Keeping the kids safe on the web today

2013-06-06

Can you remember a time when the only worry parents had about their kids on a daily basis was if they would make it home in time for dinner? We can. Can you remember how old you were before you were allowed to have your own cell phone or computer, unsupervised? We can, and it was a lot older than the average child Internet user today. Are we letting the kids grow up too soon by letting them experience the adult world of social media and chat rooms? This is what we will discussing in this article today, and what we have found just might surprise you…



Leaving Childhood Behind Too Soon

A recent survey concerning the use of social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook revealed some rather disturbing trends. More than four thousand parents, from a diverse international spectrum, with kids between the ages of 10 and 13 were asked a very important and telling opening question: ‘to the best of your knowledge, do you know if your child is a frequent visitor to social media sites, like Twitter or Facebook?’

In most countries today, children as young as 11 have accounts, and regularly visit sites like Facebook and Twitter. In Spain and Italy, they sign up even younger, with the average age dropping to 10. The question for parents now should be ‘how young is too young’, especially in light of the adult material found on these sites, as well as the bullies and predators that haunt the forums and chat rooms for dozens of child-oriented sites, like Cartoon Network, Disney and others. If you cannot actively supervise their Web activity, then what is a parent to do?

Biggest Concerns Today

A large part of the problems facing parents today concerning their kids Internet activity is that there are not a lot of safeguards in place, especially on social media sites. It seems that they are more concerned with the number of accounts on the sites, rather than about any activities on those pages, or even whether the account holders are even of legal age. Facebook’s minimum age is 13, what will it take before they realize that is too young to be socially active on the Internet?

Worried that they might alienate their kids by trying to help, most parents will do one of two things: nothing and hope for the best, or actively seek out a way to supervise all activities without the kids ever knowing. Neat trick if you can do it, right? What would you say if we told you that there was software available today that will allow you to do just that, and more?

Bullies And Predators

In the past, parents only had the option of ‘friending’ their kids on social media outlets, in hopes of being able to see most of their activities. Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for, at times, and know more about how to use these sites to their advantage than we do. Being a ‘friend’ online is not the same as having a crystal ball into their activities online, because it is simply too easy to hide such activity, and “hide” any friends, games or chats so that the parent stays as clueless as possible.

With the new release of Spyrix Personal Monitor software, the worries of what your child is really experiencing on the Web will be erased. The controls available will give you a solid defense against predators and bullies, as well as protecting your child from content they are simply too young to see.

For those who might be unfamiliar with the terms, predators and cyber bullies represent serious threats to a child’s safety on the Internet. Cyber bullies are those that would use the Internet, and social media sites to threaten, demean and abuse children of all ages. They can be classmates, adults or even strangers, and whatever the source, the damage they do with words is traumatic and sometimes deadly. Predators are more of a physical threat, often adults that pretend to be kids in order to gain their trust, meet them and potentially harm them. Spyrix Personal Monitor can give you the weapons to fight them off, and keep them from ever getting close to your kids again.

Spyrix To The Rescue

In the past, some parents resorted to using some form of monitoring software, in order to track their child’s activity. They worked well enough, and parents felt safe in trusting that all bases were covered. But, then, social media was born, and suddenly those measures were no longer good enough, and monitoring became even more difficult. The kids now had the advantage, one that they were not going to share, not with social media providing them a safe haven where they were free to do what they wanted.

Software from Spyrix will give parents the ability to monitor all activity on the Internet, no matter what sites they visit. With the help of the Spyrix Personal Monitor, parents will have more control than ever before over their kids’ activities on the Internet. And, they will have the ammunition necessary to chase away bullies and predators, something that was impossible before.

Introducing The Spyrix Personal Monitor

Spyrix Personal Monitor software has a lot of features that will put a parent’s mind at ease. With this keylogger, they can capture screenshots of sites the second the kids log on. They can also protect against activities like sexting by capturing images sent out using webcams, and those that are received. You will also be able to see files loaded onto the Clipboard function, even if they are smart enough to erase it. The capture function creates a perfect copy for viewing or printing.

Surfing And Sneaking

With the Spyrix Personal Monitor, parents do their monitoring live, even while the child is online. In invisible mode, you will be able to ghost along with your child’s Internet activity, capturing each site live on your screen, as it happens. Best of all, the software’s presence is undetectable on the computer, even to the most powerful of virus detection programs.

It also allows you to monitor their activities on search engines, allowing you to see the same results they do, and follow them to whatever URL they click on. Going out, no problem. You can set it for screenshots and monitoring activities to be sent directly to your email, as well as alerts via text.

Capturing Passwords And Messaging Controls

The Spyrix Personal Monitor is the most thorough software of its kind, allowing for more finite control. Getting and using their child’s password can be problematic, and how do they know that they will not be changed the first chance they get? With the Spyrix Personal Monitor, you can capture passwords as they are keyed, no matter what site. The software can even capture passwords used with more than twenty popular instant messengers, and Skype. It will also alert you when they downloads apps, especially what kind, as well as how often they use them.

Hardware Controls

You can even prevent plug and play hardware from being used to download and copy files, thanks to Spyrix. You can set up personal controls that will allow you to prevent your child from downloading files to removable hardware like flash drives and removable hard drives. You can also block download-to-printer, as well as sites that allow PDF files to be downloaded remotely. Even using the laptop to download files to cell phones and tablets will be blocked, by selecting the option about naming new hardware and storage destinations.

Create Your Own Blacklist

Finally, if your child is regularly visiting sites that you feel are unsafe, or just unsuitable for someone of a young age, you have a very powerful option that we highly recommend that you use. The blacklist function will allow you to block sites by adding them to a specific list. Sites can be listed by name, or URL, and you can set up alerts that will trip whenever someone keys in their addresses. You can also use it to block sites based on categories and keywords, so that search engines will not work, either. It even prevents using cached screenshots or links, because it will block any link containing the specified keywords you provide.

IP Captures

Almost forgot to tell you about what might be an even more powerful tool provided by the Spyrix Personal Monitor software. With the IP address capture function, you can file away the IP address of any communication exchanges, websites and emails that your child receives. Once collected, you can merge the information into a report you can print or send as evidence of predator or bullying activity. Just think of how many kids can be spared the needless stress caused by bullies, and how many pedophiles could be stopped if the police had this information to act on. No better way to be 100 percent sure that your kids are covered, and protected.