Parental Control - How Far Do You Go?

[capesams]

Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman

I'm a bit of a dink so you can take as much of this as you want.

1st, the PC would be coming out of her room and moved into the den where I can see it.

2nd, I pay the interent bill so I determine what gets done with it, not her.

3rd, and most important, My House, My Rules. The End

too many weirdos out on the Internet


I think you did the Right thing by shutting it down immediately

I agree on all count's.....it's your roof that's over her head...stand firm, it'll pay off in the long run.

[Raven]

so i do have a different view point... and i think that the internet is a very cool place....in that, you can access data about anything, anywhere like one huge LIBRARY online... but thats where it ends.... because there is the dangerous side too.... that pediphile in san jose demonstrates the bad part
quite perfectly.... scumbags are using it to glean personal info and are trying to arrange personal meetings pretending to be someone else entirely
and they dont really care if it takes a full year to accomplish this mission.

if you stop the internet use completely she will just access it from somewhere else.... and go around your parental controls quite easily... so i think it would be better to give your daughter some specific instructions about not posting her real picture online and anything related to her real address, location ,area she lives in...nothing... thats the real truth to protect herself from those that want to staulk her. If you don't do that...she will eventually leave home and take those habits with her
and set herself up for a rendevue of real trouble.

open google and plug in your daughters real name or handle ...and see what pops up
and it will reveal -> websites with her internet name....if any...

theres a site called www.F__Kmicrosoft.com (fill in the blanks) and in there you can learn to use DOS to look deep into hard drives even if the data was erased... aint gonna work with XP tho.... another method is to go on the NET and find some young guy's picture and or girls picture
of the appropriate age....and create a false identity for yourself to go in and SPY .....even have direct conversations with your own daughter in disguise acting out a role as a teenager....from say ,,,oregon or california.

record every conversation and save them for the appropriate time....
so that your not being bluffed in the future... this isnt fair but the bad people aren't playing fair either.... maybe never let on that you did that
would be a great idea....as your trying not to have your child hate your guts in the process....better to enroll her in a martial arts class or teach other ways to safeguard her personal info or protect herself,,, than just pulling the plug as a solution is my point.

[macojoe]

My hole house is wired with 4 computers on High speed. I caught My Daughter (15) looking at some porn stuff one day, by looking into the history of sites that they have been to.
I asked her and she was embarrassed that I had found it!

The router for the hole house is right under my box and I pulled the plug right then!! She went 1 month with out the computer.
The next time, I will throw the thing in the trash!! I maintain all the computers here and I check them at least once a week. In have full control and will pulled at the slightest little thing and they no it!!

It is a pervlige that you give to her!! And one you can take away!

[likwid]

There ARE a bunch of parental control software solutions that do exist and work REALLY well, I've actually done a couple tests with customers giving me feedback. (Brian, I'll let you know about this later, unless the kids are smart enough to find open proxies, there's no way to get around it, it works in safe mode and blocks at the stack level.)

I'll list em a little bit later.

Sites to make sure to block out (for now, you can go, in IE, into Tools/Internet Options/Security tab/highlight Restricted Sites/click on the "sites" button and add any sites you don't want your kids going to.)

[Thom]

I total agree with Dad Fisherman. The only extra thing I would do would be to call the parents of the kids that I knew on that web site. I know in my neighborhood we pretty much all stayed out of trouble because if any of the neighorhood parents saw us doing something we shouldn't they made sure a parents knew about it. ThomT

[striprman]

If you have a computer, any kid that knows anything will look at porn and all the other stuff that makes the internet what it is. Its "natural curiosity".

Why did I do that ? ..Because it was there.

That being said, I pretty much let my kids do what they want, they are smart enough to know the difference between right and wrong, and if there not doing it here, they will do it somewhere else.
I don't worry about computers and what my children do on the internet. If they want to do "stuff" on the computer, they'll find a way.

[Jimbo]

Still some great feedback and I appreciate it. If there's one thing I am, it's trusting of my kids. I give my older one pretty much much free reign on things because she's never been in trouble, never given me a reason to suspect she's knowingly doing something I would disapprove of, and she's a great student. But at around 15 it's a period for exploration and transition from kid to adult and in some cases I guess they're feeling their way blindly and can get off track without realizing. Most importantly we all cooled off and sat down for a chat about doing the right thing and if you don't know, always remember the expression, "Ask Mom". Mom always knows the answer. Actually, either of your parents or any adult you respect. You might not like the answer, but most of the time it's going to be the one that saves your keester. Well, I'm still too strict a parent though I did get kudos for respecting her privacy, and she seems to completely accept and understand why the site and what they were doing was inappropriate and the potential people they don't even know to share in it or do something potentially worse. Word is getting around that I was on the site and I saw and I know and I may or may not be speaking with other parents. I'm hoping that in itself will be enough for others to make the right decision to clean up their "Internetiquette".