Was she lying about her age because she is under 14?
If she is under 14 you can't make a profile unless you lie and state that you are 14..a fact they will never check up on. Many 13 year olds do this to get on and have a profile.

Contact the company directly and advise them of her true age. They have to have a procedure in place to handle this situation in a timely manner.

Actually, the cutoff age at facebook is under 13, not under 14.

Here are a few sites that might help you get to the bottom of her computer activities.
www.getnetwise.org/
www.netsmartz.org/
www.filterreview.com/
www.benetsafe.org/
www.connectwithyourkids.org/

Our State Attorney Generals office has really stepped up to the issues that involve our children on the web.
I'm a few short years away from having to educate myself on this very topic - It's right up there with educating oneself about learning disabilities I think.
Ongoing, demanding our full attention, & very scary to think what could happen if you ignore it! Like I said just like LD's...
Good luck.

I also have a 15 year lod son, but he is on www.myyearbook.com....but, thanks to these wonderful. people on this sight i finally, quit panicing......ON THE OTHER HAND, I DON"T HAVE A GIRL (YEA)......my son...didn't have the smart's to have his password deleted, he keeps it logged in so, when he goes to bed--i check it.....i really ..don't know how to help you...BUT i can tell,...THESE LADIES HERE KNOW THEIR STUFF.....they have been a life saver to me.....laura

ALL I CAN DO IS TELL YOU HOW I HANDLE THIS IN OUR HOME AND IT WORKS :}}
FIRST WE OWN 1 COMPUTER .IT IS IS IN OUR DINING ROOM.EVERYONE CALLS IT MOM'S COMPUTER B/C IT IS :)
ANYONE IN THIS FAMILY THAT USES IT HAS TO OBEY MY COMPUTER RULES OR THEY LOSE THE RIGHT TO USE MY COMPUTER.I SET UP THEIR ON PLACE THEY HAVE TO LOG ON TO.I GIVE THEM THAT PASSWORD ,SO FIRST OFF THEY CAN'T GET ON UNLESS I GIVE THEM THE PASSWORD TO EVEN GET TO THEIR INTERNET..I DO CHANGE IT OFTEN. THEY NEVER ARE ALLOWED TO DELETE ANY HISTORY FROM THE COMPUTER ,I DO THAT ...1 RULE IS ~ IF YOUR ON MYSPACE/FACE BOOK I MUST BE YOUR #1 FRIEND.
ALL COMMENTS AND FRIENDS MUST BE DISPLAYED (THERE ARE CODES TO HIDE THEM )
NO FRIEND CAN BE ADDED THAT IS NOT LOCAL .I MUST BE ABLE TO TALK WITH SAID FRIEND AND OR PARENT .(I HAVE HAD TO DO SO)
I LIMIT FRIENDS TO 50 NO MORE THAN 50 .THAT INCLUDES FAMILY AS WELL.I'M NOT INTO THEM HAVING 100 TO 700 FRIENDS ON THE COMPUTER..
MY CHILDREN HAVE A GMAIL OR YAHOO ACC. AS WELL .I MUST HAVE ALL USER NAMES AND PASSWORDS TO EVERYTHING. IF NOT THEY HAVE TO CLOSE IT DOWN NO ?'S ASKED.I DON'T GIVE THEM THE OPTION TO ? MY RULES .IT IS SIMPLE FOLLOW THEM OR LOSE COMPUTER USE.AS FAR AS MYSPACE IS CONCERNED YOU CAN E-MAIL TOM(THE OWNER) AND HE WILL CLOSE DOWN YOUR CHILDS SITE AT YOUR REQUEST.ALSO BEWARE OF PHOTO'S ON YOUR CHILDS SITE.I MAKE MY SON'S SET ALL PHOTO'S TO PRIVATE..TO MANY PERVERTS ONLINE THAT TAKE PHOTOS AND PLACE THEM ON OTHER SITES YOU DON'T WISH TO EVER SEE YOUR CHILDS PIC ON.
KEY TO THIS IS ~
YOU ARE THE PARENT AND A COMPUTER IS NOT A MUST HAVE..I USE IT AS A PUNISHMENT .AND IT IS VERY HELPFUL AS MOST KIDS TODAY FEEL LIKE A COMPUTER IS A PART OF THEIR BODY ,SAME WITH A CELL PHONE.THE 2 SINGLE BEST FORMS OF PUNISHMENT IN MY HOME :)
TO SEE IN YOUR ?
I CAN'T ACCESS HER PROFILE
IS THE FIRST AND BIGGEST PROBEM YOUR HAVING ..
SHE'S CONTROLING YOU NOT YOU CONTROLING HER ,BIG MISTAKE.........................
SHE CAN DO WHAT YOU ALLOW HER TO DO.. BE AWARE SHE CAN MAKE A FAKE MYSPACE TOO.IF YOU PLACE THE COMPUTER IN THE DINING ROOM ,DEN OR LIVING ROOM YOU CAN WALK UP AT ANYTIME (AND I DO) MY SONS AREN'T ALLOWED TO DELETE ANY THING FROM THEIR MYSPACE ACCOUNT .I SEE WHAT THEIR FRIENDS SEND AND WHAT THEY SEND TO THEIR FRIENDS...
ONE MORE THING ~
I DON'T ALLOW ANYTYPE OF CHATTING ON MY COMPUTER NOT MYSAPCE IM,MSN,WINDOWS ,AIM NO CHATTING AT ALL.I FEEL I'M HELPING THEM NOT REALLY CONTROLING THEM BUT WHATEVER AGAIN MY HOUSE THEIR HOME ,MY COMPUTER ,MY RULES.
HOPE I HELPED ..SHE WILL BE MAD AT FIRST IF YOU DO TAKE MY ADVISE BUT I PROMISE SHE'LL GET OVER IT.SAME WITH THEIR CELL .NO DELETING MISSED CALLS ,DAILED CALLS OR VOICE MAIL AND YEP I HAVE THAT PASSWORD.AND I HAVE BLOCKED ALL TEXT MESS.I CAN GO ON VERIZON 24/7 AND SEE WHO,THE PH # AND WHEN A CALL FROM THERE PH WAS PLACED..THIS WORLD TODAY IS NOT LIKE IT USED TO BE AND WE MUST KEEP UP WITH WHAT OUR CHILDREN ARE DOING .SAD BUT TO MANY BAD PEOPLE OUT THERE ..
BE BLESSED,
ANDI

How old is your daughter? Mine is 12 ( 7th grade) and some of her friends had a myspace since 5th grade. I do not allow myspace of facebook in my house. Solution? Go in your daughters computer and block anything that you are not ok with and most importantly explain to her why you are not ok with it. I told my daughter that being all over the internet will invite cyber bullying, predators and adults pretending to be children. I am really outraged that parents don't realize that the youngest age you can put on your myspace profile is 15!!!! So , if you are under 15 you have no business in the first place being on there. I also don't allow chat rooms. Club Penguin is about the only site I am ok with. With supervision of course. We also set the computer to not being able to be accessed by my daughter between the hours of 8pm and 6 am.
I know the internet is so prevalent in all of our life's but I think there should be strict guidelines and consequences for not following them. So maybe no computer for a month and see if she will go against your computer rules again. Good luck!!

I am like the other mom, my house, my rules. I am also on MySpace as are both my girls and the rules are simple, I get to see EVERYTHING! I set the passwords, I can go in anytime and change them, delete them or modify their accounts. This goes for everything, email, instant messaging, the works. I clean up the computers, I decide what needs to be deleted and the first time they are caught trying to hide anything, delete things they lose their privilages. Ask my oldest, she was banned for poor grades in school, so she lost computer privilages. So what did she do, accessed it at school and then sent me an email. Needless to say she lost them for another month and I went in and changed all her passwords. One thing I am very clear about with my children is who is in charge in my home. I see their friends on line and have to wonder if the other parents have any clue what their kids are doing on line.

Take charge now, she lives in your house, it's your rules. Put the computer in a public room where you can watch her and if she doesn't like it then take it away completely after you get her passwords and either change them or delete them.

I understand teenagers need to have some secrets but not on line, this is a battle worth fighting and winning.

I have 2 boys who are in their older teens and they spend every spare moment on the computer. I'm not worried about them doing anything foolish when it comes to having email accounts. Of course with girls it's different. Especially teenaged girls. The best thing you can do is sit down with her and talk to her in depth about every possible risk of giving out any information on the computer without your consent. The best defense is to let them know just how dangerous it is. If they're scared enough maybe they'll think twice before giving out personal information. Always give her high praise when she does something responsible and tell her you're proud of her. Your opinion means much more to her than her friends'!

We have two girls (12 & 15). When we found out they had MySpace accounts we got their URL info that is for MySpace and emailed the company directly to delete the accounts. I had to get a MySpace account myself in order to keep checking to see if they would get new ones... well they did, at least 4 times! Each time we deleted them. My best advise, get a software program like WebWatcher and this can be installed on any desk top or laptop computer. You can block certain websites or block by keywords. When my girls were allowed on the computer, they were on it ALL day & Night. We then put parental controls. The computers cannot be turned on during certain times & automatically shuts off at 9pm on weekdays and for weekends time is 10am-3pm and 6pm-9pm. With the WebWatcher program, you can find out your child's password and what email address they use. It shows you all their keystrokes. We do not micromanage our kids, we just use it for safety and parental concern. For any issues we have a concern about, we just ask how they are feeling, anything they want to talk about. We just continue to monitor them, but we don't tell them we know everything. They have to learn to work some things out for themselves, as long as someone is not getting hurt. I have informed the networking companies that these children are underage, so they know that this is still a problem with their system. Unfortunately, my girls' father allow them to set up these accounts at his house and on his computers. There is nothing I can do about that, but it is not allowed in my home.

We have four, 2 that live with us and the other 2 live with their mother. Our 4th grader keeps insisting to get an acct for My space, but because of safety, and hours of computer limitations she was not able to. But for our luck, a friend of us found her name on My space, I ask her how she got the acct. and she was given the acct by one of her step sister who created the acct. through their home computer and added her to her friends acct. But because we have block her computer access to certain limitations tothe internet. A message was sent to our computer asking us if she could acces My Space acct. Im glad My space cannot be acctivated trough her name acct. because we have it restricted for only sites that are appropiate for 5 to 10 years old.

Do you know what email address she is using? Like yahoo has a way that if you type in info like birthday and say fathers middle name or pets name it lets you change the password. Then you have access to the email account and then can go tell myspace and facebook that you forgot your password and they will send it to you or them thru email. Then you are in, and can check out the profile or close the account. They will send you an email that you must click on to confirm that you want to close it. I have 4 girls, 2 live with us and 2 step-daughters that dont. Our oldest 16 has both and I have all passwords for email, etc. I have full access to it all. My other 2 15 & 10 have both as well and the other parent lets them do anything. So I sneak in and check things out to make sure they stay safe. When they get 18 I will let them be. My oldest is told when she grads from high school which will be 18 1/2 then as long as she keeps me on her friends I wont log in as her. She knows I can be very tricky and get into stuff, so she thinks she will keep changing her password to keep me out. Silly girl. She was told she could have one only if I had the info to get in. She wanted them very bad. So now she has it and I have access. They will complain about it if they know you have access, I am told nobody else does this, and why am I so tough. I wish you luck.. Dealing with this day and age isnt always easy....

i agree with the 2 mothers with the rule , i am very tough with my daughter, she is 16 but she thinks she is a superwoman, that she knows everything and she can fight the whole world if she can but reality is something else... I have constant argues with my daughter because she is very stuburn and no matter how many punishment i give her she always says that is her privacy and that she is not doing anything wrong... but this teenagers today are so hard to understand and they are not scare of anything... my daughter also has a facebook and myspace, i hate does websites is nothing but trouble and i don't know her password because she has it private and like i said if you don't have nothing to hide,,, why do you have it private? but i will follow does ideas that some mother gave in this blog...

Yes, unfortunately there isn't much we can do, I deleted my son's myspace page, but was told my the guy who created the myspace that he can just create another one and there is no way to stop him from using someone else's computer to obtain his myspace account. I think something should be done about this. There should be an age limit. (Good Luck)

I'm reading some of these answers from some of the other parents who feel that there is nothing they can do because the child can just create another account from another computer. YES! THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO! Stay involved in your child's life, get to know the other parents of the other children and explain to them your rules concerning internet access and that while your child is at their house you would really appreciate it if they would enforce those same rules for your child, what they do with theirs is their business but you have every right to ask them to honor your wishes when it comes to your child or said child will no longer be allowed over at their house. STAND UP TO YOUR CHILDREN no matter what their age. And the parents who have boys and think they are safe, think again. Boys are just as much at risk as girls are on line, just because they are men or of the male sex doesn't mean they are any less open for an attack or stalker on line. Make sure there are consequences for lying to you about these things and follow through!

People, these are children, no matter how "old" they may seem, they are still children who need our guidance and rules to follow. Do I want to be my child's best friend? No, I want to be her mother and give her the tools to survive in this world and grow up to be a responsible adult who realizes there are consequences for her actions and there are rules to society that she has to follow as well. If I can't get her to follow them at home, how can I ever expect her to follow them in public and become a responsible adult?

Become their friend after they turn 18 and you have no legal rights to tell them what to do, until then, it's your home, your rules and if they don't like it, well, hey, no one ever told them life was fair or easy but it can be filled with people who truly care about them, their safety and well being.

you can definately have your child's myspace page deleted...my younger daughter had her friend sign her up...course lied about her age...i simply contacted myspace..told them her age, and they had it deleted within 24 hours...face book i don't know about.

I dont' believe children..especially girls..have any business on something like myspace. there are way too many sickos out there just waiting for an unsuspecting child with unknowing parents.

there is software that will monitor internet activity and let you know their passwords without asking them, if you really do not have that kind of open relationship with your children. I have a 14 yr old that wanted a myspace, the conditions were that I have the password to the page. He was reluctant at first but he gave it to me and I let him create a page.
If you really do not want them on those sites, block them. Yes they might be able to log on at friends homes, but you can't control that too much, unless you do not allow them to go anywhere.

I have also had this problem. I am not sure that there is a right answer for you. I do believe however that if more parents would become responsible and watch what their children are doing and not allow myspace or facebook in their homes, there would not be as much of a problem with this issue. I believe that everyone should stand together and stay away from those sites that have the potential to exploit children. We all have to remember that our children are just that!, Children! They do not always have the reasoning capacity to stay away from harm! Besides, why would anyone really want to air their dirty laundry to the world? (Kids do that) They do not realize that everyone sees it! The worst part is...Parents are doing it also!
Good luck and God guide you through......Remember that you are the parent and that you are not required to be their best buddy! Just like you determine what is spent for running your household, you determine the privalage's that your children have and do not have.

I recommend software that tracks your childs keystrokes, which will tell you what passwords and usernames he/she is entering (many kids have a myspace page their parent is aware of and one that is totally secret). The software should also give you screenshots and let you read their mail (even the mail that's been deleted).

But, if you don't want to pay for a software to help you monitor, or if you feel this is too much by way of spying on your kids, and you don't mind running around guessing and trying to catch them, tell myspace your child is not of age (read their terms), and you can delete the facebook account if you can get into the account itself.

But, deleting these accounts for a child who is lying anyways is probably not going to do much good - they'll probably just set up the account again. Another reason a parental spy-ware is so great!

Oh, and computers for kids should be in living rooms, dens or kitchens, someplace where supervision is easy. Times should be set up for use and strictly adhered to.

Keyloggers are what they are generally called. They are great. Even if you feel like you're being a spy, it let's you have a certain amount of control over what your child does on the internet. When the girls got their own computer, we made sure that was one of the rules. A keylogger would be installed and we would know what they were doing. Also a password in on the computer, so they can't get on unless we type it in...make sure if you set that up it's something they could never guess. Before you buy software for a tracking system, check the internet. There are places do keyloggers as shareware. It's been so long I don't remember the address, but they are out there. It just doesn't come with the support that the software you buy gives you.

www1.k9webprotection.com/

This is what I have on my computers so the the kids can't get on social networks or see nude pictures, etc. It also blocks youtube. You can set the controls and even make the computer accessible when you think they should be on it. Hope this helps and good luck!
I have a neice that is 16 and created her own account on facebook so she could talk to a boyfriend who is off limits. I will tell my sister about the keylogger software and see if that helps. Thanks!

We are just entering the teen years but I have explained to the children that when it comes to anything public (uses airwaves for transmission, etc.) like the internet, email, blogging, facebook, etc. AND cell phones...nothing is private. Because anyone can have access to or intercept that information, I am allowed to know what they are putting out there. There is no privacy where that is considered. If they are looking for a place for their private thoughts, they are encouraged to keep a journal and I have agreed that they can keep that private. But, the policy in our house is that if someone can have access to the information then I need access to that information too. As of now, she agrees and thinks it's a good safe thing. Who knows later on what will happen, but we keep trying to have the open communication where she can talk about anything with me and so far, so good. We both have a facebook account and we are friends. I also have all passwords to emails and facebook. She is aware that I can check where she's been on the internets history as well. She is a late bloomer and really isn't into the computer that much. Myspace is so dirty I just keep discouraging that one. Facebook has been clean fun for all of us and our friends and family. Constant monitoring is necessary. I check her stuff as often as my own and she knows it. If things start to get bad or she is caught being deceptive then I will consider the software. I don't think spying is wrong when it comes to protecting your children from the internet predators of the world. If your child may have a separate myspace or facebook account, I would get a secret one too and be someone closer to their age and become their friend so you can see how they talk to you and what information they share. There is a time and place for privacy and it is not on the computer. Just my two cents!

If a child is underage and using MySpace or Facebook, you can report it to the web site and have the account deleted. I'm not sure what the age is for Facebook but I know that on MySpace a child must be 14. I think once a child is legally able to have an account there, it's perfectly fine as long as she keeps her profile private, so not just anyone surfing the net can see all her personal information. There comes a point where you just have to learn to let go and trust your child to have her own e-mail and social networking accounts! I do not believe in parent spyware, it just shows children that their parents are completely untrusting of them and encourages them to be even more deceptive when it comes to things that go on outside the internet! Most of the "bad" things teenagers do still happen in the real world. I wouldn't be so concerned about what she is typing, but what she is doing and who she is hanging around with in real life.

My daughters don't like that they don't have their own email like all their friends do, but that's how it is in my house. They are free to use mine, and as long as I know who the friend is, I don't read them. I do this for the specific reason that a few years ago, my older daughter's "friend" tried to get her to do something illegal. That friend is now blocked from my email account. They can have privacy, but it must be earned, and anything to do with the internet is not private.

yes me too..

As for me, I don’t allow my children to have My Space or any other social networking accounts. I do not want to be my childs friend, I want to be a parent. Being both is not an option, because you must enforce the rules and friends do not punish each other. How do we gain control of a situation when the child knows they have the upper hand. I think, as a parent, you must be in a position of power and not a position of equality. I constantly struggle with the balance of watching out for my kids when they go online. I even istalled internet filter Ez Internet Timer www.internettimer.net It helps me control my kids online activity. So no, as long as I personally am responsible for what my children do.

Even with a private myspace or facebook account, everyone is bombarded with friend requests, especially if there is a profile picture. And if your child is less discretionary, accepting these friend requests could lead to all sorts of trouble. Predators are on these places and look for people who look young or have friends who are also young and they'll have no qualms about soliciting your child for a friendship... or more.

We do not allow these types of venues to be accessed by our daughter, and even on the kids sites, we don't let her chat with anyone.

Our spyware is smart, as it learns more all the time about more dangers and allows parent input. It takes screen shots every few seconds and that allows us to read her emails to people, and see if she is sneaking into chatrooms when we step out of the room, and see where she's going, see what her passwords are and more. Our PC-Cillin doesn't like it because it IS a spyware, but we tweaked our security protocols to allow that particular software to run and still block out other spyware that might get onto the system without our consent. It was more secure than net-nanny or other software of the same type and it cost only $40 for an actual disk and 3 licenses.

I will say though, that if your computer is older or doesn't have more than the minimum RAM requirement listed on the packaging, you will have trouble running it.

If anyone wants more information, private message me and I'll tell you the brand and where to get it (it's not in stores).

I allow my oldest to have a myspace account, but I DO MONITOR it. We haven't any problems so far.

What's sad is that most parents don't monitor it, let alone even care about it. I have a friend that has let her two teenage sons have myspace and facebook pages for years. She doesn't care that they have it or even know who their friends are. When nothing is monitored, that's when the problems start.

can you tell me the brand name?

While much of this feedback has been stellar, I haven't heard anyone touch on our children's future potential ramifications involving these sites. Today it has become a tool for many Human Resource departments to run their candidates through these sites as well to whittle down their candidate group even further. Despite great GPA's, high honors, sports, community involvement, etc when helping them make their decision between umpteen different candidates for 1 position, their finding it necessary to gather information on applicants from any source available which nowadays is Face book, You Tube, etc. and more and more companies are making the most of it. Mistakes now on these sites, especially photos, negativity or aloofness can cost them in the long run. Discretion and commonsense may be the key if these accounts are a necessity for some households. Perhaps, depending on how serious one is about their future, only putting and saying things on this site they wouldn't be embarrassed to respond to during and interview, which has happened, is the way to go. This should also make parents feel better, as well, if this is truly adhered to.

I never thought about companies looking at that information, but it makes sense. Kids just don't realize that once they enter the teenage years, eveverything they do can and will affect their future. They are too naive to realize, so we as parents have to do that for them.

All these answers are very shocking to me. My son 14, goes to a private high school which gives kids their own laptops. I'm very disappointed that there is no firewall protection when he uses laptop at home and see him with myspace, you tube, yahoo, google and what not and on it for more hours than before. He is a A student and these answers get me very very worried now. Should I inform his school's IT team?

As parents we are personally responsible for what our children do. That’s why we need to teach our child about Internet safety, spend time with them online, put your computer in a public area of your home to see what they are doing and who they are talking to. And inform their school's IT team too.

irit123, any question or concern, ever, regardless of topic that regards your children's education is always one that you should pursue. That is our responsibility to our children and it is the responsibility of their educators, whether it be the actual Instructors themselves, the Vice Principal or the Principal, who looks into matters and gets back to us. The education of our children is priceless, essential and something we all need to stay on top of, but perhaps most importantly we need to all keep in mind it is never just a 'one way street.' ~ Bottom-line, if you have a concern or question, you need to find someone at your school, the IT group sounds like a great place to start in this case, where someone can answer your questions hopefully alleviating your concerns. If that department cannot or will not do that however, continue moving up the chain of command, so to speak, until it is explained to you to your satisfaction. Keep in mind though, perhaps they do already have the necessary software installed to help negate our current topic from taking place along with certain protocol in class that they, specifically the teachers, may follow as well for this very purpose; I honestly do not wish to assume to know what their classroom practices are. The best thing to do in my opinion, depending on your level of concern from what you've seen and heard, would be to go in with a level head and simply start asking questions. Find out what's really going on in class in regards to your concerns. Remember to stay calm, pleasant and merely inquisitive. This will lead to many more answers to your questions than frustration, annoyance and anger will. Signs of the latter three can actually bring your fact finding mission to a grinding halt so keep yourself in check; remember you are like a reporter following-up on a lead that may or may not have any merit to it. That's why you are trying to gather facts. By time you are done, you will have accomplished one of two things...#1) you will have either satisfied yourself with everything and you will be walking out with a big sigh of relief or #2) you'll have just realized you stumbled across a critical gap between education and technology that needs some attention at your school which if that was my child's school and I didn't realize what was going on but another parent caught wind of it first and asked the right questions to get everything back on track, I'd be beyond grateful and I know I'd have a whole newsletter full of parents wanting to express their gratitude for whomever caught the loop-hole so it could be rectified ASAP. ~ Best of luck!

Thanks. I did check with school already and also with my son. There is SW control on the laptop given to him already. Being a small school, they have been constantly monitoring each students log in times and what sites they go into through the server. It was impressive.
This alerted my son also, and he understands his responsibility even more now. He keeps the room door wide open and turns computer towards me, so that I can have a watch on him anytime.

tjlove,
You are the boss of all technology devices in your home; computers (even laptops purchased through private school programs), cellphones, I-pods, etc... You are the boss! I have 2 teens, boy and girl, who both have laptops through a private school program. I have only had problems with one of the children. I have always let them know their devices are subject to confiscation and review at any time. After an issue with boy teen, I downloaded a program called Webwatcher on their laptops and our main family computer. It was recommended by the school tech guy as the best. I can see what websites they have been to, word-for-word chat, and all keystrokes. It is a little expensive, but it runs completely undetected on their computers and I can access the info with my passwords from ANY computer. My bigger challenge is text messaging for same boy. It is my undertanding that this same company is soon too release a program to record phone text messages. I know it seems like spying, but I hope to save this childs future. I randomly check on my othe female teens activity, since there have never been any internet issues with her, so I am not daily spying when it is not needed. To not moniter in some way, is to be an irresponsible and negligent parent. Good luck.

I agree that you should defiantly be monitoring your child's myspace and face book pages.. to some extent. Maybe getting the program was going a bit overboard. Are your children really such trouble makers that you don't trust them to chat online with their friends? I went through this with my 2 older girls. Instead of buying a program, I asked them if they were members of either of these sites and they said yes, and so I occasionally check them and I haven't had any major concerns

what is gonna happen on myspace that is so bad? also why would you go behind your sons back and delete his account instead of confronting him about it?

I have two younger girls; 12 and 15. My 15yr old started her website at 14, saying she was 16. Now my 12yr old is lying saying she is 15. We monitored their website with Web-Watcher as well. We had to, since they felt that they needed to lie. We have made it known from the beginning, that if they are old enough by the standards of the "websites guidelines" they could have an account, but must be private and then they knew that we can and will monitor at any time. If they were caught abusing the website, they would have consequences lose the "privilege" of the computer for a specific time period. It is hard when there is so many opportunities for them to open up a new account or use someone else's computer. Also any Internet access on cell phones is prime opportunity. It helped me and their stepfather know what is really going on and I have found some very disturbing pics from my 15yr boyfriend. We confronted that "immediately", but it is difficult to monitor computer sites & usage when my girls are with their biological father, where they have "NO" boundaries or guidelines. I have talked to counselors (school & professional), teachers, other parents, and doing the Web-Watcher is a parent's right to know what their child is doing, to keep them safe, to let them know there are boundaries and rules in this world and no better place to start, then at home.

While I am definitely in alignment with, and subsequently pro Web Watcher software programs, as it appears most parents seem to be, I also like the open dialogue, mutual respect and trust that ‘yogalover456’ brings across in its parent/child relationship. While I believe that those parent/child conversations are critical regardless of one’s choice to either use or not use such software, if you do use the software, in my opinion, based on a myriad of factors, it would be the only responsible parental conclusion to arise at, so long as it is economically feasible to purchase it, of course. This has nothing to do with good kid/bad kid, good parent/bad parent, not trusting, wanting to spy, privacy issues, whatever one chooses to label it. It’s about parentally (or one’s guardian) finding the best way to protect their child from potential internet dangers that may either walk right up to their child without the child’s knowledge, via computer initially and potentially real life as the next step, or by the child’s own acts either knowingly or by unknowingly eliciting danger in which the wrong person sees an opening to start preying on. It is our obligation to keep them safe. Internet safety is new territory for all of us and unfortunately, the dangerous people seem to be able to navigate and hide in it pretty well. For those of you still having a hard time swallowing this, think of these safety programs as life-vests for our children. When they were younger and couldn’t swim well, most of us had a life-vest on standby so they were always protected until they could make it on their own. The same applies here. Right now they’re having fun, testing the waters and playing around. They’ll learn and hear about the dangers of the internet, to their satisfaction, soon enough as they get older; we just don’t want it to be first hand experience. I think that’s something we can all agree on. ~ Best Regards

I think the social networking sites CAN be good for teens and even pre-teen kids. Most of their friends are probably using these sites, so they want to be on them too. Kids can meet other kids that they did not know before. Even kids that go to their own school...it gives them a chance to branch out a little. The drawback is that when parents do not monitor their kids' activities. Kids can easily be drawn out of the social networks into real life danger. It should always be the parent's decision to allow or not allow social networking. If you choose to allow them to join a social network, you better take the responsibility to monitor your children's activities. I keep the computer in a public area of the house to monitor kids’ on-line activity. Also I use internet filtering software Ez Internet Timer www.internettimer.net to block Internet browsers, e-mails, messengers in cases when I out. I think it's also important to add that I know of at least two of my fifteen year old.

Im 15. I have my own laptop in my room with no parental controls on, and my parents know none of my passwords. Its not that my parents dont care, its just that they trust me. Most teens like me will understand that there are paedophiles and dangerous stuff on the internet, so try and let loose a little. And as for websites, well they can see for themselves what is bad. Obviously if your child is young then you will want to protect them, but as they become teens, you should trust them more. And some of the comments ive read isnt just about protecting them, its just plain spying! I just thought i'd show what i think.

And p.s i have 2 myspace and facebook accounts and have done for 3 years.

JrHighMom

We originally found PC Pandora because my 9 year old daughter (now 11) was using her once trusted kid sites at my mother's house when suddenly adult-oriented pop-ups would come on to the screen.

Once the adult sites came up, she got curious and started surfing it. I can't blame her. She hadn't seen that type of explicit material before. I probably would have done it too had it have been me in her shoes. But once she started doing that, all sorts of viruses and spyware and other pop-ups began hitting my mother's computer. And I don't blush when it comes to any type of adult material, but when I saw what was coming up and what my daughter had been looking at? I was horrified that she had seen it. They weren't just adults doing your regular run of the mill adult things. They were major underground sites for people who are into very specific things.

It just so happened that I was there to pick her up after her weekend trip (during which this had transpired) and my mother said to me what she had seen. So I went into the history and found all of it. I think I died that day.

I immediately researched and ordered the PC Pandora download for my mom's computer as well as a hard copy with 2 more licenses for my home computers, and we've seen exactly where this stuff happens. It's bad. In the most trusted sites you can think of that most of you probably let your child use unattended, Disney, Barbie, Webkinz, and even learning sites, adults will go there and prey on kids. If it has chat - be wary and stay aware.

You can talk to your kids all you want, but if they think it's another kid talking to them with a cutsie little avatar, they're going to talk back.

With the software we purchased we can see who she's emailing, we can see when she changes her passwords, we can see what comes up in chat conversations, and we can block any site we want. Plus the software itself is constantly blocking more sites as it learns of new threats. It upgrades itself and so it knows most of the threatening sites out there. Some do get through, and those you do have to manually enter. But I have to say, we have had absolutely no problems of this nature since we installed this.

When she's MUCH older and proves that she's responsible, then she can probably have whatever the networking site is that kids will use, whether it's Facebook or something else. But at 11 or 13 or even 15? No way.

Of cause, Ez Internet Timer helps me to control my kids Internet activity and parental controls are an important part of Internet safety that all parents should consider for their children…But I think that it’s very important to have a healthy relationship with your children, spend more time with them while they’re online and educate them about Internet safety. It will go much further in keeping your child safe online and prevent from different cases.