Being a parent of preteen or teen children can be very rewarding, but it can also have its challenges. One of those challenges is when kids start using computers.
WEBSITE: http://sourceforge.net/projects/skope/ Computers can be powerful and important tools for research and learning in education, however they also introduce some dangers. Between online bullying, predators, and all of the other online dangers that kids face online these days, it's important for parents to keep a close eye on the activities that take place on those computers.
Monitoring your child's activity on a computer isn't always easy. Constantly monitoring a computer in real-time takes up a lot of the computer's resources, and could degrade its performance. There are also questions and concerns a lot of parents have regarding what some consider to be invading the privacy of one's own children.
One interesting solution for this is open source computer monitoring software called Skope. This software is focused on surveillance only when it's absolutely necessary, such as when there is activity going on that parents identify as potentially dangerous.
Using Skope Computer Monitoring Software for Peace of Mind
Most software on the market that actively monitors computers and captures screenshots of activity is usually fairly expensive. However, you can find Skope on SourceForge, and download it onto your child's computer right now.
When you first install the software, the initial thing you need to do is set the password. This is the parental password that the child using the computer won't know - this is so the software can't be disabled.
Enter Skope Password
Then, to set up the software, all you really need to do is go through various keyword options that you want to set up in the computer monitoring software to trigger the surveillance action. To do this, from the main screen, you just click on the "Keywords" button, and then click on "Add" to start adding keywords.
Entering Skope Keywords
The keyword entry window lets you choose the phrase that you want the software to monitor for. When the software "sees" that your child has typed that phrase, it will trigger a series of screenshots with a delay between each screenshot. You can configure the delay and the number of screenshots on this screen.
This is useful for parents, because if a child is typing certain types of words like "stupid", "hate" or similar words, it could signify bullying activity on a social network or in instant messaging. The software will capture screenshots and reveal whether that activity is taking place.
Choosing Skope Keywords
The keyword screen will show a summary of all of the words you've entered for the monitoring software to watch for. Keep in mind that this is also where you would enter in words like curses or other inappropriate words that you want to know when your child types. This will also essentially monitor their web browsing by keeping an eye on what words they search for.
All Skope Keywords
Once you're done, whenever the software is started, Skope will be running in the taskbar and monitoring computer use. Whenever you want to see what kind of activity has been going on, all you have to do is launch Skope and you'll see the main monitoring screen.
Skope Main Screenn
You can control how the software runs - showing or hiding its activity from your child if you like. To do this, just click the "Interface" button. Here, you'll find options where you can actually hide the tray icon and hide warnings so that no one even realizes the software is running on the computer at all. This can be very useful if you have tech-savvy kids that are likely to try and figure out a way to remove any sort of monitoring software that you place on the computer.
Customize Notifications
If you do enable notifications, every time the software enables screenshot computer surveillance, the child will see a notification pop-up alerting them that they've triggered the surveillance software.
Skope Main Screen
This can actually be a great deterrent. By alerting your kids that when they act or behave a certain way online, you're going to know about it, it can quickly change that behavior. They will be much more careful how they use the computer and how they interact with friends and others on the Internet.
When the system takes screenshots after any inappropriate activities take place, you can review those screenshots by clicking on the "SkopeShot Log" button on the main screen.
Reviewing Screenshots
You can save those screenshots to review them by clicking on the "Save" button and either opening them right on that computer, or saving them to a USB memory stick to review them somewhere else.
Saving Screenshots
Another nice feature of the Skope software is that it actually keeps a full keystroke log entry every day. You can review the keyboard activity for a particular day by going into the keystroke log and choosing the day where you want to review the activity. You'll see everything typed into the computer that day in the pane to the right.
Keylog Entries
A few minor drawbacks to the software is that that the keylog entry isn't 100 percent accurate all of the time. Sometimes it doesn't capture the right keystrokes, however it captures a large majority of keyboard activity - certainly enough to see what your child has been up to on that computer.
Additionally, another minor observation is that the aesthetics of the software interface isn't quite professional level. Some of the font types, font colors and background choices are not quite spot on - but setting that aside, the features and value that the software brings to the computer monitoring task is significant enough to override those minor drawbacks.
Whether used in the home or in the classroom, Skope does the job that it sets out to do in monitoring a child's computer behavior and keeping them safe on the Internet.
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