Program to monitor Kid's Chat??

[krzykjun]

My wife and I noticed that our girl is spending an inordinate amount of time on AOL chat. Whenever we go close to her she minimizes the screen. Now while this may be written to 13yr anxiety of parents seeing who her latest crush is, I want to make sure she is not chatting to the wrong people. We all know how pedo's work in kids chat rooms.

My question is: is there a prog out there that lets me see not only what she types but what the person on the other end types also? Keylogger progs just let U see what the person on that puter types. I want to see both sides of the conversation.

[enat66]

There are ways to do this but first of let me say this:

As a 15 year old I don't let my mom see what I am typing either. I suggest you simply talk to your daughter about how she should never agree to meet someone she talks to online offline unless she knows who they are. Ask questions before she goes out.

Now that said I can still see where you might wish to monitor what she is saying. But you have to decide weither she knows she is being monitored or not. If she knows you are monitoring she might not like it but she will most likely be safe. If she doesn't know you are monitoring her and she ever finds out she probably will be angry with you. You also have to decide if you are going to use it to monitor what she says just to protect her from the wrong type of person or weither you are also going to monitor it to make sure she is not talking about adult topics that many teens talk about.

I would also like to ad that if she ever goes into an AOL chat room they are generally filled with people trying to solicite their websites to sell their pictures that are not appropriate. There are many people in these chatrooms saying "want to see my webcam" or similar. I'd suggest you advise her to stay clear of all chatrooms other than those that either her or her friends create that contains only her friends. I'd also like to remind you that she is not responsible for what others say to her.

Also check her AOL instant message settings...she can set it so she can choose to receive only from people on her buddy list.

Now that I got that out of the way:
There are a couple methods

Method 1) Use a modified version of AIM that will log the chats.
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Very Easy to disable the monitoring

Method 2) Use a program that logs all keystrokes
Pros: Tells you what she is typeing
Cons: May not tell you what others are saying. May be possible to disable

Method 3) Find a program specific for this purpose
Pros: Will work
Cons: Your daughter, who is a child of the technology era, might be able to talk with her computer genius friends to disable it.

I am going to do an internet search on programs that can do this.

[enat66]

Let me ask first...are you using the AOL internet service or just the AOL instatant messenger (AIM)?

Modified AIM program:
Dead AIM
http://www.jdennis.net/index.php

Your daughter will be able to easily disable it and will most likely know you are monitoring her

Some Chat Monitors:
(I suggest you try the demos and read the description of each one...this is just what a google search turned up)
http://www.webattack.com/get/chatwatch.html
http://www.netnanny.com/products/cha...scription.html
http://www.sharewareriver.com/product.php?id=3115

Key Loggers (can only monitor one side):
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...logger&spell=1

Hope that helps...try out some of those demos to see if they work

[errolo]

enat...first of all, you are wise beyond your years (don't get swellheaded, you're still 15 ]. Seriously tho, it was very good advice. I have a 14 year old daughter that I face the same situation with. My solution was to have the talk with her and explain just what kind of people are out there. Luckily, she's pretty good with the pc (started as a baby playing games in my lap) and understands my concerns.

Let me also add, we avoid AOL like the plague, learned many years ago during 1000 hr give aways of what kind of cr*p is in most of the chat rooms. I say most because there are good ones out there, but they always seem to get invaded.

My daughter's chat of choice are the one-on-one types, AIM, AIM+, Yahoo, etc. She controls who she chats with.

Quick question:does krzykjun = crazy cajun?

(Go Jake)

[enat66]

lol thanks errolo.
Maybe you could even ask for your daughters suggestions.

[krzykjun]

BINGO!! Yes it does. You must be a displaced coonass to know that. Enat66, I second the notion that you sound very mature for your age. Kinda wish my daughter was more like that. If you only knew the trouble she......Ok, I'm not getting started on that.

Anyway had the talk with her and it is all solved. thanks.

[enat66]

Glad I could help

[errolo]

Glad also that things are looking up.

Not displaced, still here. See location.