Dadtalk

I've heard of some people who monitor all their kids' emails (or at least they claim to - not sure how possible that really is). Doesn't that sound like a bit of an invasion of privacy?

Other people seem to just let the kids get on with it, not really knowing what they are up to on line.

What do you think is an appropriate line to take? How can we keep our kids safe without shutting them down?

Are there any fool-proof tools for blocking online gambling sites and sites with explicit content? Or do I just have to watch what the kids are doing?

There are software tools like Net Nanny, or you can change service provider - some are now offering "protected" connections. However, my daughter is 6 and she never gets past the CBBibbes site - sorry!

hi all Im very new to the dad talk info but I feel this subject is a huge one, as alot of parents don't monitor what there children do online which is very scary as i've seen some of the things my younger cousins do online (nothing over the top) but it has me thinking that there are youth/kids who are doing a lot worse and I think its something that defiantly needs monitoring.

We have a rule about the door always being open on the room to the little study we have... We make sure we go in regularly... or if the kids use my work laptop its in the front room.. I know we talked about this in front of another parent a couple of years ago, and she thought we were over the top and felt confident about her teenage daughter having the pm (wit webcam) in her bedroom... Anyway she came back to us the next week saying she'd gone into her daughters room to find her scantily clad in front of the webcam chatting to an older guy! Needless to say the PC found its way downstairs... can't quite remember the story but it might have found its way via the bedroom window.... :|

There is an article on online safety on the site : http://www.dadtalk.co.uk/articles/online_safety.php it does cover some of this stuff

Buzz

My youngest daughter has 2 email accounts - one of which I set up on a domain name I own. This one is the one I ask her to use for certain things, like setting up things like club penguin - the reason I gave her is that if she starts getting any dubious emails, I can simply shut the account down to stop it. What she doesn't know is that any emails that come into this account are invisibly copied to me so I can keep and eye on things. The other email account is a hotmail account which I have no control over, but this is for contact with her circle of friends, and I don't think it would be appropriate for me to monitor this anyway.

As for webcams - I'm not greatly in favour of them, and none of my children have them. I don't see that they greatly improve communication with their friends so the problem never arises in my home.