******UPDATE*******

Just an update for anyone interested, I downloaded Qustodio and uploaded it on my nephews computer. It seems to be exactly what she wanted. It allows for her to control access to certain apps, or set time limits per day on something like Minecraft. Also blocks all kinds of stuff, and she gets daily summaries of his searches. If you need something for your kids PC, this seems to be a good option.

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Hey gang,

My sister has a 12 year old son that has been having some hard times lately. Long story short, he has diagnosed depression and bi-polar. She found on his internet history some websites about killing himself, she confronted him, and now he deletes his history. Yes he is in therapy and on medications.

That being said, she wants to monitor everything he is doing on his computer. Right now with what is going on in the world, he is on his computer all day with school work. I think she said they do 3+ hours of video calls, and he has a good hour or two of homework each day. She is also working, and cant hover over his every move.

This is a computer savy kid, he found a password for their router admin access and prioritized his gaming and gave everyone else 1MB download speed max.

It would be a bonus if this program was hidden, but we dont want him to be able to disable. She is fine with paying for this program, we dont need a free option. She wants to monitor his internet history, programs he uses (like games), and any chatting he does with his classmates or even in the games he plays. Not sure what is possible, but the more info the better.

Thank you for your help! I did a google search and found 30+ programs, no idea which ones are good and which ones to avoid.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hunter62,

Mac or PC? Remember, if he has an iPad or iPhone he can slide right around the controls.

Therapy, counseling, meds.

Hobbies, interests, and friends.

Those are the solutions. Without a plan, monitoring is only going to make it worse.

Thank you!

It is a windows 10 PC. He does have an iPad and an iPhone as well. I think we can set restrictions on that via the apple settings, need to look into that.

@aeteocles:
He is in therapy and has been for a while, he is also on meds. It has been getting out of hand the last 2 weeks, mainly because his coping mechanisms like playing sports and friends are not available right now with all that is happening.

You can look into Qustodio.

In todays world it depends how tech savy you child is.

Qustodio works on all the platforms so it is harder to get around.

It is a yearly subscription.

I have not used it, we use enterprise softare at work to do this.

quote:

Originally posted by sig2392:
You can look into Qustodio.

In todays world it depends how tech savy you child is.

Qustodio works on all the platforms so it is harder to get around.

It is a yearly subscription.

I have not used it, we use enterprise softare at work to do this.

This looks like a great option. Bonus is you can put it on is PC and iPhone. Thank you!

Hunter62, timely post. We had a little incident with our daughter today and needed advice like this as well. Thank you!

It has been about 15 years since we used an online monitoring service and I don’t remember the outfit (if it’s even still available) but a quick search came up with this possible option...

https://www.bark.us/

Good Luck!

I see it has been mentioned, but https://www.qustodio.com/en/ is great. Been using it for 2 young teens for a year after they started virtual school.

We use to to ensure virtual school time is "school time" and not "goof off time", but it can give you complete computer website history, etc.

Allows full control and monitoring of the devices managed. Limit screen time, apps, websites, etc. You can give a daily limit of internet time and set daily times to use it (so they aren't up all night). You can change it from your smartphone from anywhere (I'll be on a work job and get a text they are done with homework and requesting access to a favorite website, etc).

Macs also have a 'parental controls' setup which can be used as well, but isn't nearly as easy to use - I tried that for awhile but its not nearly as easy / user friendly.

For phones and tablets, I use https://ourpact.com/ separately because if you use all devices on Qustodio, they all have the same limits. And I wanted to keep tablets "app / games / text only" without websurfing and computers for school and internet. I tried managing them all from one app and it just didn't work as well, so that is what works for us.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
I see it has been mentioned, but https://www.qustodio.com/en/ is great. Been using it for 2 young teens for a year after they started virtual school.

We use to to ensure virtual school time is "school time" and not "goof off time", but it can give you complete computer website history, etc.

Allows full control and monitoring of the devices managed. Limit screen time, apps, websites, etc. You can give a daily limit of internet time and set daily times to use it (so they aren't up all night). You can change it from your smartphone from anywhere (I'll be on a work job and get a text they are done with homework and requesting access to a favorite website, etc).

Macs also have a 'parental controls' setup which can be used as well, but isn't nearly as easy to use - I tried that for awhile but its not nearly as easy / user friendly.

For phones and tablets, I use https://ourpact.com/ separately because if you use all devices on Qustodio, they all have the same limits. And I wanted to keep tablets "app / games / text only" without websurfing and computers for school and internet. I tried managing them all from one app and it just didn't work as well, so that is what works for us.

Thank you! I read a lot of reviews on qustodio, it looks pretty solid for a PC. The iOS leaves something to be desired, but maybe better than nothing.

Just an update for anyone interested, I downloaded Qustodio and uploaded it on my nephews computer. It seems to be exactly what she wanted. It allows for her to control access to certain apps, or set time limits per day on something like Minecraft. Also blocks all kinds of stuff, and she gets daily summaries of his searches. If you need something for your kids PC, this seems to be a good option.

If the kid is computer savvy, you'll need to password protect the bios with a very strong password and turn off the ability to boot from a USB device or media card. The kid could boot a copy of Linux directly from either of those and bypass the regular OS and monitor software you have.

A 12 year old shouldn’t be having unsupervised computer access in the first place IMO.

Is this in his room? It needs to be put in an area like a living room and he only gets supervised, scheduled access to it.

Giving a kid unfettered access to the entire internet in their room is asking for big trouble.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
A 12 year old shouldn’t be having unsupervised computer access in the first place IMO.

Is this in his room? It needs to be put in an area like a living room and he only gets supervised, scheduled access to it.

Giving a kid unfettered access to the entire internet in their room is asking for big trouble.

With that, I would totally agree. A problem with phone internet access is a whole other issue. Internet access needs to be removed from his phone if he has it. Can be done with the data provider.

I would have a scan done by a natural doctor for the boy. Might just be a medical condition that can be cleared up with no prescriptions?

I work with kids like this. I think a discussion with his psychologist should be the first step. You are stepping into trust issues here with monitoring software. Your efforts would be better spent encouraging him to spend time with friends in a real world setting. A boarding school I consulted with years ago had the FBI and Department of Defense show up because kids had gotten into sensitive sites. Kids spent an inordinate amount of time bypassing the elaborate firewall to access porn. So in short, forget about the monitoring stuff.

Take the kid hunting or fishing. He might like it. BTW diagnosing a kid that age with Bipolar Disorder is suspect. I do this for a living so I am not just shooting in the dark. Medicaton should NEVER be the first line of treatment.