Internet monitoring program??

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2004
Internet monitoring program??
7
Thu, 01-18-2007 - 10:37am

Hello! I am a mother of twin girls who will be 12y next month, and have a step daughter who will be 13 next month. She has opened an internet email account that I need the password to, and she can not know that we have this. We have serious concerns about what she is doing when not supervised.

Can you suggest some internet parental control programs? I have done searches, and found a few, but need some reviews, input, something. Mostly we are concerned about her email and IM activities, but I'm sure that once we learn what she is doing there, we will have other concerns, as well. I'm not looking to spend $100, and the program that impressed me the most was, of course, in that range.

Any ideas? Thank you so much. Looking forward to your input.

xxoo
muggle

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Thu, 01-18-2007 - 12:54pm

Too bad you can't do a search on this site about this, because it's been brought up many, many times.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2007
Thu, 01-18-2007 - 3:08pm

Here's another idea in addition to the keyboarding option.

My ISP automatically sends me a daily list of each website visited by those on my network. (We have 6 computers in the house, counting laptops.) I can see where each and every household member has visited that day because each computer has a unique number.

Honestly, I don't always read it, BUT it's deterrent effect is HUGE. My kids and my husband know that "Mom" gets the list of where anyone has surfed, so they are careful about not visiting inappropriate sites. If they get to one by accident, they tell me right away so there's no trouble.

Best of all, this feature is FREE with my ISP subscription.

Hope it works for you...

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-15-2006
Fri, 01-19-2007 - 7:12am
My daughter uses AOL and AIM. AOL has AOL Guardian where you get a report with the websites visited as well as a list of screen names that your child exchanges ims and emails with. I does not show you the content but just who they are talking to. I also have a key logger program installed on my daughters computer so if I feel that I need to find a password or view what she is saying I can do that. One thing that I noticed recently is that AIM has an IM logger option as a plug in. If your child has this turned on all conversations are recorded. To view all you have to do is click on the screen name of the person they are talking to, right click and then click IM logging. It will pull up the whole conversation.
Suzanne
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-14-2006
Fri, 01-19-2007 - 12:09pm
My teenager circumvented this by doing searches for porno on google images and just looking at the google images. The list of visited websites would have just indicated google.com.
I have no regrets paying for spectorsoft. Worth every penny of $100.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2007
Fri, 01-19-2007 - 2:10pm

Yep... there's always the Google images thing to contend with.

A good friend of mine was having an issue with her freshman son viewing online pornography. She bought him a copy of the book "Every Young Man's Battle: Strategies for Victory in the Real World of Sexual Temptation" by Stephen Arterburn and it really helped him turn a corner. He said that it helped him understand his attraction to pornography and get a handle on it. It hasn't been an issue at her home since. That might work for other parents as well...

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-13-2006
Mon, 01-22-2007 - 1:16am
I have IM tracker installed on both our computers. Each copy was $35... and comes with a free 2-week evaluation period. This is the best money I have spent in a long time! The program will track both sides of all IM conversation and runs in a Hidden mode. I was reluctant to install this.... I felt guilty about snooping... but several MAJOR issues have been circumvented by knowing what is happening thru the info I gather on the program.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2005
Mon, 01-22-2007 - 12:59pm

I used SpectorSoft and was very happy with the results.

http://www.spectorsoft.com/

Good Luck!




Edited 1/22/2007 1:03 pm ET by tobylady