The XMEN Clan Forums

I was wondering what software is best at monitoring your childs pc activity. I today put my childs pc in her room and wish to keep tabs on exactly what she is doing, (internet mainly) I would like to be able not only monitor the activity, but control it as well.

I figured there may be several parents on here that have already researched this. Any comments or help would be greatly appreciated.

Gambit's probably got some ideas on some firewall or packet sniffing software. I think you could go that route. Or make sure that her account logs everything that is done to it (keystrokes, net traffic, and so on).

Check this review out, I have recommended CyberPatrol to a few clients, they have a free 15-day preview on their website.

But this apparently is a little better, check it out:

http://internet-filter-review.toptenrev ... eview.html

I found that a router is plenty. Some require you to set comps to loggin the router to keep a record while some do not. I've used this method and found plenty out.

Yeah, my dad found out that teenage boys tend to look for... interesting... things.

Porsche actively uses such software for his son, but I don't know which one it is. Personally I won't let my children have a PC in their rooms. Their computer(s) are in common areas of the house where we can keep an eye on them the "old fashioned" way.

A router won't keep your kid from creating a myspace profile (or other social networking site where predators abound). And may not prevent access to chat channels which suffer similar problems.

RIght now she is 7 going on 8 and isnt aware of any chat programs at the moment. (thank god) But im sure she will in the next few years. What im currently worried about is stumbling across some "R" rated sites or "drug" related information that she doesnt need to be around.

But thanks for all the information i have gotten here. I will research this carefully and make a decision on which way to go. Again thanks for the input.

One thing that I know is done at the place that I work is smart filters. They filter out quite a bit of stuff. (Including these forums.)


Interesting thing is, the filters are smart enough to recognize a website for content. I don't know if they're available to the general public, since I work for the government and all, but there are probably companies or open source projects that do similar things.


We also go through the base's systems. I think it's a proxy, but I'm not sure. Don't know if that will help in your search.