Computer monitoring software is the next major piece of software you need along side good antivirus and firewall software.

While antivirus software keeps viruses and other malicious software off your PC, computer monitoring software is vital to keeping track of what you, your loved ones, or employees see while on the computer.

Consider for a moment these sobering statistics:

Children:

• 65% of high school students admit to viewing unsafe, inappropriate, or illegal sites online.
• 38% of high school students hide their online activities from their parents.
• 90% of teen males and 70% of teen females reported accessing pornographic material.
And many times, teens didn’t seek out pornographic material, they just encounter it on a regular basis.
• 69% of teens regularly receive personal messages online from strangers and most teens don't tell a adults about it.
• 49% of high school students have posted personal information on Web sites -- such as name, age, or address -- that could assist a predator to identify or locate them.

Employees:

• A recent study shows that at least 65% of employees have committed at least one act of Internet abuse in the form of:
  1. shopping (41%)
  2. using company email for personal reasons (39%)
  3. playing computer games (34%)
  4. doing job searches (17%)
  5. copying software for personal use (9%)
  Obviously, this amounts to a huge loss in productivity.
• Then there are legal factors to consider as well, like:
1. sending hateful or slanderous emails
2. posting corporate rumors that could sway stock prices
3. sending offensive/sexual emails that could offend co-workers
...and perhaps worst of all
4. sending or downloading illegal material like child pornography

Cheating Spouses:

• Only 46% of men believe that online affairs are considered adultery.
• 1/3 of divorce litigation is caused by online affairs.
• 57% of people use the Internet to flirt.
• 38% of people have engaged in explicit sexual conversation online.

How do you stop all this?

While computer and Internet monitoring software is not a silver bullet for every situation, it does make understanding, managing, and preventing these types of problems far, far easier than doing so just by trying to catch someone in the act.

As with everything in life, some things are better than others. In the case of monitoring software it's true, too.

Some essentials you'll want are programs that allow you to:

• Record websites visited
Wherever they go online, you should have a record of it.
• Block websites
Block pornographic sites, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, gambling sites, and job sites.
• Filter content
Stop inappropriate material before someone sees it.
• Take screenshots
See what your employees or loved ones are viewing online.
• Monitor & record emails
Ensure no inappropriate emails are being sent or read.
• Monitor & record chats/IM
Keep an eye on chat/IM conversations and how much time is spent chatting.
• Set time limits
Easily set and enforce time limits on when a computer is used.
• Remotely monitor
See what's going on from any computer. Why hassle trying to sneak onto the computer you're monitoring?

If you have employees, children, or other loved ones you want to protect online or at their computers, monitoring software can play an important role in doing so.