the respect of people's privacy as the fundamental human right that it is.

However my opinion has now changed (with much persuasion from my paranoid husband!). Perhaps it isn't very liberal to admit, but in this instance I feel that there are more important things than respecting idealistic freedoms...and that is trying to protect my daughter from the perverts that we have been told time and time again are genuinely out there. In a world where every kid is consistently flooded with porn and sexual discourse and despicable language that it becomes the norm and this 'normalisation' is more terrifying than any Big Brother (or Big Mother!). I'm on my high horse a bit now (!) but if it makes me the Orewellian baddy then I'll happily be the baddy knowing I'm doing the right thing.

What you may not know is, connections, well.. Keyloggers such as these send information from your computer through intetnet means. The company whom makes the device uses an undtectable PHISHING filter, and by you using they're device you are agree'in' with their terms of service and allowing them LEGALLY to keep that info.

This one is also not very good. You can remove these types of programs with some anti-spyware and some anti-adware programs. Also, many of these show up when you type msconfig in run and look at services/startup (if you have Windows XP). There is no real good monitoring program, however, hardware to filter out bad sites (an advance firewall) can at least protect your kids while at home.

These things are generally useless against anyone who spends a decent amount of time on a computer. This may be effective on little girls who only use a computer for social sites and chat rooms. The kid who plays counter-strike however, will just turn the stuff off to increase computer performance so that his games run faster.

Plus, most teenage boys who take pride in technological knowhow experience very little social interaction in real life and will gladly turn it off for your daughter just because they get to be in a girl's house. That same kid will also turn it off for your son just because he doesn't have any friends. Stereotypes are sometimes true, which is very scary. I can validate this because I used to be said kid and I know a few people like this in real life.

Here we go again...

The kids involved generally don't get any of the blame when it comes to these things, but I feel that your anology to a car seatbelt doesn't quite work in that for something to happen to your child due to online action can only occur if a child is uneducated about the various dangers that exist online or how to deal with them. I would certainly hope you teach your kids before you punish them, because whether you see yourself as punising them or not it's likely that your kids see it that way. What next, do you bubblewrap your kids when they walk down the street? Do you make them wear a helmet to go to a friends house? It sickens my stomach to know that parents are doing such horrible things.

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It simultaneously recieves and transmits. The screens can watch anyone at all times, some even say that they watch everyone always.

Is this an excerpt from George Orwells 1984 or the an ad for your monitering software? Don't be
Big Brother, because spying on people is bad.

Monitering software and no freedoms make son of liberty a dull boy.

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Edited by son of liberty at 01/25/2007 8:29 PM

I'n not advertising this but this is a great program to monitor what your child is doing online, it's completely undetectable and has a very simple user interface and options. This is the link and it's DEFINITELY worth the money to download.

http://siterefr01.cybersam.hop.clickbank.net/

Parental Controls are like seat belts for new drivers. You teach your kid as best you can how to drive, how to be safe, how to get from here to there without any problems... You can continue to trust your kids as long as there is education on how to conduct themselves.

The parental controls are like a contingency plan... you never know when someone else is going to cause a problem/accident from a blind-spot. Might as well have that belt in place just in case. After all, it's not always your child's fault, right?

I understand the teens' right to feel restricted by a parental control program. But everyone has to realize it's for best interests. Take a pro-active look at the tools. Besides, they say filters aren't doing the job they should be these days. It's education & understanding that saves the day in the end.

Perhaps chosing the tools for parental control should be talked about and decided as a group-- that way there is trust, understanding, and kid/parent empowerment.

Of course, that's just one person's view.

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Edited by izzy Neis at 12/20/2006 9:48 AM