|
Summary: Parental Monitoring Software is a way to keep an eye on what your child is doing on-line. Until they learn to disable Parental Monitoring Software, that is. My child's figured out how to disable the Parental Monitoring Software package Net Nanny by killing the process in Task Manager after hitting ctrl-alt-del. He learned to do that just by searching for "disable net nanny" on the web. Is there a way to make him stop? Perhaps a way to make Net Nanny run without being detected? Kids are just too smart sometimes, aren't they? :-) And even for those that aren't able to figure out for themselves these nifty ways of hacking around what you've put in place, as you've seen, there's plenty of information on-line. Kids helping kids against those "oppressive" parents. Unfortunately this situation highlights one of the reasons I don't really like parental monitoring software in general. • Net Nanny is one of the oldest parental monitoring packages around. Apparently it's losing market share, but there are still a lot of people using it. My very first recommendation is that you visit the Net Nanny website and search their support information. This is a fairly obvious issue, and they do have some guidance on what you can do about it. And, for the record, whatever package you use - if they don't address this type of issue to your satisfaction either in their documentation or on-line support - it's probably time for a new package. This is exactly the type of topic I would expect every good vendor of this type of software to be all over. "The fact is, kids will work
around it, no matter what you do."
However. I'm not going to cover any of that here, you can read it on their site yourself. The problem is that I don't want to give you false hope. And therein lies my problem with parental monitoring and filtering software: it gives you a false sense of security. The fact is, kids will work around it, no matter what you do. My take on it is this: if you can trust your children, then you probably don't need it. If you can't trust your children, they're just going to work around it anyway. Have a peek at the search results for the very query your child used: "disable net nanny". The sheer volume of results in Google (186,000 as I write this) should be eye opening. I'm sure that there are similar results for almost any parental monitoring or filtering package. On top of that, sites like PeaceFire.org, which documents how political dissidents in foreign countries can bypass their government's filters, can be used to bypass pretty much any filter including those you might put in place. Realize also that whatever you put on your computer is fairly pointless if they have access to others - school and library computers might be locked down or filtered (and subject to being hacked around also), but what about the computers at your child's friends home? Or anywhere else, for that matter? I don't want to get into a debate about approaches to parenting. What I do want to make clear is that you should not fool yourself into thinking that a monitoring or blocking program is a total solution. If used at all, (which I obviously do question), it needs to be part of broader approach that includes you getting educated about the tools, technologies and sites that your child uses, open and honest communication between your and your child, environments that foster good behavior (such as only having computers in public places in the home), and a realization that no mater how much we might want to protect our children, we cannot protect them from everything. Related: • Recent Comments
OK, those of you that say "trust your kids, don't monitor them"... do you have teens?? if so, do they have any friends??? I have 2 teen boys and I do trust them, however through net nanny and other cybersitter I found out that a friend of theirs was feeding them porn sites. I even read a log where one of my sons was telling him to stop! Now that they are older, yes there are times when they try to get around the filter, as I would expect they would. But giving them carte blanch simply does not make sense. Would you just take your kid to the adult video store for a couple of hours? Sure, they could find a way in on their own, but how much trouble would they be willing to go through on their own to do it? Same concept. Posted by: Because I'm the Mommy at September 15, 2007 07:44 AMGod adults are stupid. Would you rather have your kid looking at porn, or go out and have sex themselves? Use some common sense. Net Nanny is on a loan computer I got from my school and it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't randomly block my own sites, and "web overrides" (wtf?). According to it, everything is a web overrides, it even blocks sites because of css style sheets and favicons! Posted by: Megan at October 12, 2007 12:18 PMKids are smart now adays. The more you say no, the more they will. Kids will be kids. Let them go through their phases and stop being parent nazis. Posted by: concernedkiddo at December 16, 2007 12:24 AMim a 14 year old boy and i enjoy having a healthy intrest in the opposite sex, i personally belive that the netnanny my mother installed is just opressive, stop being so close-minded Posted by: JimmyDean at March 16, 2008 11:11 AMI am a 17 year old at Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and all our computers have NetNanny when we get them. It is just stupid because we all have circumventor sites like vtunnel and stupidcensorship. Its not right to censor internet access. Thats taking away rights that everyone has. If anyone should be kept from the internet, its adults because THEY are the problem. Not the children. Adults are the ones that impersonate kids. Adults are the ones making porn sites. Adults are the cause, so why should the kids be punished? Think about it. Also, it is so EASY to hack the passwords on the censorship programs!! Posted by: h4x0r? at April 21, 2008 06:11 AMI've got to agree with you. As a child of an overprotective(yet surprisingly not much of a smart one) the easy way is to go into your computer, then to your C drive, to program files, ContentWatch, go to report.dll, the entire logging system is broken. Forever. As to the task manager way is another way to disable it, and to let you look at whatever you'd like. Also, another easy way is to trick them doing the "school" way. Install a keylogger, go to a blocked page that you need to do for school. Possibly a site for History that you need to bypass for school research, and bam, password gotten. The truth is, no matter of what way, you've just got to let your kid go. Being overprotective and installing any blocker software is only going to make it worse. Though, your child may get a laugh at how easy you are to play. Installing softwares such as these are not only going to make your relationship worse with your child, but, it also teaches your child that whatever law is enforced, they can get away from it. Posted by: Lenon at June 6, 2008 08:57 PMI 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 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. Posted by: ReaoftheNorth at July 12, 2008 04:58 AMas 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] Posted by: GeoMetroMan91 at July 17, 2008 01:44 AMI 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) Posted by: JL at August 7, 2008 07:42 AMPost a comment on "Parental Monitoring Software: My child figured out how to turn it off - what can I do?":
|
Archives Advertisers |