How to Monitor a Schoolchild with Parental Control Software

2022-12-15

Linda and Jason are the parents of 14-year-old Jacob. Jacob has always been quite an independent boy, and puberty brought this character trait to the extreme. Any parents' attempts to inquire about his school, friends or problems are met with resistance and arguing. However, the parents cannot help but worry about their child's safety, well-being and future and keep pressing the child to get the answers. The pressure naturally leads to even more arguing.

The parental control app Spyrix Personal Monitor became a way out of this seemingly no-win situation. Like many teenagers, Jacob spends significant time with his gadgets: he does homework, searches for information for school projects, chats with friends, surfs Youtube and does a lot of other things. By monitoring Jacob's laptop, the parents can get more information about their son without pressuring him. Spyrix can record everything the child does on the computer, from typed text to activity on social media and connected external storage devices. For example, they learned from Jacob and his friend's chat log that Jacob had problems with Maths. He either copied his Maths homework from the Internet or had his friend do the work and tests for him. He was frustrated but did not want to share this problem with his parents because, in his mind, they expected him to meet high standards, and he could not fail. The parents managed to arrange a few extra classes with the teacher to help Jacob fill the gaps in Maths. At the same time, this case made Jacob's parents look at their parenting practices from a new angle and think about building more trust between them and their son.

Logs of Jacob's chats revealed one more disturbing event. One of the difficult high school students from Jacob's school dealt with illegal substances. He contacted schoolchildren, including Jacob, and offered to try those substances "for fun". Linda and Jason immediately contacted school authorities before Jacob or anyone else fell for that trap.

Live Viewing is another Spyrix feature Jason's parents found extremely useful. It allows them to see in real-time what their son is doing. Just a quick glance at the stream of his screen and the parents know that Jacob is, for example, playing a game instead of doing his homework.

Monitoring with Spyrix enabled Linda and Jason to keep an eye on their son without being overly controlling and pressing. It also smoothed out conflicts around control between the parents and their child.