With the explosion of the social networking sites such as MySpace and others, parents need to have an option if they feel their children may be putting themselves in harms way without knowing it. I read an article the other day that talked about a software that is now available that will allow anyone on the web to see the location of any MySpace account. So any predators out there that access this software can now plug in a MySpace account, of a friendly kid they chat with online and use their MySpace account to find out their location.
Using tracking software such that is available from companies such as SpectorSoft
tracking software, parents can now be able to follow the actions of their kids while helping to block access to certain sites. Their software offers such features such as:
Records Emails
Chats, IMs
Web Sites
Programs Run
Keystrokes Typed
Peer to Peer File Sharing
Now to those who ask why should parents act like Big brother and is there a privacy concerns or the rights of the kids. As my Dad always said ” while you are in my house, you follow my rules” As our kids become more sophisticated and spend more time on the internet, parents needs to be able to have tools that will alert them to activities, that I believe are not meant to invade their privacy, but protect them from unknown strangers with bad intentions. Spector Soft even has a tracking software (called eBlaster) that will email all of the recordings directly to your email address. This is especially nice, since you can have all the tools and safeguards in place, but if you are unable to access the information in a timely fashion it is useless.
I look at those series that Dateline NBC has been running where these grown men are showing up at girls houses, expecting to meet an underage person. It is quite troubling knowing that these guys are out there in every part of the country.