Monitoring Your Kid's Activities

In every generation, there are kids that believe that they can get away with anything, but the fact is that sometimes they just don’t know what they’re getting into. Some internet activities that appear harmless, may expose your entire family to great harm. In this internet crazy world, more teens have internet access now than ever. Recent studies show that, 93% of American teens between the ages of 12 and 17 years old regularly use the internet. Every evening on the news we hear about internet predators lurking on the social media websites such as MySpace, YouTube, Friendster, befriending and abducting innocent children and teens. While most of these sites install safegaurds to screen out predators to curb abuse, they are simply not capable of providing an internet safe environment for our children. Consider these real numbers compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Over 71% of teens have public online profiles, 65% admit to having engaged in risky, immoral, unlawful online activities, and 38% of high school teens keep their internet activity a secret from their parents.

What can we do to protect our families? For starters, we can watch what our kids are doing! There are many ways of accomplishing this, quietly and discreetly. There is no reason to confront them with unprovoked inquires or flimsy suspicions and cause unnecessary preemptive accusations or destructive arguments. Gather some evidence, and your family intervention will have some weight. On the other hand, you may just be confirming that you have a good kid, with a great head on their shoulders!

There are a multitude of ways to follow your kid’s internet habits. You can install hidden software on the computer that can copy ingoing and outgoing emails, then instantly forward them to you. Other installed software can actually record chats, email, websites and web surfing, and even block any website you wish. You can plug in a keystroke logger to the keyboard cord and record every word they type on their keyboards. Cell phone sim cards hold names and phone numbers and can be easily downloaded onto a sim card reader, and phone conversations can be bugged at the push of a button. You should also move that computer out of their private room and into a public area in the house. This can drastically can the time spent in risky websites.

What about if they aren’t in the house? GPS tracking devices come battery operated, and in sizes as small as a pack of gum. This compact device is designed to be covertly hidden anywhere in a car such as the in the glovebox. The car's route is wirelessly transmitted in real time and laid over a Google map, so you can see your teenager's location. Do you suspect drug use? You can purchase home drug test kits and even simple sprays that can detect trace residues of drugs or marijuana, on just about anything. This is truly a non-confrontational drug test!
There are many ways you can stay informed about what your kids are doing. Knowledge is power, and the more you know, the better off your family will be. See these type of products and more, at Smart Life Store.