I have a 6th grader who wants an AOL AIM (instant messenger) account because “all” of her friends have one. I haven’t okayed it yet because I haven’t had the time to check it out and see what features and protections it has. I don’t want her to be open to messages from just anyone, just her circle of friends, and I want to prevent pictures being received. And allow her to block people from sending her messages. I was wondering if any of you computer savvy folks can give me any "been there, done that" advice or guidance on this.

Thanks!

yes you can totally do all of those things on AIM.


you can make it so that only approved contacts can send her messages, and you can disable file sharing, so no pictures or music and stuff can be sent. AIM is very user friendly, and you can also have AIM log all of her conversations in a password protected folder, so you can read them.

hope that helped, ... if you'd like more help or details, lemmie know!

also, since she is in 6th grade, maybe it would behoove you to make a family screen name... like ours, for my 6th grade stepson shawn is " Dixonfam07". if kids/freaks think that parents are accessing the account too, they are less likely to send inappropriate things. when he gets older and proves he can be trustworthy with the program, he will get his own screen name with his own password, but until then, he is welcome to use the program to talk to approved contacts on the family accessible name. he complained at first, but i told him his other option was to get out a pen and paper, and write his buddies via snail mail. he cheered up real fast.


like i said, make sure you know the password, log the conversations, know the password, and tweak the options and you should be fine. i'd be glad to help however you need.

Cool. That makes me feel better. Maybe I'll set her up an account since I can do all that. I may have questions, though, so it is nice to know someone out there has answers. Thanks again.

If your running XP or Vista you might want to give them a "standard" user account. It will limit what they can install and run. Although it can be a pain for you they will be somewhat limited in what they can do. If you have a router you can set up times they can be on and or sites they can't access. My girlfriend's kids hate when I turn them off

Parental controls are also fun for adults.

I shared an apartment with this guy in my early 20's. I learned my basic computer skills from him, but he was all geeked out with the skillz. I had AOL. I came home from work and logged in, instead of hearing the classic, "welcome," I heard his voice, "what's up, b*tch?!" Instead of hearing the classic AOL, "you've got mail!", I heard, "your skank friend emailed you." Whenever I got an instant message, it played him emitting this really long burp. With all that, he would randomly make my background and screensaver these horrible porn images with goats and vegetables. / And damnit I didn't know how to do that to get back at him.

So a couple months later, AOL was emailing and promoting these parental controls and walked me through step by step how to block adult sites and contact with other people. AH HA HA! Revenge was mine. He didn't even consider that I figured out how to do it so it was funny when I heard him complaining that he didn't understand what was wrong.

Well it was funny to me.

OH! And then a couple years later, I was shacked up with this bible thumpin' ahole that was possessive and abusive. He would say he couldn't sleep, in the middle of night, and would get online to "play Othello." He knew even less about computers than me. I would check the history and cookies and he was on porn all those times. I even bought him this deluxe edition of Othello to play and interact with online Othello players knowing damn well he wasn't really into the game. Merry Christmas emeffer. I let those lies string out for a looong time before I finally laughed in his face and told him he was a big dumbass liar.

Every hackerz haz a beginnin'.

I always suspected you were dating BMIC....

i you...wanna make zombie babies...

bwhahahaha.

all your base are belong to ME!