How to fulfill parental control and employee monitoring over the Internet?

Nowadays it's really hard to imagine people avoiding use of computers or mobile phones connected to the global network and applied regularly as a mean of retrieving and processing of private and business data. Computers became a part of life not only for adults, but also for children and teenagers who spend a lot of time surfing the Internet.

Starting from elementary school contemporary schoolkids are taught computer technologies which find a broad range of application in the field of study or recreation. Unfortunately one may find in the Internet not only tons of practical information for classes which don't bear any threat for immature child's mind. The global network contains countless number of dangerous websites including extremist and denominational ones, or adult content websites that can affect the process of becoming a child a person and bring harm and troubles in future. You would agree that you wouldn't want your child having come home after school to start studying occult rituals or surfing unwanted pages instead of doing homework.

Taking into account all described above a big reasonable question can arise to many parents – "How to protect children from harmful Internet affection?", "How to find out what your child is doing at his PC all the time?", "Who are those persons your kids are communicating with?", "How to organize parental control over the Internet?".

There is a huge number of software aimed at computer monitoring but most of them decrease computer performance and are paid. They're also easily detected by antispyware programs and can be easily found on PC even by an inexperienced user. In reality you will be ale only to read log files containing keyboard input data and in some rare cases view screenshots. Moreover one can read log files only on the PCs they were created on. Of course there might be a possibility to set up automatic data sending to a web server or email but this feature can lead to additional troubles and take a lot of time. In addition it's just not convenient.

To fulfill computer parental control it may be quite convenient to use remote control software connecting to any PC over the Internet. Some of such applications are very easy to configure and, to be more precise, don't even need any configuration or setup and are able to establish instant remote connection to any PC that is connected to the Internet.

One of such software is Ammyy Admin. Despite the fact that its main application area is remote computer support, multifunctional features of Ammyy Admin let one use the application as remote parental monitoring software. As a solution for business, Ammyy Admin is all-in-one application ready to be used for employee monitoring and control.

Why Ammyy Admin is perfect for remote parental control?

1. You can connect to any PC within a few seconds.
2. You can view desktop of a remote computer from any PC connected to the Internet without tedious configuration, registration and installation.
3. Ammyy Admin works with all known firewalls and antiviens software (unlike spyware which can be easily detected as malicious application). Properly configured Ammyy Admin is almost impossible to detect.
4. Your child will never find out that you watch all his actions at PC in real time.
5. You can instantly turn on voice chat feature and listen to what is happening on the other side.
6. Ammyy Admin is absolutely free for home use provided you don't exceed time limit of free version.

How to configure Ammyy Admin for remote parental control?

The configuration of Ammyy Admin is quite simple and won't take longer than a minute.

What should you do on remote PC which is going to be monitored:

1. Download Ammyy Admin. Most browsers download files to "My documents -> Downloads" by default, but you can set the folder manually.
2. Launch Ammyy Admin and click "Settings" – "Client" tab – "Access Permissions", as it shown in the picture 1 and 2.
   
   
   

   picture1

   picture 2

3. In the new window click "Add" button and in the field "Computer ID" type the word "ANY". Create complex password and type it in the field "password" twice and click "Ok" (picture 3 and 4).
   
   
   

   picture 3

   picture 4

   
   
4. In main menu Ammyy click "Service" – "Install". After that click "Service" – "Start". Now you can close application. Ammyy Admin will automatically run in hidden mode when Windows starts up (picture 5 and 6).
   
   

   picture 5

   picture 6

5. In menu "Settings" – "Client" tab uncheck all the checkboxes except top first one as shown on the picture 2 and click "Ok". This will disable all the signs of active remote desktop connection to this computer.
   
   Remember or write down the ID of this PC which is shown in the green field "Your ID" in main window of Ammyy Admin. It's needed for further connection to this PC
   
   This was the final step of child pc configuration. Now you can connect to this PC from any remote computer.

What should you do on PC from which you want monitor child PC

1. Download Ammyy Admin. Most browsers download files to "My documents -> Downloads" by default, but you can set the folder manually.
2. Launch Ammyy Admin and type ID of your child PC (you put it down during remote pc configuration) in the field "Client ID/IP" (picture 7).
3. Check box "View only" and click "Connect" button (picture 7).
   
   
   
   
   picture 7
4. Type in password that you set up while configuring remote pc, in the authentication window
5. To listen what is going on at remote PC click "voice chat" button on the control panel of remote desktop window or initiate connection in "Voice chat" mode. If you don't want to be heard by the remote side you can go to menu "Ammyy" -> "Settings" -> "Common" and choose OFF for Audio Recording Device. Make sure that the remote side doesn't have the same OFF and microphone is turned on.
   
   After connection you'll see remote desktop window. You can view everything your kid is doing at the PC in real time and listen to what is going on. Your virtual presence at this remote PC will not be found out.
6. To stop watching just close remote desktop window.

In case you want to organize employee monitoring you should be aware that according to the law of some countries you have to notify your employees about it. In any case it may be quite useful because employees who are aware the boss keeps an eye on them will not spend work time for personal affairs, what can decrease risk of computer infection by a virus and corporate confidential information leakage. This will also increase employee effective work time.