Parental Monitoring Software: My child figured out how to turn it off - what can I do?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

I am a parent of 10 and 7 year old boys and a 6 year old girl. I use net nanny because my kids go looking for innocent things on the net and i want them to be used to the internet(Wrestling and princess stuff ETC...)More often than not these searches show adverts for all kinds of sexual activity (with pictures). Now, I'm no prude, but i really dont want my "very young kids" viewing this kind of stuff. The person who called concerned parents 'parent nazis' is obviously an idiot who has no clue what it means to want to protect your innocent children from the various #### merchants and perverts who populate about 90% of the net.

Signed
An parent who cares about his kids

I actually want my kid to have a healthy sex life. I want my kid to grow up with a healthy attitude and an attraction towards real women, not silicone-filled sex toys with paint-by-number faces. I want my kid to find a loving, fun, healthy, normal partner and have a great, over-the-top, can't wait to be with you, headboard bangin' sex life. And I want what he wants for himself one day: kids. Which will be more diff to have if he's caught a sperm killing STD, or his partner has contracted an ovary or uterus scarring STD, and it only takes one! So your parents have values and house rules and high expectations for you? Good for them. And by "healthy interest in the opposite sex" you probably mean looking at porn? There's a big diff between what porn used to be, and the flood of mind numbing garbage that floods the internet. Too many of the teens -girls AND boys- are exploited into the sex trade. It can and does screw up how we see the opposite gender, and, besides, it just isn't how a good sexual relationship works. Parents who monitor computer use are doing what parents should do. "Letting your kid go" doesn't mean letting them go into a cesspit. Teen angst is old and overdone. Instead of group think, why not actually think about WHY your parents don't want you pouring crap into your eyes and ears? Try thinking instead of whining abt having parents that love you, try thinking instead of assuming parents really, really, just wanna make your life mizzable, 'cause we just LOVE it when you're rude and pouty and snotty, yeah that's why we do it. Get a clue, you whiney complaining twits: we do it because we actually, really do love ya.

as a response to h4x0r?, i am also a student at the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. Im currently on the school computer the school provides, they are horrible computers (Compaq nx6325) and they have the dreaded Net Nanny 5.6 that is nearly impossible to kill or disable. The only way i get around it is that I have an AOL account, and use the AOL 9.0 browser to bypass Net Nanny. That is the ONLY way i have found around it. The Net Nanny software is rediculous, it blocks nearly everything, and it has crashed my computer many times and has corrupted a bunch of files on my computer. I absolutely hate it. And, just to throw it in here, here is the password that USED to work for disabling Net Nanny in the helpdesk: "*****" It seems to no longer work on the 5.6 edition. I wish someone would find a REAL way to get rid of this software.

[***** password removed. -Leo]

I agree - you cannot protect your children, or teens 24/7. However, if my 18 yr old has a beer at someone else's house, I have neither allowed it or condoned it. Our home has rules. Period.

Children are exposed to way too many things, but they have to use a computer regularly for school, and enjoy games of all types (even learning games). So, we protect them the best we can. Allow what we have to. Nazi's maybe, so be it. Children are regularly mad at parents for disallowing things. It's the way of the world.

The program "I am big brother" did wonders for me. What did I find? That my son had a punk friend he was no longer allowed to stay over night there, and otherwise, nothing much. The kids cussed much more than I thought to their frineds, but basically used the computer well. The pay-off, a sound mind that my children had a brain, even when they didn't know I was watching (I did not block access to anything & I was often at work after school). And, then I uninstalled it.

But, you know.. when drug dealers can hang out by our schools, when kids are no longer safe outside alone to play, when grown adults pretend to be kids to prey on our children, why can't parents hang out in the computer. It's a war to protect our kids. Do what you have to do to keep them safe and healthy.

And, the teens on here who feel oppressed, think about the kid at school you know who's parents are doped up or drunk, and don't care what their kid does. Your parents love you, when you were born - they didn't get a rule book or step by step instructions, and there's no help menu on your forehead. It's not easy deciding what to do, someday, you'll really see that.

The program for www.iambigbrother.com hides in the background of your computer and slows it down some. But it does not show up anywhere after you delete the install files shortcuts, and is password protected. (at least back when I used it)

I used to use NetNanny for web content filtering but, found a much better solution that is FREE! K9 Web Protection (www.getK9.com) from the folks at Blue Coat Systems, is a FREE web content filter that cannot be circumvented. It does the same thing as NetNanny but, a lot more powerful. It uses the same technology as the commercial solutions Blue Coat sells to corporations all over the world. It's not only a great solution for blocking web sites for your kids, it's also great for blocking malware and spyware.

*Giggle* You DO realized you just told even more kids how to turn it off? You could have been more vague in the question right?

Try netmop.com. Can't be circumvented aside from reinstalling the OS. Not only protects your kids but protects YOU from circumventing it YOURSELF. Yes, kids can go over to a friend's house or elsewhere, but its important to let them know you care. And if you use a program that protects YOURSELF then you're not being unfair. Trust the kids...? Did my parents trust me? Yes, but with limits. Your kids expect you to pose limits - its a sign to them that you care - and they'll test you to find out what your REAL limits are. In our household we have limits, and one of them is no computers without limiting software. Same limit for me as for the kids. And it works. I sympathize with the kids on this site that have a hard time understanding what some of the concerned parents are saying. But what a lot of them are saying is been there, done that, and paid the price too. Often a price that we wouldn't wish on anyone. So we've got a responsibility for those in our care.

im a 12 year old and im additcced to the chats and everything else and i cant not take this anymore can any1 help me out !!

I understand both sides stories whether its about censoring these adult content or letting children browsing all internet sites. The best way to deal with it is not blocking these sites cause they will find a way to bypass these sites or softwares. I consider almost all human beings outlaws, we love to breake the rules and disobey our orders from the moment we are born. And I admit it I am like that too. If you forbidd a child not to eat candy he will simply sneak around at night propably and eat it or at school or whatever. Just let your kids do whatever they want, but within limits. And if you discovered that they are browsing these sites these softwares will not help even if they are too young and don't know how to hack them. They will grow up and will know how disable them. And it will be too late to undo the damages. The best way to deal with the situation is by communicating with your child about this matter.

While I agree that education, guidelines, limits, etc are part of the approach you still need someting to protect against the really nasty stuff on the internet.

My teenager being a teenager is pretty saavy and has managed get around numerous software packages that I have tried use to limit his online gameing.

I have also found these product fairly unrealiable and cumbersome to use and with so many hacks out there for parental control software that Im at wits end. I thought Vista might be the solution but there are even instructions on how to circumvent their built in controls. After endless google searches I recently came accross this product called netblox - www.zortlabs.com its a hardware device that claims to have parental contols and security features that protect all your computers with one subsrciption which sounds good as I have 3 here at home.

I called them up to get more details and it sounds promising. No software to install or configuration on the device either. They said its all done through a secure website. They also claim that the only way to get around their controls is to uninstall the device - and then it notifies you if that happens. Not sure that is the best solution for my teenager but my younger kids wont be able to figure that out. I have yet to purchase it - has anyone used something like this?

To post a comment on "Parental Monitoring Software: My child figured out how to turn it off - what can I do?", please return to that article's main page.