Serious question

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
I wanted to get some ideas from parents, especially those with teenage children, and those with spouses, or who are just paranoid. Would you buy software that would do the following:

1) Take screenshots (at an interval you set from every 5 seconds to every 10 minutes) so you can later review what your children (husband, wife, employees?) were looking at while on the computer.

2) Use software that would limit what applications can open, how long they can be open, and what times they can be open (e.g. AIM can only be used for 1 hour/day between 4 at 8 p.m. or a certain game can only be played for 6 hours/week.)

3) Software that monitors what you are typing, so when your children type their address, phone number, etc. you are alerted (specifcally for monitoring blogs to keep children from posting real information.)

Out of these 3, which do you feel would be most valuable?
 

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
Originally posted by: veggz
Fascists!

Hey, it is hard to monitor what your children are doing.

What if you told your kids they could use the computer for homework and nothing else. Wouldn't it be nice to come home and browse through some screenshots to see if they spent all day chatting? Wouldn't it be nice to know that your child just posted their real name and school on MySpace?
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,111
318
126
Originally posted by: pinion9
3) Software that monitors what you are typing, so when your children type their address, phone number, etc. you are alerted (specifcally for monitoring blogs to keep children from posting real information.)

Defenitely that one.
 

AMDZen

Lifer
Apr 15, 2004
12,589
0
76
If your children are smart, and most of them are - they will circumvent such software any way.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc, end the process monitoryourchildren.exe and your golden.

Seriously though, there isn't a single piece of software such as this, that I have seen any way, that isn't quite simple to circumvent. And the above example is usually all it takes.
 

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy
Originally posted by: pinion9
3) Software that monitors what you are typing, so when your children type their address, phone number, etc. you are alerted (specifcally for monitoring blogs to keep children from posting real information.)

Defenitely that one.

How much would you be willing to pay to get all 3 bundled together?

Also, so there isn't any confusion: number 3 is NOT a keylogger. It does not save a log. Instead it will probably only save a few minutes worth of typing and enough information to tell you WHERE the info was typed. You wouldn't be able to use it to go back 3 hours and read a chat log (which would be terribly hard to do anyways.)
 

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
Originally posted by: AMDZen
If your children are smart, and most of them are - they will circumvent such software any way.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc, end the process monitoryourchildren.exe and your golden.

Seriously though, there isn't a single piece of software such as this, that I have seen any way, that isn't quite simple to circumvent. And the above example is usually all it takes.

You obviously don't know much about programming, then.
Ever get a bad virus and try to kill the process? These would work in that fashion. However, the administrator with the password would be able to halt the process easily.
 

AMDZen

Lifer
Apr 15, 2004
12,589
0
76
Originally posted by: pinion9
Originally posted by: HamburgerBoy
Originally posted by: pinion9
3) Software that monitors what you are typing, so when your children type their address, phone number, etc. you are alerted (specifcally for monitoring blogs to keep children from posting real information.)

Defenitely that one.

How much would you be willing to pay to get all 3 bundled together?

Also, so there isn't any confusion: number 3 is NOT a keylogger. It does not save a log. Instead it will probably only save a few minutes worth of typing and enough information to tell you WHERE the info was typed. You wouldn't be able to use it to go back 3 hours and read a chat log (which would be terribly hard to do anyways.)

In further relation to your original question. I would only attempt this if I had a teen age daughter. THen its worth the risk. ANd by risk I mean losing your trust since if it was me, I would find such things instantly. I'm constantly checking things and monitoring the process task manager because my dad will always get spyware and virii running. SO its second nature for me. So I would know that my dad was spying on me and be kind of pissed.

Research all your options and find which will actually work for you - and will be hardest to circumvent. Thats my advice any way. I don't mean the next statement to be sexist at all, but in my experience - women aren't near as skillfull with computers any way. So I might not worry about my daughter finding it and being able to "fake" the data.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,252
403
126
None of the above.

I'd instill enough sense in my kids to make them realize the risks that go along with young kids and the Internet. Then hope they'd be smart enough to make the right choices. No way am I going to be looking over their shoulder or have spy software installed. My parents didn't have to do this for me because I well knew the consequences of my actions.
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
38,241
4
0
This will work really great in a world where, when parents have a problem with the computer, the first person they ask to fix it is thier kid.

And I wouldn't want any of them.

IMO, anyone who would buy one of these things has serious paranoia problems.

Plenty of kids are growing up *just fine* with unrestricted access to the internet.
 

AMDZen

Lifer
Apr 15, 2004
12,589
0
76
Originally posted by: pinion9
Originally posted by: AMDZen
If your children are smart, and most of them are - they will circumvent such software any way.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc, end the process monitoryourchildren.exe and your golden.

Seriously though, there isn't a single piece of software such as this, that I have seen any way, that isn't quite simple to circumvent. And the above example is usually all it takes.

You obviously don't know much about programming, then.
Ever get a bad virus and try to kill the process? These would work in that fashion. However, the administrator with the password would be able to halt the process easily.

Psssh, oh so getting admin access is really hard.

I'm not about to argue with you over this. I wouldn't have any problem making my account an admin account. I would be the bane of your existance though
 

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
I really feel sorry for all of you.

I remember seeing this special about a girl (13?) who posted some information on MySpace. She didn't put her address, but did put her school name.

On another unrelated site for the school she put her full name and address.

Guess what? Pedophile found her and contacted her.
 

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
Originally posted by: AMDZen
I'm not about to argue with you over this. I wouldn't have any problem making my account an admin account. I would be the bane of your existance though

Um...no you wouldn't. I am quite educated in this field and have spent much time hardening systems. You don't think I would test the software to try and crack it? Have a black box test done by some students?

Getting an admin account wouldn't do it. You would need admin rights for the program itself.

I don't want to argue over "IT WULD BE EASY TO H4X LOLOL11!!1" but would you find it useful?


 

drinkmorejava

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
3,567
7
81
The only thing that is going to protect your kid is instilling common sense into them; make it their responsibility to care.
 

pinion9

Banned
May 5, 2005
1,201
0
0
Originally posted by: drinkmorejava
The only thing that is going to protect your kid is instilling common sense into them; make it their responsibility to care.

This will help them when they are adults. Do you really think the 13 y/o who posted her name and address on a school website really think she would be tracked down via Myspace?

Wouldn't you want to know if your children are looking at porn while you are gone?
 

AMDZen

Lifer
Apr 15, 2004
12,589
0
76
Originally posted by: pinion9
I really feel sorry for all of you.

I remember seeing this special about a girl (13?) who posted some information on MySpace. She didn't put her address, but did put her school name.

On another unrelated site for the school she put her full name and address.

Guess what? Pedophile found her and contacted her.

And yet your the person asking for parenting advice on a tech forum. ;)

Sorry but kids will always find a way. Its my philosophy that if the kid wants to do something, they will. You need to do your best to instill your own values, like the poster above said - and hope things work out. You can only do so much, and fear mongering and over -protectivness that is so common this day and age doesn't work, it accomplishes the opposite of what you want. But again, this is my philosophy - you need to make your own choices as a parent
 

AMDZen

Lifer
Apr 15, 2004
12,589
0
76
Originally posted by: pinion9
Originally posted by: AMDZen
I'm not about to argue with you over this. I wouldn't have any problem making my account an admin account. I would be the bane of your existance though

Um...no you wouldn't. I am quite educated in this field and have spent much time hardening systems. You don't think I would test the software to try and crack it? Have a black box test done by some students?

Getting an admin account wouldn't do it. You would need admin rights for the program itself.

I don't want to argue over "IT WULD BE EASY TO H4X LOLOL11!!1" but would you find it useful?

But thats just it, I DON"T find them useful, becaus "THEY R EZ 2 HAXORZ"

But whatever