Parental Control - How Far Do You Go?

[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".

[justplugit]

Jim,you are doing the right thing. Age 15 is a year of "temporary insanity" for most kids. They will do most anything to be accepted by their friends at that age. If you remember back friends were the most important thing in your life at that time. Rules need to be set and the reasons for them discussed. Even if kids don't like them,they know you care about them,by setting them It's great she is an honor student and trustworthy but we all need limits set.
Sounds like you are doing a great job as a parent and in the end she will have a great respect for you as her Dad.
Very hard full time job being a parent these days.

[Raven]

here is some software......that you can download and try before you buy...

to access the kids pc in question from work ....

http://www.pctattletale.com/

(does it all from a quick look at the site.)

just thought to share...

btw----> the statistics were quire alarming !