Internet and Cybersafety App for Kids. Skydog Lets You Remotely Monitor Your Kids' Internet and Facebook Use. If you're looking for some serious control over your family's Wi-Fi use and home network, a Palo-Alto, Calif., company has developed a new cloud-based solution.
PowerCloud Systems' Skydog Wi-Fi router and mobile companion site lets parents monitor Internet access and even receive text notifications for certain network activity. The system works by signing up with Skydog and replacing your existing wireless router with Skydog's 802.11n wireless router. From there, you can monitor all the connected devices in your home through a pretty clean interface on your desktop or mobile device.
Skydog outputs fairly detailed information about the home network: who exactly is online, what devices are connected, which websites are being accessed and what the bandwidth usage is. The administrator control can get pretty specific, too. 7 Ways to Monitor Your Kid’s Phone, Tablet and Laptop. As a parent, you have the right to know what the kids in your care are doing with their digital devices, and to control what kids can see and use.
It’s key to introduce controls and rules when a device is new so you and your child can be clear about what is and isn’t O.K. during screen time. First of all, the device your family or child will use likely has its own parental control options. Some can screen out Internet access altogether, and others can filter out certain sites. Because they are all different, the best plan is to read up on the parental controls for each device and operating system your family will use. Below are some tools for monitoring or limiting the amount of time the device is in use, tracking the software or apps used, and more. Software Helps Parents Monitor Their Children Online.
Photo When her children were ready to have laptops of their own, Jill Ross bought software that would keep an eye on where they went online.
One day it offered her a real surprise. She discovered that her 16-year-old daughter had set up her own video channel. Using the camera on her laptop, sometimes in her bedroom, she and a friend were recording mundane teenage banter and broadcasting it on YouTube for the whole world to see. For Ms. “It’s a matter of knowing your kids,” Ms. Parents can now use an array of tools to keep up with the digital lives of their children, raising new quandaries.
The answers are as varied as parents themselves. If, a few years ago, the emphasis was on blocking children from going to inappropriate sites on the family computer, today’s technologies promise to embed Mom and Dad — and occasionally Grandma — inside every device that children are using, and gather intelligence on them wherever they go. In Richmond, Va., Mary Cofield, 62, is one of the careful ones. 13 Tips for Monitoring Kids’ Social Media. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently released findings from a comprehensive study on the impact social media has on kids and families.
Although there are real benefits to kids using sites like Facebook, including increased communication, access to information and help in developing a sense of self, there can be serious downsides to all this online sharing too. Social networking is on the rise, and the study found that 22 percent of teenagers log onto their favorite social media sites more than 10 times a day, and that 75 percent own cell phones. This level of engagement online increases the risks of cyberbullying, “Facebook depression” (a new phenomenon where “de-friending” and online bullying lead to symptoms of depression), exposure to inappropriate content, and sexting.
Just as we prepare our kids for life in the real world, we should prepare them for life in the online world. Read on for tips that every parent should keep in mind. 10 iPhone Apps You Can Use to Monitor Your Kids Internet Use. How to Monitor Your Child's Internet Use - TechAddiction. Using Your Wireless Router to Monitor Internet Usage Some models of wireless router are able to keep a log of what sites are visited via your home internet connection.
To set up logging, you will need to access your router by typing its IP address into the address bar of your browser. You can find out the IP address by opening a command window (run CMD.exe in Windows) and typing in ipconfig/all. Your IP address is the number listed under the heading “Default Gateway.”
If your router prompts you to enter a password and you have never set one, you can find out the default username and password by visiting the manufacturer’s website or looking on the packaging that your router came in. Monitor your child's PC activity. Parental Controls & Filtering.