A Better Way to Spy

 

 

Some people will upgrade to the newly released Microsoft Vista because they think it's cool to have the latest and greatest computer stuff. To them we say, good luck, and we're not at all jealous that you've got the disposable income to buy not only a new operating system, but most likely a new computer, as well (http://tinyurl.com/ywavbr).

 

But when the rest of us finally decide make the change, it's probably not going to be for Vista's fancy graphics or networking capabilities. The biggest selling point in Vista for most people is going to be something that kids - the arbiters of cool - would probably find very uncool indeed: Parental Controls (http://tinyurl.com/39xefv).

 

Built into the new operating system is nothing less than a sophisticated spying system that gives parents what they really want when it comes to their cyberized kids: An easy to use method allowing you to see what your kids do online, with the information delivered in an easy to understand report, easy set up and administration, and tight, flexible, and transparent (i.e. the kids don't know they're being watched) controls. Until now, you had to install several third party programs to get this kind of monitoring power, and pay often hefty subscription charges for the services. The new Parental Controls provide an incentive - the most important one, for many people - to pay the hundreds of shekels to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista. Even if your current computer can't take advantage of some of VIsta's glitzier features, like the Aero graphics system (http://tinyurl.com/2r3yta), you'll still be able to take advantage of Parental Controls.

 

 

That's right: You can install a version of the final Microsoft Parental Control on your XP-equipped computer, for free. Vista, having been under development for several years, released certain aspects of the final OS piecemeal as beat versions, before all the technologies were wrapped up into the final release that Microsoft began selling a couple of weeks ago. The Parental Controls beta is still available, and you can sign up for it at http://tinyurl.com/2y5ae8. Once signed up, you can designate which users you want to monitor on your PC (each user must have their own separate account; see instructions at http://tinyurl.com/k6gve). You can set up various levels of monitoring for users and specify the criteria to avoid or report (obscene language, web chats, mature content, bomb making, etc.). You can also list specific sites you don't want the kids to surf to. When you want to check your kids' activity, you go to the Parental Control site (you link to it from the icon on your menu bar after installing the software).

 

 

 

As more Internet horror stories about predators and other such lowlifes emerge, fewer parents have qualms about "spying" on their kids using these kinds of programs. But is it really spying? The IMSafer people say no; "if you are using AIM, MSN or Yahoo for your IM client, you already have the ability to save the conversation to a text file and pretty much do whatever you want with it," IMSafer says. And the same holds true for Parental Control; all of the data about who surfs where is already on your PC, and implementing a tool to gather the data that is already there is smart, not invasive. Even if it could be considered a violation of individual constitutional rights, though, I think most people looking to protect their kids online would agree with my mother, who, when I used to protest against some policy that I didn't approve of, would tell me (in a rather loud voice), that "this is not a democracy!"