Computer & Laptop Software

[#1]

Is there software to see what your children are doing and writing?

[#2]

You could use a keylogger. There are some free ones that let you see what is being typed on a certain computer and what the name of teh window is that the person was on when heéshe was typing these things. Paid ones go more in-depth and can show incoming messages (i think) and can e-mail you logs of text. Free ones usually require you to have access to the computer in question.

[#3]

Are you looking for parental control software?  Have a look at these links....

• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346997,00.asp
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360187,00.asp

Not to be confused by this Parents of Year Future Shop Incident... http://www.chtv.com/ch/cheknews/story.html?id=2711862

[#4]

There are hardware security devices and routers with parental controls.  For example, D-Link offers the SECURESPOT DSD-150 Internet Security Adapter and Linksys offers the Parental Control Router.  Howeverr, I havent found where you can buy them in Canada yet.  I certainly didnt find any when I searched on the Futureshop Site.  So Futureshop -- how about it!!? What do you have like this for parents to help protect families from adult content? 

The D-Link device can be used to filter all the interenet devices in you home from a cental location, it included virus and spyware protection, remote access froim anywhere via a web based interface, has email notifications, history loggging, and each device on the network can be controlled individually. 

Futureshop sells the game consoles and computeres with unfettered access to the internet but does it sell any of these excellent devices to effectively control that access?

Thanks

Mr. Man

[#5]

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sfhk246817 wrote:

D-Link offers the SECURESPOT DSD-150 Internet Security Adapter and Linksys offers the Parental Control Router.  Howeverr, I havent found where you can buy them in Canada yet.  I certainly didnt find any when I searched on the Futureshop Site. 

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The DSD-150 has been discontinued for a few years now; you are unlikely to find it at any mainstream retail stores.

The new Cisco Valet and Linksys E series routers state to have parental controls as a feature.  However Canadian vendors do not appear to have access to them.  FS has nothing to do with this - Cisco is not making them available in Canada (perhaps they have not received regulatory approvals from the Canadian government yet.)

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sfhk246817 wrote:

So Futureshop -- how about it!!? What do you have like this for parents to help protect families from adult content?

[...]

Futureshop sells the game consoles and computeres with unfettered access to the internet but does it sell any of these excellent devices to effectively control that access?

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There are lots of other products out there that will do filtering if you want (such as Norton 360, which is for sale at FS).  Even Internet Explorer itself has rating controls built-in.

Comments below are completely my personal opinions only.

One thing that you should be aware - filtering software have once made some big buzz during the early days of the Internet.  However they have largely fell out of favour because:

• There are many, many websites out there, with websites come and go everyday. It is impossible to block every website of inappropriate contents out there.
•   Companies that made filtering software made decisions themselves to block whatever websites that are out there; however, what's (in)appropriate for one parent is different from another.  (For example, should the Starr Report be blocked?  Some blocking companies blocked it as it contains "racy" contents, yet some said they won't, because if the American government believes that their citizens should have access to this report, they will respect that position.)
• Tests have found filtering software was blocking websites which should not be blocked (such as sites regarding breast cancer, elected politicians, etc.) 

Thus do not totally rely on filtering software for your children.  Teaching your children the appropriate use of computing resources is still the best way.  Remember - it's not just inappropriate contents.  Would you like to see your kids surf all day on "content appropriate" websites yet ignoring their homework?