can I view my kids screen remotely from my laptop? Not sure what sites their on.

[caesar]

Hello,
I was wondering if there was a way that I could monitor (live) what my kids are doing on their computer. My monitor would become a mirror of their monitor. I know at work the system Tech's can actually watch live as I would work.(I would be able to see what they are looking at) Just want to make sure my girls aren't failling prey to some internet idiot.
Thanks!

[Dark Nova]

i understand your concern, thought i beleive in privacy, how old are they?

there are few progeams you cant use, but i cant think of the programs names in my head. (thought it has to be on 1 network (lan))

[kstatefan40]

Try ultraVNC. You install the server on their machine, and the viewer on yours, and then connect via IP. However, the mouse generally flashes when you enable the remote browser, but you can disable this.
http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/

I wrote an article on internet security, found here: http://www.pcmech.com/show//781/ that went over some of this. If you want to read specificly your issue, read pages 9-10. Kid's are usually smart enough to not be an idiot online, but I've known people who've gotten themselves in a lot more trouble than they would like. Its generally more of an issue of people chatting with people they really shouldn't be. Sure, I chat all the time with people I don't know, but generally, they are people from this site that I trust. You should allow them some freedom, though. There are programs you can use to log and monitor activity, but I really don't highly recommend it. Use VNC to spot check every once in a while if you'd like, but anything else is really overkill. You might be quite surprised what you find, though, so its really up to you how far you take it.

I have a friend who is my age down the street from me (in high school) and she still has AOL parental controls so strict that she can't see my business site. She can't chat with people she doesn't know, and she has all sorts of other restrictions. In my opinion, that is overkill, because whether online or not, kids are going to do stuff they don't exactly want their parents to know about, and those parents aren't going to be there holding your hand the rest of your life.

In another case, I had a friend (again, my age) who was hit on by an obvious stalker, and then a few hours later, contacted over AIM and asked to do an interview for a national magazine. She was very antsy about whether to trust this guy or not, so she came to me with his name and asked what I would do. I did some googling, and found information about this particular author, who actually had been one of Bill Clinton's staff writers. There was enough reliable information out there I could guess at how he would answer a few questions. I typed up about 10 questions about his life and things he was around when he worked at the white house, and had her ask him. Each question, he answered in perfect English skills, with the answers I thought he would give. He told her to call the magazine headquarters and ask for his number. This made it quite a bit more authentic without even calling. I then typed up a little legal disclaimer for him to answer to, and he agreed to it. I advised her that he was 98% authentic. It turned out, a month later, my friend was in a national magazine.

I could tell he wasn't a stalker, because generally people do not assume their identities well - most stalkers aren't smart, they do not know how to spell or do research. That's just a situation where an unknown user turned out to be a good person looking for a story. Those situations happen occassionally, so that is why I recommend allowing some freedom and letting them fend for themselves. There are situations where this is not the case, however, so again its up to you.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you how you should parent - you need to find what you are most comfortable with - but I will help you find whatever level of security you are comfortable with. I hope this helps.

[SARGE]

I've used the below with great success. The info I found was a life-changing experience for many:

http://www.spectorsoft.com/