[tinkerbell]

How young is too young for a child to have an msn or yahoo ID? How can I monitor what my children do on the internet? Is there an option in MSN that will enable me to see their emails IM logs etc if there are any? Is there any sofatware available on the net to help me in these matters?

I am just trying to be vigilant as to their activities on the net.

[serverguy]

The best option would be to install something like Smoothwall or similar on an old computer and then let it control the internet access, log IMs etc.

Otherwise something like NetNanny.

[spot]

Any child that can type needs msn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ntrol_Software is a good starting point.

I think I put K9 on a few computers.

Microsoft Live on XP or the inbuilt equivalents on Vista have to be work getting to grips with.

[evilfantasy]

Lots of stuff under the Kids safety to look at in this post. Web, email, chat, password and kids safety

Depending on their age you might consider a family web browser.

Glubble - Browser that creates a trusted surfing environment for kids which you have chosen.
KidZui - A Web Browser, Search Engine & Social Network Just for Kids.

[Tom Billington]

For msn there is a way in the options to store all chat logs. I'm not sure if you need a program called msn+ installed onto it as well

[Haun]

Also take into consideration of how old the kids are.

When i was 10 i was banned from the computer for grades, and figured out that i could set my moms logout time to 20 days (28,800 minutes)

At 11 i was able to hack a heck of a lot.

Kids will almost always be able to find a way around.

[Cadwin]

MSN has a built in feature that stores logs of their IM. You can just enable that. It is also recommended that you limit their computer usage in general. Make sure the child understands that they should only add friends they know to their MSN.

[tinkerbell]

hey thanks for your replies all....I managed to look at his ID i said mine wasn't signing in so could he check his and I typed the ID and password in from him so all was clear because he didn't expect this so everything was how it was. However I will still be looking into the software and websites..you can never be too careful in such matters and as they say where theres a will theres a way, I have also explained to him that its not advisable to add people he doesn't know.