Any Good Keyloggers for Parental Control Purposes?

[gamestriker]

My mother is switching to mac soon, mostly likely an iMac to use as a family computer for her and my youger sister. She likes what sees so far especially in parental controls. However, she wants to be able to keep tabs on my younger sister to make she isn't going to places or saying things she shouldn't be on the web; she wants a second layer of security (she worries that she can get around things parental controls because she is very computer savvy). I figured a keylogger would be the best thing because we could keep track of everything she types on the mac. Does anyone know any good (free) keyloggers for mac?

I appreciate the help.

 

[The General]

A little invasive, don't you think? I don't care how old your sister is, that's not right. Not right at all.

 

[dukebound85]

A little invasive, don't you think? I don't care how old your sister is, that's not right. Not right at all.

um why. if the parent is paying the internet bill and the child is a minor, the parent has all the right in the world to monitor the childs actions. the parent has the right to know about thier childs doings on the web just like some companies have with their employees.

 

[GaseousPlatypus]

How about better parenting?

 

[calculus]

How about better parenting?

Well you know sometimes parenting is a difficult thing. It can be hard to strike the right balance between independence and making sure they are safe.

 

[Josh]

um why. if the parent is paying the internet bill and the child is a minor, the parent has all the right in the world to monitor the childs actions. the parent has the right to know about thier childs doings on the web just like some companies have with their employees.

There's a distinct difference between monitoring one's actions and downright "snooping."

Keyloggers are not "parental contols." They don't block or stop access to anything. What good is it to know the child typed in porn URLS if he/she can still go to the site? Just so you can say 'Ha! Got ya!" and yell at them later?

That's along the lines of refusing to hire a babysitter as long as you have a psychic to rely your child's thoughts to you 24/7.

Block the sites you don't want the child using, that's parental control.

 

[n-abounds]

I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Better to completely invade your child's privacy than let them strike up a conversation with a pedophile and whatever happens afterwards...

 

[Josh]

I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Better to completely invade your child's privacy than let them strike up a conversation with a pedophile and whatever happens afterwards...

A keylogger will only tell you that your child had that conversation, not prevent it from happening.

Blocking chat rooms and access to messaging apps is a far more effective solution to preventing such a thing.

Basicaly "Sure, talk to strangers, just take this microphone so I can hear what you say." VS "Don't ever talk to strangers, and stay away from people you don't know."

Which do you prefer?

 

[n-abounds]

I would tell my child not to talk to strangers on the internet. But you would never be sure whether or not they have- there are blogs and other ways of getting around blocked chat-rooms and banning AIM. Logging keystrokes makes sure that they don't.

 

[Josh]

Logging keystrokes makes sure that they don't.

How does recording the keys pressed stop a child from visiting certain sites or chat rooms?

It doesn't at all.

The only thing accomplished is that you will know the child *has* visited the site; since the key here is *has* - what good did the keylogger do in stopping it?

So now the parent knows the child visits the site - what is the next step in making sure it does not happen again?

Whatever that next step is should have been step 1 before the keylogger idea was even thought of.

 

[Aperture]

The OP asked for an application, try to keep on topic.

If not, wasteland?

 

[gamestriker]

Admin, please delete this thread.

I didn't want to start a controversy or having someone judge us; I just wanted suggestion for an application.

My apologies for wasting your time.

 

[dukebound85]

There's a distinct difference between monitoring one's actions and downright "snooping."

Keyloggers are not "parental contols." They don't block or stop access to anything. What good is it to know the child typed in porn URLS if he/she can still go to the site? Just so you can say 'Ha! Got ya!" and yell at them later?

That's along the lines of refusing to hire a babysitter as long as you have a psychic to rely your child's thoughts to you 24/7.

Block the sites you don't want the child using, that's parental control.

so yea dont know that your child is visiting porn sites......way smart there.
the nsa records every phone call (maybe not the content yet but very possible they already are) we make so whats your point again??

it is completely legal for parents to snoop on thier kids while they are minors. glad you are (will be) such an involved parent and never monitor their actions.

by your logic, what good is it that a gps on a car (which is legal for parents to put on their kids cars) may let the parent know their kids are running off in the middle of the night or doing drugs or whatnot. i guess its just better not to know right lol




as far as apps go i have no idea

 

[ormandj]

so yea dont know that your child is visiting porn sites......way smart there.
the nsa records every phone call (maybe not the content yet but very possible they already are) we make so whats your point again??

it is completely legal for parents to snoop on thier kids while they are minors. glad you are (will be) such an involved parent and never monitor their actions.

by your logic, what good is it that a gps on a car (which is legal for parents to put on their kids cars) may let the parent know their kids are running off in the middle of the night or doing drugs or whatnot. i guess its just better not to know right lol




as far as apps go i have no idea

Keylogging is crossing the line, that's not good parenting, it's laziness. You don't need to worry about your kids doing terrible things if you've raised them well. If your kids are so out of control you have to listen in to all their phone calls, record their every keystroke, and monitor every second of conversation they have while at school (it's all the same) - then you have MUCH larger issues at hand. I'm not in a position to judge your situation, but I will say keylogging isn't a good solution. It'll just really upset the girl and make her "fight" against the "oppression" even more. It'll also make her feel untrusted, which will in turn make her less likely to be trustworthy (why keep words when people think you break them regardless.) Yadda yadda yadda - I could go on forever - but the best policy would simply be to sit down with the girl and have a nice long talk about what is acceptable and what isn't - if she's been raised well, that should be all that's needed. A quick "what are you up to" while walking by every now and then wouldn't hurt, either, without being invasive/giving feelings of distrust. If the girl has problems already, and can't be trusted to follow her word, then other problems exist that need to be addressed, not keylogging.

 

[Josh]

so yea dont know that your child is visiting porn sites......way smart there.
the nsa records every phone call (maybe not the content yet but very possible they already are) we make so whats your point again??

it is completely legal for parents to snoop on thier kids while they are minors. glad you are (will be) such an involved parent and never monitor their actions.

by your logic, what good is it that a gps on a car (which is legal for parents to put on their kids cars) may let the parent know their kids are running off in the middle of the night or doing drugs or whatnot. i guess its just better not to know right lol




as far as apps go i have no idea

Wow. 0/10.

Becuase the NSA, in a highly contraversial and widely frowned upon case, eavesdropped on citizens, that makes it OK to do on children?

Sorry to say, but if every crooked thing the gov't did was seen as OK for parents to do, I'd be quite worried about the future of children.

Again - you're not realizing the distinct difference between STOPPING kids from viewing bad content by blocking access to it and just FINDING out about it after the fact.

I don't need to keylog my (non-existing) kids to find out what they are visiting. I'd block what I don't want them to, and not have to worry about it.

Once your kid visits porn or whatever bad site, the damage is done. Using a keylogger to tell you that has happened isn't going to reverse it or provide you with a way to convince your child it never happened.

And what kind of poor parent installs GPS in a car to track their kids movement? For one, a good parent wouldn't have to worry about their children "running off in the night to do drugs" and for two... be a damn parent and take the keys! Don't just be lazy, ignore it, and rely on technology to tattletale on your children.

Have people no intellect anymore?

 

[mrichmon]

My mother is switching to mac soon, mostly likely an iMac to use as a family computer for her and my youger sister. She likes what sees so far especially in parental controls. However, she wants to be able to keep tabs on my younger sister to make she isn't going to places or saying things she shouldn't be on the web; she wants a second layer of security (she worries that she can get around things parental controls because she is very computer savvy). I figured a keylogger would be the best thing because we could keep track of everything she types on the mac. Does anyone know any good (free) keyloggers for mac?

The only way around the parental controls in OS X is if the child has access to an administrator password. The parental controls are based on Unix group membership permissions. The same membership security controls are used to prevent users on all Unix systems from accessing administrator controls and parts of the system that they don't have authorization to use. This security model has been in use since 1973 when Unix was first developed.

It is important to remember that the child could use the OS X install disk to reset the administrator password on a system to a known value and then get around the parental controls.

A keylogger also is not guaranteed to keep track of everything the user types on the computer. There are various ways around key loggers. The most basic way is to open a text editor, create a document that contains the alphabet, and then cut and paste the letters that you need to build up a URL for instance.

 

[Eldentistfuturo]

The only way around the parental controls in OS X is if the child has access to an administrator password. The parental controls are based on Unix group membership permissions. The same membership security controls are used to prevent users on all Unix systems from accessing administrator controls and parts of the system that they don't have authorization to use. This security model has been in use since 1973 when Unix was first developed.

It is important to remember that the child could use the OS X install disk to reset the administrator password on a system to a known value and then get around the parental controls.

A keylogger also is not guaranteed to keep track of everything the user types on the computer. There are various ways around key loggers. The most basic way is to open a text editor, create a document that contains the alphabet, and then cut and paste the letters that you need to build up a URL for instance.

If a parent was smart enough to use a keylogger, they would know to look for a lot of apple+x, apple+c, and apple+v, repeated.

 

[bluedevil14]

The only way around the parental controls in OS X is if the child has access to an administrator password. The parental controls are based on Unix group membership permissions. The same membership security controls are used to prevent users on all Unix systems from accessing administrator controls and parts of the system that they don't have authorization to use. This security model has been in use since 1973 when Unix was first developed.

It is important to remember that the child could use the OS X install disk to reset the administrator password on a system to a known value and then get around the parental controls.

A keylogger also is not guaranteed to keep track of everything the user types on the computer. There are various ways around key loggers. The most basic way is to open a text editor, create a document that contains the alphabet, and then cut and paste the letters that you need to build up a URL for instance.

or she could just type a few letters of what ever she wanted to hide then open up text edit and go agjha;ldksgjl;akdjgl;k then type a few more then morejagalkdjfg and so on. That way all the shows up on the key logger is ahjfgklashg;kldg. Some people may say that then thats obvious thats shes up to no good, but the parent cannot prove anything because all she or he sees is akhjgldsgjas;gj

 

[bearbo]

i agree with the "better parenting" is more important than anything

if you need to have keylogging to keep an eye on your kid, why let them have the computer at all? it's not like it's gonna be the only computer your kid has access to, and if s/he has access to another "safe" computer, s/he probably do all the stuff that you might not want to know there, which in turn, destroyed the process of the keylogging AND not achieve the end result

where as on the other hand, if you and the kid have a better relationship, a more trustworthy one... that goes a long way...

and by the way, how old is the kid needed for supervision?

wouldn't something along the line of "cant use the computer after certain time" do?
i just think that keylogging destroy all trust between the parents and the kids, and from that point on, the kid will feel like if they did something bad and the parent didn't find out, the "won a point"... where as if there's trust between them, then the kid would feel bad if s/he did something "bad"

 

[nakedguy]

No one as ever kept a keylogger on me and I survived the Internet. That's invasive and I would never do that to a sister of mine despite her age. It's wrong. Parenting and morally wise.

I would be ashame of asking for such an application.

What the heck... My nephew has 8 years old and he visits the whole wide web with no controls. I get near him once im a while to check out if he is visiting something I think he should not access... That's caring, not controlling it the other way around.

Someone said to close this thread and I think we should go that route.

 

[koswo]

Does anyone know any good (free) keyloggers for mac?

Hint: looking for software for your Mac, have a look at MacUpdate.

 

[dukebound85]

Wow. 0/10.

Becuase the NSA, in a highly contraversial and widely frowned upon case, eavesdropped on citizens, that makes it OK to do on children?

Sorry to say, but if every crooked thing the gov't did was seen as OK for parents to do, I'd be quite worried about the future of children.

Again - you're not realizing the distinct difference between STOPPING kids from viewing bad content by blocking access to it and just FINDING out about it after the fact.

I don't need to keylog my (non-existing) kids to find out what they are visiting. I'd block what I don't want them to, and not have to worry about it.

Once your kid visits porn or whatever bad site, the damage is done. Using a keylogger to tell you that has happened isn't going to reverse it or provide you with a way to convince your child it never happened.

And what kind of poor parent installs GPS in a car to track their kids movement? For one, a good parent wouldn't have to worry about their children "running off in the night to do drugs" and for two... be a damn parent and take the keys! Don't just be lazy, ignore it, and rely on technology to tattletale on your children.

Have people no intellect anymore?

i know what youre saying but you are so close minded that you cant see the benefits of knowing what your kids are doing. dont you think that would help the parent notice theres a problem and take further action. i mean you cant anticipate everything.

im sure you and myself have done many things that our parents had no clue to as what we did at one point or another........so how are you suppose to catch that?

your philosophy is akin to airports banning objects once those objects have exposed a weakness. no forsight in what could be done next.

so if your kid was contemplating suicide and expressed him/herself via a blog wouldnt you like to find out (even by means of a keylogger by golly) and try to offer help.

once again i suppose you would just block that avenue of expressing oneself and may jump to the point (as in suicide) sooner since no one will listen. how bad would you feel if you had the knowledge you could have caught on to something like this earlier.


you do know children do not have the same rights to privacy as adults right when it concerns parents..........ever try to think of the reason behind that?

you obviously do not see my point of view which makes arguing with you pointless. i think your way is nice but you need to use it in conjuction with other things be it keyloggers if necessary

 

[Josh]

i know what youre saying but you are so close minded that you cant see the benefits of knowing what your kids are doing. dont you think that would help the parent notice theres a problem and take further action. i mean you cant anticipate everything.

im sure you and myself have done many things that our parents had no clue to as what we did at one point or another........so how are you suppose to catch that?

Did the things that you and I have done ruin us as people? No. Like everyone else growing up, we made mistakes. But we were able to make those mistakes and we learned from them.

so if your kid was contemplating suicide and expressed him/herself via a blog wouldnt you like to find out (even by means of a keylogger by golly) and try to offer help.

If you had a trusting relationship with your child (one that would only exist without the use of invasive "big-brother" tactics) perhaps your child wouldn't need hide his/her feelings behind a blog and would be open with you about their feelings?

The second your start monitoring your chilld's every keystroke, every movement via GPS, etc, you're telling them that you absolutely do not trust them.

With that kind of relationship, which is a very poor, ineffective, and harmful one, no wonder the child would resort to blogs - they'd have no one else they could trust.

once again i suppose you would just block that avenue of expressing oneself and may jump to the point (as in suicide) sooner since no one will listen. how bad would you feel if you had the knowledge you could have caught on to something like this earlier.

Spying on your children is not being someone who "listens." If you had established trust as a parent, the child wouldn't have the problem of not having someone who would listen.

By eavesdropping them and shutting them out to a place only blogs exist, then listening in onto the bad things they may be blogging, you are not only learning about the problem, you are causing it.

Typical authoriatian scheme. Create a problem, witness the problem, then propose a solution to the problem in an attempt to gain trust.

Works for dictators and corrupt governments, not so good for parents.

you do know children do not have the same rights to privacy as adults right when it concerns parents..........ever try to think of the reason behind that?

Because too many children were raised in zero-trust environments, and as such grew up into adults that couldn't trust anyone either.

There is a difference between blind privacy and mutual trust. It is a significant difference.

you obviously do not see my point of view which makes arguing with you pointless. i think your way is nice but you need to use it in conjuction with other things be it keyloggers if necessary

Of course I don't see your point of view - it's absurd, developmentally harmful, and ineffecient for the goal in context.

If you notice, there are several others here who are opposed to your view as well. Please take that for what it's worth.

 

[e-coli]

Uh...wow. This seems a little invasive. How about just trusting that you've raised your child correctly, and encouraging them to talk to you if there's a problem.

I hardly think spying is a healthy way to go.

 

[miles01110]

This thread needs to be closed.

If you all want to debate the pros and cons of a parent wishing to monitor their child's internet activity in their own home, why don't you do it in the community discussion?