Read the messages your children are writing and who is talking to them.

JAYMARSH2005

As you all may well know, most kids use MSN Messenger/Windows Live Messenger to chat to people online, but do you know who they are talking to and what the conversations are ? I've just had a recent experience where there was somebody who was talking to my daughter on messenger,that was unsuitable. There is a feature on messenger where you can have all conversations logged to a folder of your choice on the p.c. You may need the password for the MSN Account but as I told my daughter I wanted her password as a security for her.

Here is what to do.

Open Messenger to full screen mode.
Click on Tools
Click on Options
In the left hand side of the screen click on messages
Put a tick in the box that says "Automatically keep a history of my converstaions"
Underneath that select a folder you want the message log to go to and thats it your done.

You can now see all the conversations that are taking place and if you see anything dodgy you can stop any serious contact before it happens. It may be snooping but you will want to be safer than sorry.

Hope this helps somebody as it did for me.

Osborne676

Other good software for this is Messenger Plus which is a download and apart from being pretty cool for extra MSN features it also logs chats in a specific folder which you can use any password (regardless or the user) and encrypts them so that only the person who knows the password can read them.

Might be handy if you set it up with a password and didnt tell your son or daughter the password so you can monitor the chats and they can not turn it off.

Antexter

better idea is make a keylogger and get everything sent to you're email address then you can also see whats going on with internet access as well.

richyrichuk

mmmmm im only 20 now, and i think its a breech of privacy against your child. on msn ur not gonna get pedo's or owt. u have 2 kno some1s email to add them. ur just gonna get friends. just dont let kids on chat rooms.

barjam_2

richyrichuk wrote: »

mmmmm im only 20 now, and i think its a breech of privacy against your child. on msn ur not gonna get pedo's or owt. u have 2 kno some1s email to add them. ur just gonna get friends. just dont let kids on chat rooms.

dont you beleive it!!! kids will add addys who they dont know as my boys do it they get the addy from someone else who gets it from someone else etc... and so on..i've been reading my boys chats for ages now ,but they do know about it, and they do sometimes have a memory lapse and forget:rotfl: and a the conversations ......... boys being boys.....:eek: :rotfl:

richyrichuk

well true. but u just warn them and say to them add them. if u think they know who they are. then 1st thing u ask the new added person on msn is who he/she is. school etc...and actually work out who it is from the childs school or w.e.

it is something u gotta keep an eye on. but its still i think to nosey. u wouldnt like it if ur children did it 2 u....(ano its slightly different but still holds some value)

Genghis

Probably better to just put their computer somewhere in the open so you can wander past and have a look the odd time. Logging MSN chats is a blatant invasion of your kids privacy, and if they've any sense they'd just delete the unsavoury messages from within the log files and you'd be none the wiser.

I've no idea about Messenger Plus but you've gotta watch out for the spyware/adware that often gets bundled with programs like this. Keyloggers should be used with care too, apart from the obvious privacy thing, you'd risk a lot if the log file generated by a keylogger was compromised (and wasn't encrypted etc).

Firefly

It's also best that we're not so naieve as to think that a young teen who can use MSN doesn't know how to delete a history and hide things from us.

I totally agree that a computer in the middle of a busy room is the only answer with the screen facing you and stern warnings that any windows closed down as someone approaches will result in a computer ban for a month!

richyrichuk

great! nothing like the iron fist. the way to teach kids

Firefly

You can't compromise a childs safety.

~daisy~_2

my 11 year old daughter was only allowed to use MSN on her laptop with the proviso that i know the password and will periodically browse her conversation history - for my own peace of mind

i dont see it as a breach of her privacy but a way of protecting her