Should You Install Spector or Other Internet-Monitoring Software on Your Child's Computer?

Many parents these days are concerned—with good reason—about their children's use of the Internet. Setting and enforcing limits is a pervasive problem, one that various companies have rushed to provide solutions for in the form of Internet-monitoring and surveillance ("spy") software.

One company, SpectorSoft, has created a product for PCs called Spector. According to an ad on SpectorSoft's website, with Spector "you'll be able to SEE EXACTLY what your kids have been doing on the PC and Internet." Spector takes hundreds of snapshots of a computer screen every hour, providing a record of all screens, chat conversations, e-mail viewed and sent, keystrokes typed, and so on.

If you're worried about your child's Internet use, installing Spector or other similar software can sound like the perfect plan. But doing so, either openly or covertly, brings up a host of other issues. Perhaps most obvious is the question of privacy: Unless your child figures out a hack (which can and does happen with any Internet-monitoring software), you'll be able to see everything he or she does on line—at least on this one computer.

That may sound great in theory; in practice, though, you'll not only have invaded your child's privacy but also sent a clear message, if only to yourself, that you don't trust your child. You may well have good reasons not to, but monitoring his or her computer won't solve that problem and may in fact exacerbate it.

And although in the first day or two of the software's installation you could learn whether or not your fears have been justified, ultimately you won't be able to monitor your child's use of computers at libraries, friends' houses, or elsewhere. So recording every move on a home computer has limited utility.

A better solution might be to have a serious conversation with your child about Internet use in which you outline strict consequences for inappropriate activities. These consequences should include restricting the child's access to the computer—and, if necessary, removing it from the home altogether.

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