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Thread ID: 24717 2002-09-17 04:52:00 Disabling Chat........Billy's stupid question for this week! Billy T (70) Press F1
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80275 2002-09-18 03:47:00 Well said Susan, describes exactly what happens here as well ... perhaps that should be placed in a FAQ ?? antmannz (28)
80276 2002-09-18 04:24:00 Hey, Teenager speaking from experience.
It's about trust, go over with your kids that they shouldn't give out anything 'real' about themselves, such as their name or address. For friends, i guess it's okay, but try to encourage they give themselves a nickname to use, such as in my case Chilling_Silence or Iced_Excalibur.
I've had many others, but something simple is good. One of my friendss is known as suga, so she gave herself the nickname sugacoatedmischeif.
Let them know you'll be checking up every now and then on their chats, but that over time as you begin to know that they aren't getting up to any mischeif (Suga coated or not!) that you'll gradually stop.
Chat rooms, don't use them myself as there is a LOT of sexual related chit-chat that goes on, even in specific topic rooms, such as Christian Religion or Garden Chat. Let them know you're not happy about them going into MSN Chat or anything else, but that their buddies on MSN are okay.
MSN is relatively private, but i know of friends who've gone and added people like SayHiToMe@hotmail.com just because the address is neat. discourage that.
All up, I use MSN daily and it's great fun, your kids will love you for it, but just let them know you'll be monitoring them for the first little while. They'll be happy knowing that even though you may be checking up on them, that they can at least talk to friends and be kept up to date with the latest "cool" toys. When I first got MSN, there was only 1 other person I knew who had it, now my contact list is around 150 contacts which I chat to regularly and know in RL also.
There are keylogging programs out there that are free. KeyServ (AKA Key Thief) is one, allowing screenshots also. Using those programs is up to you.

Hope that's helped from another perspective.

Chilling_Silence
Chilling_Silence (9)
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