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sunnydeebee

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2008
1
0
Hey guys, my son has a macbook pro and I would like to know his online activities and the e-mails that he sends and receives. The problem with this is he loves his mac a lot and he is always on it. I do not want him to know that I'm "invading his privacy", but I would like make sure he's not doing anything dangerous and inappropiate. I'd like to view his website history, and find a way to crack his email account password. He uses firefox and safari but he clears the history everytime he finishes with his surfing. That's the reason why I want to go on with this. My first question is, is there any way that I can view his history even after he clears it? same with safari..he turns on private browsing..is there a way around private browsing without removing the option? secondly, my son uses gmail and I've tried using keychain access to view the saved passwords, but it doesn't show up because keychain says he doesn't save it. However, I have seen him just click on gmail and the inbox pages appears. what can I do to retrieve his password other than keychain? I've searched firefox password option which does a similar thing as keychain. but on the mac, that option is not available? or is it just hidden? is there a way I can get around all of this? Lastly, I would like to purchase/ download some parental software that will act as a keylogger that sends me his keystrokes to my email. do you guys know of any that is quick to install, and VERY stealthy as in no lag, no signs of it running or history of the program being installed? I can't really use those physical keyloggers because it's a laptop and its very noticable. because of the limited time I have alone on his mac, I need to install the keylogger quickly. thanks for all your help guys.
 
There are some threads about how to do this stuff -- search around. However, I'm more concerned with your parenting. You shouldn't have to sneak around to monitor your child's behavior. If you're concerned about his surfing habits you should confront him directly. If you don't like what he's doing online you shouldn't let him online. If you don't trust him with a computer you shouldn't have given him his own computer.

Even if you manage to install all this stuff on his computer and monitor his behavior, you're headed towards a blow-up, either when he finds out you've been sneaking around behind his back and don't trust him, or when you learn what he's been doing and confront him about that.
 
i dont think you should be telling a dad, how to parent his own children!!!!
its his son and its his decision.

then again u do make a valid point
confront him and ask him why are u clearing your history?
he must be doing something he doesnt want you to know about.

i have no idea about programs for this and stuff.

im fourteen and i wouldnt want people knowing what im going on, even though most of it isnt bad or anything:p
but we need privacy:)
aha
:apple:

good luck(Y)
 
As said above, this is no place to tell people how to parent their children. But that said, I have seen this type of situation blow up in the face of both parent and child.

I suggest asking what is going on and try to get it out of him before snooping around. Snooping should be a last resort. I am sure there are remote key loggers etc. out there, but if your son is not keeping passwords saved and clearing history, I wouldn't put it passed him that he will notice something is up.
 
I'm not gonna tell you what to do, I'm just gonna tell you what I'd do.

Get a keylogger. You can get one that will log all keystrokes and organize them into the correct format and then forward them to your e-mail.
 
The one occasion my parents did something a sneaky as this, I was about 14 at the time. I lost all respect for them, for a long time. The next time they were concerned they had an open and honest conversation with me and found out what they needed to know and everyone was much happier.
 
Get a keylogger. You can get one that will log all keystrokes and organize them into the correct format and then forward them to your e-mail.

I'd lose all respect for my parents if they did something like that.
 
Spying on your son won't make you change his habits, if anything it'll piss him right off and he'll go on and do worse. If you did that to me, and I found out, you'd get a swift kick in the groin and I'd spit in your face a few times, calling you obscenities while I'm at it. If you can't talk up front with your son, your relationship has a lot more problems than web surfing habits.

Don't want him to access stuff on the internet? Don't give him internet.

Don't want him to hide computer stuff from you? What's he doing with a computer then?

I'm not up to anything bad, yet I've always taken the habit of clearing my cache and history when I leave a computer, for the sake of keeping my files clean of useless stuff, what tells you your son isn't simply doing that?
 
While I don't agree with your methods, I will attempt to answer your question unlike the previous posters. I use blazing tools Perfect Keylogger. But, not for the usual reasons. I have Password1 so that anyone that uses my computer is protected from any 'evil doers' attempting to steal information. However, I have PKeylogger set so I receive an email every day and I can see keystrokes and screenshots so if my computer were to ever be stolen, I could find out who is using it and what they're doing. Hopefully this method would pay off if my computer were to be unfortunately stolen.
 
The title of this thread "help with parental control" is a bit misleading, IMO. To me, parental control means applying restrictions openly (not in an underhand manner) as you do with any other area of parenting: If you have concerns that your son's internet activities may be outside of what you consider appropriate, then install some internet filtering software that prevents the activity. If he's doing nothing wrong then it won't affect him at all. If he is, then you can discuss your concerns openly with him and explain why you have restricted his access. However, allowing him carte blanche to do anything he likes but with you spying on him without his knowing just seems the wrong way to go about this and won't achieve what you want in the end.
 
Spying on your son won't make you change his habits, if anything it'll piss him right off and he'll go on and do worse. If you did that to me, and I found out, you'd get a swift kick in the groin and I'd spit in your face a few times, calling you obscenities while I'm at it. If you can't talk up front with your son, your relationship has a lot more problems than web surfing habits.

Don't want him to access stuff on the internet? Don't give him internet.

Don't want him to hide computer stuff from you? What's he doing with a computer then?

I'm not up to anything bad, yet I've always taken the habit of clearing my cache and history when I leave a computer, for the sake of keeping my files clean of useless stuff, what tells you your son isn't simply doing that?

I never had to keep my parents outta my business.. but IF IT HAPPENED TO ME:

There's a much better method, boot up the system with the System disk, change the root password, so the folks can't log in. Then install the Apple's Firmware Protection utility

20080321-rsn8fs43fye9xdu6jcurjp5gc5.jpg


- this will protect others from booting up the Mac via a alternative drive or partition without a password...
If I was the kid, I'd love to see the folks trying to hack in... hahaha :D

The only way to remove this protect is through the administrator... er.. that would be me!
 
I'd lose all respect for my parents if they did something like that.

As you may, but that is not what he's asking. This isn't the Dr. Phil Forum. The OP is asking about how to monitor his son's activity. Answer the question or don't answer it. But don't get late afternoon talk-show host on the OP.

While I don't agree with your methods, I will attempt to answer your question unlike the previous posters. I use blazing tools Perfect Keylogger. But, not for the usual reasons. I have Password1 so that anyone that uses my computer is protected from any 'evil doers' attempting to steal information. However, I have PKeylogger set so I receive an email every day and I can see keystrokes and screenshots so if my computer were to ever be stolen, I could find out who is using it and what they're doing. Hopefully this method would pay off if my computer were to be unfortunately stolen.

+1
 
As others have said, a keylogger is your probably your best option.

People...Why do you feel the need to question other people's parenting? Until you have walked a mile in someone's shoes their choices for such things are never up for debate. This happens on every single one of these threads. Chill :)

Your child, living under your roof, living off your resources...its quite simple, your choice how to parent them.
 
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