Reply #8: Does not need to be instrusive [View All]

[The Straight Story]

A keyword search as I suggested does not mean you read their private online conversations but is a practical way to non-intrusively insure things don't get out of hand by either the kid or an adult who is trying to get them to do something.

An example is a program I wrote in perl to analyze the works of authors and generate a list of words and how many times those appeared, how unique the vocabulary was between works (originality, growth of language) and so on. Without reading a conversation one could easily do an analysis (or have the computer do it rather) and red flag issues.

If we are to trust our kids they should trust as well - if you say you're not going to read everything they write hopefully they trust you enough to believe such. Show them the program, how it works, and tell them if an issue comes up you will engage them on it before reading anything (and it can select only a few sentences to show a parent).

Trust runs both ways.