Keeping tabs on kids' computer use

[unixknight]

Ever since my ex lost interest in the church she's been much more lenient on our 3 kids in terms of what they can get away with, morality-wise. One issue is that she doesn't may any attention to what they do with their computers, and each has a computer in their own room, unsupervised.

I am a software developer and I've been working on a program that, once complete, will quietly run in the background of each computer and compile a report for me periodically and send me an E-mail. It will tell me every website the computer has visited, and eventually I might even add the functionality to search things like E-mail and chat logs for possible trouble.

This is, I admit, not allowing them much privacy, but in this day and age, and the fact that they're otherwise unsupervised, I feel it's necessary.

The reason I'm posting this is to let everybody know that if something like this interests you, and you'd like to have it for your kids' computers, let me know and I'll gladly share it with you, free of charge. It will only run on Windows, and you'd need the .NET framework installed but Windows XP and Vista come with that anyway. For those who like to tinker with software or who would just feel more comfortable, I'll also supply the source code as freeware. (It's written in C#)

At this point it's not finished, but the component that scans all Internet Explorer files works, and the E-mail feature is near completion.

MODS: I apologize, I meant to post this under Parenting. If someone would be so kind as to move it, I'll be very grateful.

[Wingnut]

My parents have a program that sounds similar to yours. They use it for my 16-year-old brother. It's called "Covenant Eyes." It sends a weekly report with every website visited, how long the visit was, and flags any and all "questionable" content. I think it's by an LDS programmer, because I think the questionability is based on LDS standards. Their program works with Firefox, too.

[pam]

I recently installed a program called webroot. The administrator can put in key words that filter out searches. It also takes pictures when someone tries to search for anything with those key words. Let's me see everything that anyone has been doing on my computer.

[mightynancy]

I'd love that, but my son uses Safari (for Windows), not Explorer.

[unixknight]

Eventually I want to get it to where it works on all browsers. At the moment I'm working on the Firefox part.

[tanuvasamama]

i would sure be interested...

[hordak]

You might want to consult an attorney. On your home computer you can limit/ spy on them all you want but if your talking about spyware that monitors them at the ex wifes home you could have a whole new set of problems.

[unixknight]

Yeah I've already looked into that. It can be done without breaking laws.

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

This thread makes me sad. I can sympathize with your various situations but as a parenting method this is very sad.

[pam]

Sad in what way? Sad that it's come to having to do something like this or sad that we would choose to parent in this way?