How to use Family Cyber Alert
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Why is Family Cyber Alert an effective monitoring choice for parents committed to their children’s online safety?
Family Cyber Alert presents information about a child’s online activities to parents in a very user-friendly format that the typical non-technical PC user can be very comfortable with, and optionally, can alert a parent of specific dangerous online interactions taking place. This can include recording for your review websites visited, files downloaded, e-mail, chat and instant messaging content, keystrokes, keywords, PC screen shots. Additionally, Family Cyber Alert can block specific websites and application access.
Such a tool can also serve a more preemptive purpose. It will provide a general activity summary to give parents a better feel for the typical online activity of their children. This can be helpful in supporting a parent’s efforts in maintaining some ongoing dialogue with their children about online activities. It can also allow the parent to be aware of a change in online activity that may prompt closer inspection.
Children’s Online Safety vs. Privacy
When considering monitoring software, some parents wrestle with the issue of privacy vs. safety regarding their children’s online activities. Here are some considerations toward this debate:
As many Internet safety experts point out, children have already relinquished much of their privacy by entering and interacting in so public of a forum, where strangers have free access both to their personal information and to them.
As these strangers – predators among them - are so very easily invading our homes and reaching our children via the Internet, law enforcement officials are frustrated by some parents willingness to handicap their ability to protect their children and know what they are doing with whom, to be in the dark about personal information that strangers are seeing and responding to, by taking a privacy-first, hands-off approach.
The position taken by law enforcement officials and safety advocates is that with such serious ramifications, parents need to be taking a more proactive, safety-first approach to this problem. The truth is, these are very different times for parents and children alike.
Parents are consistently advised to educate their children on online safety and dangers, set rules for appropriate Internet use, and make them aware that their online activity will be monitored at the parents’ discretion.
With Family Cyber Alert, it is possible to monitor at some level and still respect privacy at another level; the flexibility of Family Cyber Alert allows the parent to decide what level of information they feel is appropriate for viewing and which monitoring devices and detail to turn on or off. It is not an all or nothing decision.
Some parents use Family Cyber Alert choose to monitor their children’s activity in much more detail, taking a more proactive safety-first approach. Other parents feel that some basic monitoring can co-exist with some level of privacy, and use Family Cyber Alert to make the base-level monitoring easy, to give them a quick review method of what types of activities their children are engaging in, and to alert them of any changed activity pattern that may warrant closer examination or discussion. They also rest easier knowing that additional activity detail can be available to them should any situation trigger their need for such.
Just as most parents want to know where their children are physically at all times and whom they are interacting with, the same holds true for cyberspace. Without the benefit of a tool such as Family Cyber Alert, cyberspace monitoring can be a much more difficult challenge. Even if only used in the event of a known threatening online situation, it is very valuable to be able to track your child’s whereabouts and interactions at that time of need.
Is a monitor different from a content filter?
Yes, the primary functions of a monitor are very different from those of a filter. Some confusion may stem from some media reports using the two terms interchangeably. Further confusing this is the fact that some filter products may also support some very limited monitoring functions, and Family Cyber Alert allows the user to block websites and applications which is more of a filtering function. Simply explained, a filter can block certain Internet content, but provides no visibility to the many online activities that it does not or cannot block. A monitor essentially records all PC and Internet activity detail, providing complete visibility to potentially unsafe activity and thereby enables more informed and more proactive involvement from parents regarding their children’s use of the Internet.
Do I need a monitor if I already have a filter installed?
Yes, use of a monitor will provide much more effective, comprehensive and proactive approach to your children’s online safety. Consensus among Internet Safety Experts, including those within the FBI whose focus is specifically on online predators, is that parents need to make it a priority to more closely monitor the online activity of their children. Concerns have been expressed that use of filters can in fact have the opposite effect, causing less diligent monitoring due to a false sense of security that use of a filter may provide to parents who are not fully informed about all online dangers. There are many potentially harmful online activities that filters do not in any way impact. The online monitoring capability as provided by Family Cyber Alert serves to better support a more robust online safety approach by parents that also includes education, open discussion, as well as direct, in-person monitoring when possible.
Internet Safety Experts point out that even the most sophisticated filter, continuously updated, has many gaps that allow children to find their way to unsafe Internet activity. Chatroom, instant messaging and e-mail activity along with new websites are examples of these gaps. These safety advocates suggest that a more engaged approach as enabled by Family Cyber Alert will go much further toward developing safe internet usage by children while keeping the parents more aware.
What limitations does a filter have for blocking inappropriate websites and content?
A filter is simply a list, a database of many websites classified into a particular category. With the millions of websites on the Internet, a filter product cannot accurately check and classify every website. Thousands of new web sites are created daily, including those with content inappropriate for children. Even the most diligent filter vendor is not able to keep up with this, let alone the home user who then has to update the filter on their PC on a regular basis. So you still need to set rules, teach your children what is appropriate and not, what is safe and what is not, and monitor their activity to truly be aware and of what they are doing online and truly establish a safer environment.
Additionally, each parent has their own personal views on what is appropriate or inappropriate for their children, which may depend in part on their age and maturity. What a filter blocks or doesn’t block will never fully match parental preferences and values.
And most importantly, remember that there are many potentially harmful online activities that filters do not in any way impact, including the methods by which online predators find, deceive and lure online children – through chat rooms, instant messaging and e-mail.
Why are sites such as MySpace.com getting so much attention and considered a risk to our youth?
Numerous recent news reports and other Internet safety discussions have highlighted MySpace.com, Facebook, and Xanga along with other similar online social networks for children, relative to online safety concerns of law enforcement officials, school officials, online safety experts and parents. Millions of children are posting very personal information on these very public sites; their postings are part diary, part photo album, with gossip, favorite music, pet peeves — sometimes even phone numbers and home addresses. And occasionally, revealing pictures.
Federal authorities believe that at least 500,000 to 750,000 predators are “on-line” on a daily basis, constantly combing through these blog sites, crawling around in Internet chat rooms and on-line dating services, pretending to be someone and something they’re not. (“Beware of Cyber stalkers”, MSNBC, Clint Van Zandt)
To guard against sexual predators or fraud, Internet security experts say, the first thing is to keep personal information off the Web. And personal information is the very first thing strangers see when they visit most home pages of online social network sites such as MySpace, one of the fasting-growing destinations on the Web. Internet security and law enforcement officials say the personal data publicly available on MySpace and similar networking sites, matched with innocent attitudes by youths, make the sites ripe for information-digging sexual predators. "It's scary because predators go through those profiles, too. They look at kids they want to target and they begin instant-messaging them, and they put them on their buddy lists so they know when they go online," stated Kent Gates, iSafe America Internet safety advocate. (“Teens Flock to MySpace” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/15/2006)
How will Parent’s Cyber Alert help a parent protect their child from any dangers associated with sites such as MySpace.com?
Family Cyber Alert empowers the parent to be more proactive by providing information about their children’s online activities. Examples of such information are:
- Websites visited including time website is active.
- E-mail alert when MySpace.com (or other sites) is accessed.
- Screenshots and keystrokes associated with MySpace activity.
- If a personal MySpace webpage is created, record this and provide direct access to this site for parental review of personal information posted.
- Elect to receive alert whenever specific personal information is typed, such as social security number, e-mail address, phone #, or other key words.
- Records of other online communications that may relate to an original MySpace interaction
- Block access to MySpace.com website if necessary.
Will my children know that they are being monitored? Should I let them know?
The monitor runs in the background and the PC user will not be aware. It is a matter of parental philosophy whether they discuss the monitoring with their children and incorporate that into an overall online safety approach to Internet use. Studies show and many online safety experts will agree that some disclosure of the monitoring activity can be helpful in supporting ongoing dialog between parents and children regarding safe use of the Internet, fostering greater trust and more responsible use. Ultimately it is the parent’s discretion as to what is appropriate for their home environment. Many law enforcement officials, other online safety experts and parents alike advocate a “Safety First” approach to this issue, taking the position that there is too much danger associated with kids online activity to allow such activity to go unmonitored.
How can a monitor help to build trust and respect privacy with my children?
First, it allows you to decide what level of monitoring is activated, allowing you to gain some added awareness of online activities, without monitoring every detail. Most online activity is harmless, with no need for you to see every word your child is writing to a friend. You very well may prefer not to have that level of awareness, using the monitor to keep an eye on more general usage, with just an alert when specific, potentially unsafe activity occurs. It’s a way to keep an eye out for potentially unsafe activity. The Family Cyber Alert reports may help you to be aware what amount of time your child spends with online chat rooms, online in general, etc. You can monitor online activities similar to how you might monitoring TV time, phone time, game time, and who they’re spending time with. If there is some curious change in the pattern of Internet activity, that may alert the parent to have some discussion with the child to understand what has changed and why, or to monitor more online activity detail.
How do I install Family Cyber Alert?
Download Family Cyber Alert in here. Start the installation. Make sure you allow Family Cyber Alert to change your registry entries if your security programs ask for your permission. When the installation is done, parents Cyber Alert setup wizard will start automatically, where you can choose your password, enter your email address for real-time alert, et al.
How to start Family Cyber Alert?
Since Family Cyber Alert is a monitor running in the background, there is no visible entry created in the program list or control panel. After installing and configuring Family Cyber Alert, it will start automatically. It will also starts automatically when you restart or reboot your computer.
If you need to start it manually, do the followings:
Start->Run-> type “c:\Program Files\Common Files\FCyberAlert\syslogin.exe” and click on OK.
How do I know Family Cyber Alert is running? How do I read the monitor report?
Family Cyber Alert runs in the background. If it is running, you can bring it up and open it: use CTRL+Shift+S keys. Press the three keys at the same time. The password window will appear. Enter your password (default password is 123456).
To hide Family Cyber Alert, press CTRL+Shift+H keys at the same time. Or choose Hide from the File menu.
After bringing up the main window of Family Cyber Alert, the detailed report is presented in 7 sections: Web site visited, application used, keystrokes, screen shots, IM (Instant Messenger), file accessed, and real-time watch.
You can navigate the reports by clicking on the tabs. You can right-click on each record in the sections to add the web site or application to the blocking list, or jump to the related screen shots.
You can choose the date or days and get specific reports. You can also email or print the report.
To view screen shots, you can click on each screen shot. You can also use slide show to view the captured screens: click on Screen Shots tab; click on SlideShow button.
What should I do if my anti-virus and anti-spyware application flags Family Cyber Alert files as suspicious threats?
Most anti-virus or anti-spyware applications can correctly distinguish between legitimate parental monitor tools and spyware. However, there are some security applications that may falsely flag parental control software including Family Cyber Alert as spyware or potential threats.
Family Cyber Alert is not a spyware application:
This application is designed for parents to monitor their kids. Parents have the right to install such tools and have rights to monitor their children in their house. (See the question about Security vs Privacy.)
This application can only be knowingly installed by the owner or the authorized representative of the owner of the computer. People who install this application must agree to EULA and associated terms of using this application.
Stealth or remote installation is not supported by Family Cyber Alert.
Family Cyber Alert is not exporting any of the logged data other than to an e-mail address of your choosing if you enable the “Real-time Alert” option. Thus Family Cyber Alert presents no data security threat.
If you receive warning message about Family Cyber Alert, make sure you choose to allow Family Cyber Alert to run and not to delete Family Cyber Alert files. Security software programs provide the user with the ability to exclude Family Cyber Alert from future scanning. Please configure your firewall or security programs to exclude Family Cyber Alert from future scanning and deletion. Make sure you allow Family Cyber Alert to access Internet and send information if you use real-time alert feature.
My children are more knowledgeable about the PC than I am. How do I know they won’t turn off the monitor while using the PC?
The monitor runs as a background process, with no visible signs to the PC user. Even if they are aware of it, should you let them know it is running, access to it is password protected.
How do I receive Cyber Alert e-mail alerts?
This can be done through an option for customizing the alert settings. During install (or through the Family Cyber Alert settings change) you will be prompted to simply type in the e-mail address where you want the alerts to go, and Family Cyber Alert e-mail engine will automatically send off the e-mail alert when the selected activity occurs. No SMTP setup is required.
Can I have the monitor turned on or off based on who is logged into the PC?
Yes, you can select who is to be monitored or not based on their log-on. You can also select specifically who you want to see reports for, or sort the report information by user.
How do I make changes to what is being monitored after the initial installation?
Once installed, you will see how simple and quick any such changes are to make, and be very confident in making such changes as needed on an ongoing basis. You cam make these changes through the Family Cyber Alert “Options” menu, the “Real-Time Watch” menu, as well as to add any applications or websites to a “blocked” list in real-time by right clicking on them as they are highlighted within the activity reports.
Can Family Cyber Alert monitor instant messaging?
Yes, this is an example of a potentially dangerous online activity on which content filters have no impact. A common method of communications for online predators as well as other harmful online activity is through instant messaging or IM. Family Cyber Alert can monitor both the incoming and outgoing message stream for Instant Messaging applications such as Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ICQ, Google, Skype, etc.
What is Real-time Watch?
Real-time Watch allows you to block a website or an application (including games, Instant Messenger, Browser, email programs, et al). It allows you to receive automatic email alerts if specific dangerous online activities take place. With the Real-Time Watch, you can also choose which accounts to be excluded from being monitored.
To configure the real-time watch:
Choose Tools and Real-time Watch.
How do I block a website?
There are two ways to add a Website to the blocking list.
Add a site through the Tools menu:
- Go to Tools and choose Real-time Watch.
- Click on Website watch.
- Click on Add.
- Check Block, Alert, or Both.
- Click on Ok
You can also unblock a web site in here by removing a web site from the blocking list.
Add a Website through the Report:
- In reviewing the report of the Web Site Visited, highlight the Web site URL in the list.
- Right click on the Web site URL and choose Add to Blocking List.
- Click on Ok to confirm.
How do I block an application (a game, for example)?
The blocking is based on the keyword of the title of the application window. There are two ways to add an application to the blocking list.
Add an application through the Tools menu:
- Go to Tools and choose Real-time Watch.
- Click on App watch.
- Click on Add.
- Type the keywords in the title bar of the application window. For example: MSN Messenger.
- Check Block, Alert, or Both.
- Click on Ok
You can also remove an application from the blocking list in here.
Add an application through the Report:
- In reviewing the report of the Applications Used, highlight the application used in the list.
- Right click on the application entry and choose Add to Blocking List.
- Click on Ok to confirm.
Can I use my computer to monitor other computers? In other words, can I monitor other PCs remotely?
Yes if these computers are connected to the same network. You need to have Family Cyber Alert installed on your computer and the computer being monitored.
On the computer being monitored, start Family Cyber Alert. Go to Tools->Options->Security. You will see the Archival Location. You can change the location (for example, \\ComputerA\SharedFolder). Just make sure you make the location sharable so that you can access the folder. For more information on how to make a public share, click on here.
Then start Family Cyber Alert on your computer. Change the archival location in your Family Cyber Alert and point to the location where the monitored computer saves the archival record. This way, you can review all the activities that happened on the monitored computer.
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