Yes, some parents really are using computer monitoring software to improve relationships with their kids.
Most parents today recognize the many dangers facing their children on the Internet. Whether it’s being approached by sexual predators, accessing obscene or pornographic content, or maintaining inappropriate or potentially dangerous relationships, parents have plenty of reasons to be worried.
Looking for a solution to these problems, many parents have turned to computer monitoring software as a way to level the playing field and ensure the safety of their children. This software allows parents to not only block access to undesirable websites, but it also allows them to monitoring all of their activity. The most advanced of these programs allow you to record email (both sent and received), Instant Message/Chat conversations, every keystroke typed, every website visited, and some even allow you to take screenshots of the child’s computer screen so that you can see EXACTLY what they are doing.
An unexpected benefit that many parents are experiencing after beginning to use monitoring software is a stronger understanding of their child. That in fact, may be the real power of monitoring software. Once you get over the fact that this type of thing is technologically possible, the real awe that overtakes parents is the potential that this type of software has for enhancing their relationship with their children.
Parental control software has many uses, but by far the most interesting is child protection and relationship building. The most comprehensive program I found is the Awareness Tech Web Watcher. The software, shown on CNN and in NewsWeek can record every email, record instant messages, record keystrokes, record and also block websites, filter content and take complete screenshots.
While many parents first begin to use monitoring software after a child starts to display problem symptoms, the reason that they keep using the software is because it shows them exactly what their child is thinking and feeling. This new-found power is really helping a generation of parents who have for years felt helpless because their children were so much more technically savvy then themselves, and could therefore hide so much of their lives from their parents.
Now, with computer monitoring software, parents finally have an ally that is allowing them to easily keep up with and protect their children in this new age of the Internet.
