Comments on: Spying On Our Children

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:15:55 +0000

Yeee ha! Thanks Kevin for the boost to my ego and I'm all for busting their butt's when needed!

I had a unique battle with my eldest (20 now) as he grew up because he was one of the 10,000 I "restricted" on a daily basis and his cionstant battle was to see if he or his friends could get around "Dad's roadblocks". But the silly boy never learnt and he just kept telling me whenthey had so that I could 'fix it' – as that's a key, no one solution is 100% effective.

Then one day he stopped telling me the details he just said we played games today or similar. Then he'd come home from school the next day and moan that the site was now blocked and "how did I know". Even though he's a Comp Sci student now I still haven't told him as us parents have to maintain an air of superhero status for as long as we can :)

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:10:29 +0000

And that's the key word(s) Richard – you told him ahead of time.

I'm with you on that, I don't think it's spying when you've said. The slight difference (maybe) that I take is that I've given my children a semblance of a right to privacy when it comes to their usage of the internet.

But I lik that you are taking action and that a part of that action is in trying to re-establish or build bonds.

By: Kevin Weatherby

Kevin Weatherby — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:43:37 +0000

All of ya'll are super parents compared to me.

You want disagreements and intense discussion? Keep reading.

I agree with Stuart, without any criticism of Lee, that if you want to catch a kid doing something wrong, you can. I am more upfront and would tell them I am watching and there is nothing they can do about. They can either change their behavior or suffer the consequences, whatever form of punishment is best (taking it away, loss of privileges, or whatever).

Then if it happened again, I would punish them in one of those ways….right after I busted their butt.

By: Richard Sipes

Richard Sipes — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:29:32 +0000

I just "caught" my teenage son having looked at internet content that was unacceptable again. I have told him from the beginning that I have the right and the obligation to check up on his internet use. And I do this periodically. He has tried to delete his internet history, but I know how to find out what he's been doing in spite of his deletions. And I have told him that also (I just don't tell him how I do it). Now he is banned from the computer for the summer.
In the mean time I am going to going to be spending more time with him away from the computer and helping him to strengthen his relationship with me and with God.
I don't think it is spying if you tell them ahead of time that everything they do on the computer is fair game for you to look into. Afterall it is my computer he is using, my house, my rules. Ugh! I sound just like my parents!

By: Avoid Phishing Scams

Avoid Phishing Scams — Sun, 23 May 2010 08:02:25 +0000

[...] this type of attack is very much on the rise – it is, as I’ve maintained before (e.g. 1, 2), that we should learn about the hardware and software we use and understand what we need to do [...]

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:00:52 +0000

My ego feels much better for knowing that! :D

I also see you're not a fan of Big Brother.. I likes ya!

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:23:52 +0000

Lee – I think that you and I are coming from the same side of the pitch here. I for one do NOT think any the worse of you.

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:57:07 +0000

Actually I did tell him what I was doing but not at first.

Whatever anyone may think of my motives, and the rights and wrongs of 'spying', I will always feel that I made the right decision.

I felt my son's safety was at risk (because of his own stupid actions) and felt I needed to secretly monitor the situation to ensure that he wasn't going to do it again.