The Answer To Online Safety For Parents: Monitoring Software

The online safety issue is as hot as ever. And now with kids back to school, there seems to be a heightened awareness once again. And rightfully so& But what ticks me off to no end is the fact that there is a 100-percent guaranteed foolproof solution to the problem - a clear-cut definite answer for every parent to keep every child safe. But for some insane reason, parents, in all their infinite ignorance and complete fear of taking a stand, refuse to adopt the solution as a physical practice.

I'm talking about parental control software, more specifically, monitoring software.

Let's first look at the issues. Despite what cynics want you to believe, predators do exist. Now, the media does seem to blow part of the predator threat out of proportion, yes. The truth is that not that many kids are falling "victim" to predators anymore. I put the term "victim" in quotes because those who do go out to meet the strangers they meet on the internet in real life are usually very aware of what's up. They are risk-taking teens that want that thrill; teenagers have always been like that, now they just have another outlet. But I digress; the number of "victims" is low, true. But what is not low is the number of dirtbags out there trying to get to your kids. Make no mistake, they are out there in droves. Don't believe me? Do a Google search for "internet predators" or "internet sting" and you will see dozens of results from the past weeks and months.

How can parental control/monitoring software help with this problem? Simple, it will show you exactly who your kids are talking to online. It'll let you see everyone they have IMs with and what chatrooms or social networks they are joining and, more importantly, how many profiles they have set up. It is not uncommon for teens to have multiple profiles - one that parents know about, and then "the other one(s)" that parents have no clue about, where their kids are pretending to be older and, many times, sexually promiscuous.

The second big threat to kids, and statistically by far the most prevalent, is cyberbullying. Bullying has moved from the playground to the digital world. Through text messages, IMs and social network pages, kids are serious about maliciously bullying other kids - and guess what, people, the government doesn't care. No one has your back. Furthermore, the audacity of parents who sue schools when their child is reprimanded for cyberbullying, which is beyond comprehension but it happens, is putting schools between a rock and a hard place. If your child is being bullied, you need to know so you can get involved and help them get through it and put a stop it. Once it's out there on the Internet, it is there for good. Can you imagine what it will be like when your grandchildren read the horrible and humiliating things about their parents that cyberbullies perpetuate online? And it's getting worse. The severity of the situation has led some teens to take their own lives. True that is the worst-case scenario, but it's not uncommon for a child to have to switch schools, or at the very least, suffer through years of humiliation and harassment that follows them everywhere. So much for starting over when you go to college& the actions of cyberbullying will persist and be visible well into the post-high school years.

How can parental control and monitoring software help with this problem? Simple. As many kids won't tell their parents they are being bullied, parental control/monitoring software will allow parents to make the discovery themselves. It will give parents the information they need to start a dialogue with their kids about what is happening. More importantly, if the parent has a cyberbully in their house, it will hopefully trigger the correct brainwaves in the parents' heads and make them put a stop to it. As I said, the government doesn't care about cyberbullying - right now. But slowly, states are adopting anti-cyberbullying laws. Just as it is punishable to physically beat a child on a schoolyard or stand up at an assembly and publicly humiliate a fellow student, it will soon be punishable to do so on the Internet. This means your bullying child may face jail time and/or at the very least, expulsion. This isn't kids just being kids anymore; this is kids destroying each other's lives because they don't know any better. It's up to parents to show them how to behave on the Internet (now being referred to as cyber ethics) and how to be a responsible cyber citizen.

Now, I could go into a rant about how kids who have grown up with the Internet have no idea of consequences, but I will save that for another article. I could also continue the above discussion on how monitoring software can help you keep your computers secure when third-party/non-family members use it, and how it will let you know if your child is addicted to pornography, downloading illegal files with viruses and keyloggers or giving your information to identity thieves, etc. &but I'll end here and turn to the meat of this article.

When it comes to the subject of monitoring computer activity as a potential solution, many parents are cowards. Harsh, I know, but it's true. Parents today have more concern with their child's feelings than their safety. They feel they are invading privacy and "spying" on their kids instead of being technologically responsible and monitoring Internet and computer activity. That line of thinking couldn't be further from the truth, and it is often exactly how kids can get themselves into trouble and dangerous situations. The current generation is out of control and it's all because parents are too scared to be in control and show them who is boss. Parents need to stop being their kids' best friends and act like parents; they need to embrace 21st century technologies and monitor their child's online activity.

I strongly urge all parents to investigate in the multiple titles of software out there that will monitor your child's computer activity. The brand of software that I like most, and endorse, is PC Pandora. It works like a TiVo for your PC and records ALL content - so parents can see exactly what their child has been doing online. It records screen captures of activity, plus logs of IM chats, emails, websites, p-2-p files, programs accessed and keystrokes. PC Pandora also has the capability to filter websites and block programs and can also email a parent at work with updates of child Internet activity. It's also worth noting that it's incredibly easy for any parent to use - no matter their PC skill level. If you think your child can get around parental controls, you are probably right. But this program has such an incredibly stealthy operation level that there is no way for kids to find out it is even on your machine - let alone how to get around it. Furthermore, if they do try to investigate and circumvent - you will have the records to know they are trying to get around your controls.

In short, PC Pandora is most comprehensive and all-around parent's best friend when it comes to online safety for their kids. While web filters are a great aid, but wouldn't you rather KNOW what your kids are doing? Wouldn't you rather be able to see that they are safe or in danger, rather than trusting a half-job program to decide what sites may or may not be good for them (which they are probably circumventing anyway)? Knowledge is power. How can you be a powerful parent if you don't know? This is the 21st century. There are too many threats to your child's safety, mental health and well-being on the Internet. If you aren't monitoring Internet activity, you are not being an effective parent in today's world. Parental control/monitoring software gives you proof; everything else is just a guess and assumption of false security.

I'll leave you with this thought: to all the parents that think monitoring software is "spying" and unnecessary, think of this: your kids are using technology to talk to hundreds of people. But that same technology is allowing millions to know who your child is, and in too many cases where. Not to mention it is allowing their peers to bully them. The Internet didn't exist when I was a teenager, but if it did - you can be sure my parents would have used a parental control monitoring software program like PC Pandora. How do I know? Because they would never have let me go wander around New York City at 3AM. In today's world, allowing a child to roam the Internet unsupervised is basically doing just that.

Paul is just your run of the mill average dad who cares about online safety and is committed to keeping kids safe in the virtual world, any way possible. http://www.pcpandora.com http://blog.pcpandora.com http://hubpages.com/hub/Monitoring-Child-Internet-Activity-Essential-Parenting http://monitoringsoftwarepcpandora.wetpaint.com http://pcpandora.wordpress.com http://www.squidoo.com/monitoringsoftware