Hello everyone. My problem is that i know my son is on questionable websites. but he knows more about computers than i do, so he erases his web trails pretty well i guess. Is there some sort of program out there that i can buy that i can use to record whats happening on the computer so i can actually see where he is going. The main thing is i want it to be able to start up with windows without him knowing so i can check out the situation before the sneaky little kid figures a way around it lol. i'm just tired of the family computer getting slowed down all the time and i was told by the last guy who fixed my pc that "certain Websites" can cause the virus problems a lot of the time. so i want to either know he isnt going to those sites, or if i have to confront him about it, i don't want it to be without some proof.

Rather than spying on your son, why not educate him about life? He will look at that stuff regardless of whether he's using your computer or not. There's nothing to stop him from going to a friend's house, cyber cafe, or other location. And barring that, there's always books and magazines, just like in the good ol' days.

Assuming you're talking about sex sites, realize that sex is a part of life and a part of growing up. You can't be with your kid all the time so it's better to arm them with knowledge and hope they use wise judgement rather than shelter them for 18 years then spring them loose on society.

Not to mention the fact that, by doing what you suggest, not only are you intruding on the privacy of your son (such as there is when your a kid), but you're telling him you don't trust him. That, most often, just leads to trouble. When I was growing up, those were the kids who got into the most problems in school and life.

And yes, I am a parent, with two teenagers of my own. Plus, you need to remember: if your son is smart enough to hide his tracks, he's probably smart enough to look for keylogging software and other spying tools. Or, he could simply use an installation of Firefox on a thumbdrive which will keep his browsing habits off the main computer. Or he could use a Linux LiveCD and not even enter Windows to do his surfing.

Just like the RIAA and MPAA, the more you try to stop the behavior, the more you will drive it underground. If you're really concerned about what he does at home, move the computer into a common room of the house where he always has to worry about someone looking over his shoulder. That will be more effective than messing with spying software.

Finally, regarding the virus issue. Just use AVG, Avast, or another free anti-virus program and Spybot or similar anti-spyware program and run checks on a regular basis. Most viruses come from email attachments and files than they do from web sites.

Don't use Internet Explorer because of it's security issues (even with security updates); use Firefox, Opera, or even Google's Chrome.

It would be hard to spy on your son without him knowing about it, however there is filter software that I use that works really well. it called K9 Web Protection, it will allow you to control what websites are accessed. It can't be uninstalled without a password and if it is disabled by stopping the process in the task manager it will block the Internet completely. As long as you don't give him the password he will only be able to access what you allow him to. Remember to make sure that you block the proxy category as that can be used to bypass the filter.