Rethinking IM Privacy For Kids

mackles writes, "Now that the world has read the despicable instant messages from Rep. Foley, should parents take a second look at monitoring their kids' IMs? After all, it was IM logging that exposed the scandal; would we have found out otherwise? Cost is not an issue, there are free monitoring tools. Should parents tell their kids before they monitor? Parents and their tech-savvy kids are at odds on the topic. From the article: 'As many as 94 percent of parents polled this summer by the research firm Harris Interactive said they've turned to Web content filters, monitoring software, or advice from an adult friend to keep electronic tabs on their children.' The article quotes one 18-year-old as saying, 'A lot of kids are smarter than adults think.'"

Re:Anything on the router level?

[Aliencow]

If you can install tcpdump on that thing, I'm sure you could use that. You'd need somewhere to store the logs though..

The "Free" ChatChecker is NOT free...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

The "Free" example listed in the article is NOT free. From the web site:

Although you can only view conversations that are less than 24 hours old, ChatChecker Lite saves conversations for 30 days. When you upgrade to ChatChecker Plus, you can immediately view these old conversations.

Re:Anything on the router level?

[COMON$]

I am not a big fan of running monitoring software on the PC, you can always get around those. You are on the right track with a logger. Go for something like censornet or any of the plethora of network traffic monitoring tools out there. Really hard to get around your gateway. You can run most these tools on a crappy old PC you have lying around the house.

Wallwatcher

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I install a logger on my WRT54G (running hyperWRT + Thibor 15c firmware)?

I am running a copy of Wallwatcher with that very router/firmware combo. It is a pc app written in VB (gasp!). If that doesn't scare you away, it is free and does what is needed.

Re:Monitoring != parenting

[MillionthMonkey]

If you have to tell your 16 year old boy that it's legally and morally wrong to exchange graphic sexual emails and IM's with a middle aged politician no amount of monitoring will help because you've already failed as a parent.

If you have to tell your middle aged politician that it's legally and morally wrong to exchange graphic sexual emails and IM's with a 16 year old boy, you've already failed as a voter.

Re:Anything on the router level?

[jacksonj04]

I hate to say it, but Vista's user profiles can do this.

Disable installation of apps, or certain websites, or only allow access between certain hours, or x hours per day, or monitor all conversations and downloads...

Cut and Fondle Party

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

The guy was in charge of anti-pedophile policy!

Raising your children

[gadlaw]

Look, I don't how many kids you've raised but the child/parent relationship is one you have to work at. It's not 'let the kids have their way or they'll kill you in your sleep' - if your kids are running around doing the things with computers that are suggested here, if you have parents who are wondering about routers and other ways of blocking what the kids are doing you've already completely failed as a parent. As the parent you are responsible, period. As the parent you are teaching, guiding, and helping your kids grow to adulthood. If you think that means letting your child have full and completely unguided access to computers and a car and the house and your credit cards then your kid might grow up alright but the chances for the big crash coming are greatly increased. If you choose to be a parent and guide them, directing them from a young age, teaching them right from wrong then this whole crap about kids going behind the backs of their parents isn't going to happen. Look, I hear from other parents who say to me, 'man, you are hard core on your kids - you have to let them be free.' - Well those parents who have said that to me have had to bail their kids out of jail, spend thousands of dollars on cleaning up their criminal records, begged their kids to go to college, have buried their kids and otherwise reaped the bitter harvest of their lack of parenting. And still they think they are right in their laizze faire attitude toward their kids. My son's close to graduating with a double E engineering degree, straight A, a good young man who knows right from wrong and who will be able to lead the kind of life he wants. If I let him do his own thing when he was younger he wouldn't have taken the hard classes, he wouldn't have had me over his shoulder pushing him to do his homework before anything else, reminding him that the choices he makes at twelve affect him when he's eighteen. Did I ever take his Playstation away, his computer away? Hell yes. It's called parenting. Belittle it all you want, be as witty and have as superior an attitude as you want but I've made the right choices in something that important to me and my family.