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Do You Ever Read Your Child's emails?

Have Your Kids Infected Your Computer?

Are Your Kids Spying on You?

Rape Victim Identified Rapist on MySpace

When protecting their children from internet predators or unsafe behavior, the first step for parents is to get over their fear of monitoring them. Parents must learn how to monitor internet activity. It is a parent's job to protect their children and foster a healthy, safe lifestyle. It is a parent's job to watch over them and be there to correct potential bad decisions that are all too common in a teenager's life. Different parents may choose different degrees of monitoring, but all parents need to deploy some strategy to monitor online behavior. What level of monitoring a parent may choose will depend on the parent, the child, and the relationship. One thing should be clear, it is OK to monitor your children. If you feel uneasy about this or you think it is wrong to monitor myspace activity for example , you may some day regret it. Read some of the headlines on the sides of this page, many of the teens were good kids just being kids .

For more information on the debate of "to spy or not to spy," feel free to read two compelling articles written exclusively for SpyOnYourKids.Net right here.

There are two basic things a parent needs to protect their child from on the internet: predators and bad behavior. The first one is obvious. The second one is not so much caused by the internet, but is divulged through the teen's use of the internet. You may not know that your child is engaged in sex, drinking, or drugs, but chances are you can find out through their MySpace pages. The teen may post blatant photos (see some examples that may surprise you), or the content may be cryptic and difficult for a parent to understand (see some good lingo examples).

Remember, it is a parents job to watch over their children and protect them. Teens, by nature, do make bad decisions. Straight "A" students heavily active in sports and study have become victims. Why? Because they just didn't realize that what they were posting online intrigued a predator. They weren't aware that that predator could "connect the dots" to determine where the teen lived, worked, and played.

LOW LEVEL: MySpace Internet Monitoring

This strategy for MySpace safety is geared toward parents that are quite sure they have an honest and open relationship with their child. The parent(s) are sure that their teen would not hide anything from them and would be open to sharing their online activity with their parents.

Caveat: Parents, whether they can admit it or not, are usually gullible to this scenario. It feels good to think that you have this type of relationship with your teen, but all too often you don't. The teen may be a great kid that does little wrong, but remember that most teens that get into trouble were once good kids. Step by Step Low Level Internet Monitoring Strategy can be read by clicking here.

HIGH LEVEL: MySpace Spying

The high level strategy is for those parents that are in one or more of the following situations:

• Their child will not allow them to see their MySpace profile
• Their child is hiding the fact that they have a MySpace profile
• The child has been in situations in the past that involve dishonesty (so even if they allow the parents to see a MySpace profile, it may not be their only MySpace profile)
• The teen is suspected of bad behavior, such as drug use, drinking or sex

Warning: Always read and abide by the MySpace terms of service agreement.

High Level MySpace Spying Strategy: Spy on Your Kids