How to Outsmart Your Child With Computer and Internet Parental Controls

For many parents, one of the most challenging obstacles they face is allowing their children access to valuable technology while monitoring what they see. Most parents wouldn't allow their child to have a Playboy magazine, yet that is exactly what can come into the living room in the absence of parental controls.

Fortunately, some powerful and even free tools designed to protect children from the dangers of the Internet are becoming increasingly available. Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, has a very strong parental control component. It can block certain sites, specify that the computer automatically shut down at a certain time of night, and provide other basic protection for unsupervised young people. I happened to purchase my laptop from Best Buy, and they even set-up the controls for a small fee.

Although I have heard complaints about Windows Vista (e.g. it has bugs, bogs down the computer, etc.) overall I have been pretty happy with it and I especially like the parental controls. It was practically impossible to control the computer with Windows XP or 2000. My kids quickly figured out how to boot the computer in Safe Mode, and get around any controls that were there.

Two programs I have found to be helpful are Cybersitter and K9. K9, which is found at K9webprotection.com, is even free. I think Cybersitter is pretty effective now, but several years back my 11-year-old managed to disable it in short order. My kids haven't been so lucky with K9. In fact, they hate that program-which is usually a pretty good sign. Between the two I would recommend K9, but you might want to check out Cybersitter as well since it has some nice options.

In recent months, Cybersitter came out with a new computer monitoring tool called Snoopstick. Snoopstick looks like a little pen drive, but actually does much more than that. All you need is about 1 minute on a computer and you can have it installed. The Snoopstick software is invisible to the user, but it monitors everything they do. By plugging the USB drive in at work or wherever, parents can even see what is on the screen of their children's computer, or shut it down if need be.

This is all pretty powerful stuff, and there are some legalities involved. For example, it is illegal to install Snoopstick on a computer that is not your own. While Snoopstick may be a powerful tool for employee or spouse surveillance, there are privacy laws which may make such activities illegal. So before developing any great plans to use the tool on someone other than your children, consider the legal ramifications of whatever you are considering.

My boys are pretty computer savvy, so controlling their computer use has become more and more difficult over the years. But I would advise any parent concerned about monitoring a computer to learn how to look for hidden files. It's also a good idea to either block chat rooms entirely, monitor what's said there, or only allow access to closely monitored chat rooms.

If you have tried all the above techniques and your kid still continually outwits you, doing whatever they please either because you can't spend the time or aren't as computer-savvy as you wish you were, take heart. There are a few final steps a parent can take that always work. You can take the computer, modem, and/or both to bed with you at night. There is a shelf with a sliding door in my headboard, and one night when I was particularly weary of the tug-of-war with my boys I put the modem in there. Such drastic measures shouldn't be necessary, however, if you have K9 or Cybersitter installed.

In the end, the most important task you can undertake is to educate your children about the dangers involved with computers these days. Wow them with true but horrible stories of kids who were lured away from their families over the computer. Talk to them about how it's important not to be addicted to the computer, and encourage them to pursue other hobbies. Someday, somewhere, your child will be forced to decide. You won't always be there to monitor whatever they're seeing, so the best strategy is to monitor it now, while working to educate your children so that they can make right choices for themselves.