Computers are powerful production tools. They can also be entertaining. Sometimes too entertaining.  Access to online games, pornography, file sharing and other questionable activities can make your computer a liability more than an asset for you as a responsible and caring parent.

Let me start by stating the obvious: your kid probably knows more about computers than you do. Nothing wrong with that per se, except that there might be things going on with your computers at home that you are not aware of, or are aware of but don’t know what to do about. That’s the subject of this article.

This is not a rhetorical discussion and I’m not speaking from hypothetical experience. It happens every day. A recent  client was puzzled by her teenage son’s sleeping pattern (sleeping a lot during the day). In doing a routine check on one of the client’s computers at home, the reason became evident: the kid was sneaking into the computer late at night, like 1 am or so, and then accessing inappropriate websites until 4 or 5 am and then sneaking back to bed. And this was otherwise a good kid, no other particular bad habits, etc. But the parents were absolutely clueless. So it can happen to anyone.

Let’s assume you are at the stage where you don’t think there are unethical activities going on with your computer(s) at home, but would like to keep an eye to make sure it stays that way. Some sort of monitoring software would be in order. An example of this is Spector Pro 2009, which you can find here: http://www.spectorsoft.com/. With it you can monitor what websites are accessed in a computer, incoming and outgoing emails, downloads, instant messages, even key stroke logging (recording of all input via the keyboard) is available.

If (or once) you have detected undesirable activity such as inappropriate websites access, online gaming, off-hours activity or anything like that, you can move to the next stage and put access control software in place, such as Refog Personal Monitor which you can find here: http://www.refog.com/personal-monitor.html .

It is an unfortunate fact that a good percentage of malware infections are associated with illegal downloading of software or media, accessing inappropriate sites and use of online games. That is yet another reason why these should be monitored and controlled on your computer(s).

Contact me if you want tips on what to look for as signs of undesirable activity in your computer(s).