I felt as though I had a good grasp on monitoring website activity and thought I was "super dad" only to find out some shocking news after reading an article several months ago. I would like to share with you a couple of disturbing facts I discovered:
- 55 Million children use the Internet and 75% of the time they are online, they are using some type of instant messaging program.
- 1 in 5 children where sexually solicited online through some type of instant messaging application.
- only 18% of the most serious incidents were actually reported.
For those parents that are not Internet gurus, Instant messaging is the method kids talk to each other now. They have a "friends list" and they can tell who is online and can talk to them in real time. It isn't like email where one sends a message and then waits for a reply. This is instant...
I began a frantic search on software that would help me monitor this activity. I began to ask myself questions like:
- What are my children talking about?
- Who are they talking to?
- Is the person on the other end some sort of child predator?
Like any parent, I want to give my children the space, but I do not want them to be an innocent victim. I found several products that would allow me to see the logs the next day, some even a few hours after the chat was over but I really wanted the ability to check in when I wanted to and see what was going on in "real time".
I found a product that I would strongly recommend to any parent that wants to see what their child is doing online. (click image below to view product)
While I am sure opinions will vary, I do not believe this is an invasion of your child's privacy. I simply stand by the belief that you are protecting your child and taking the responsibility as a parent to keep them safe whether it be from them self or some Internet predator.
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