You know those programs that parents use to monitor their kids’ online activity so they’re not doing something stupid like taking internet candy with internet drugs in it from an internet stranger? Or at least telling them where they live and yes, they can come over at 7, and no, my parents won’t be home etc., and what Archdiocese are you the Bishop of again? Well, yeah, you don’t want your kids doing something so idiotic, so you install these programs that stop them from being idiots.

Two of these brands are called Sentry and Familysafe. Now, of course, these programs have to track what your kids are actually doing in order for them to be able to stop them from doing something that may get them kidnapped. But here’s the fly in the ointment, the monkeywrench in the engine, and other similar metaphors. As they are watching your kids, they collect that information. That information is valuable for marketers. And that’s why marketers buy that information and target your kids for an advertising blitz.
But at least they’re not getting kidnapped.

Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send that data back to the company.

“This scares me more than anything I have seen using monitoring technology,” said Parry Aftab, a child-safety advocate. “You don’t put children’s personal information at risk.” We reported last week about Congressman Rick Boucher’s attempt to get some internet marketing regulation going, and there is no doubt that stuff like this should be made illegal without the permission of parents in an obvious contractual form that they can see and understand.

The software does go so far as to record children’s names, addresses or other identifiable information, but it knows how old they are because parents vary the strictness of the program depending on age.
The Associated Press contact five over companies, including McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp., who claim they do not sell any information.
The software brands in question are developed by EchoMetrix Inc., a company based in Syosset, N.Y.