Good morning Aunty Eya, hope you are doing fine? Please ma I need help from you and your blog readers. Is it OK for children to have passworded accounts?
We have one laptop in my house aside from my husband’s Ipad. This laptop is what the children and I use. I don’t want them disturbing my account so I gave permission to create their own accounts. While my account is not passworded, Last night I discovered my children’s accounts except one child’s are all passworded. I was surprised cos I actually thought they owned separate accounts so that no child goes to disturb another’s bookmarks, close their windows or continue their paused games without permission.
I don’t think
children between 15 and 10 should have passwords their parents can’t access but when I gave my kids a book to put down their passwords for me, they both refused that they can’t give me their passwords because they also deserve some form of privacy. They accused me of not letting them enjoy even the slightest privacy at all when I know they are not babies.
I got angry, dropped the book on the table and went to bed. This morning I checked and no one wrote down their passwords. I am so confused now. Parenting is not easy at all. Should I just let them be or force them to give me their passwords or just delete the passworded accounts cos my account is the Administrator. I am so helpless here not knowing what to do. It baffles me why children won’t let their mother have their passwords. Please I need advice.
Madam stop crying over nothing. IF your account is really the administrator account then no wahala at all especially if you use a windows pc. I work in IT and na piece of cake be this.
Log in to the PC with your Administrator account details, click on START, click on MY COMPUTER and open it. Click on the C drive, click on USERS and you will see folders for all the user accounts on that laptop. You can see saved documents, pictures etc.
Sometimes, the user accounts are hidden in APP DATA which is not a visible folder so if you do not see your children's accounts above, let me know so I can tell you how to search the app data.
IF you do not use a Windows PC, let me know.
Finally, you are the mother of the home and they are to abide by your rules. Let them tell you their passwords but they don't have to tell each other. Until they are old enough to be in university, they should not have password enabled laptop account, phones etc. That's my own reasoning sha and is what I plan to do with my kids. I have already told my husband.
You need to have a password on your account since you are the administrator so that they cannot create accounts with passwords in the future should you decide to go ahead and delete the current accounts. For them to have passwords tells me they are smart and so have deleted their history of whatever it is they were browsing so even if you get the passwords you may not instantly get any info unless you are IT savy and know how to go about recovering deleted history. If I was you I would password protect my account being the administrator then create separate accounts for them without passwords, get parental controls installed so that limits any potentially dangerous sites they may have visited or are likely to visit and also keep checking their browsing history every now and then especially if they are teenage boys porn is the number one reason they would have passwords. There are also trackers you can have installed to monitor the sites they visit speak to an IT person to help. Sit them down and talk to them about what you have discovered and what measures you are going to take involve their father in the talk as well.
Well I think its better u delete their accounts! Creat an account for them and give them d password. I am nt a mum yet but I can tell u that my youngers are enuf to make me go gray! I have seen msgs that I almost fainted! Come to think dat they enjoy watching porn online nearly paralyzed me. Pls do somethg fast! You can never tell.
madam if they are not yet adult collect their password or ban them from using the laptop. in these day and age u can never tell what kids are doing online or would u like to find out that dey have been visiting sites they re not supposed to be visiting. By d way y are dey hiding dere password if they hav nothing to hide.
madam if they are not yet adult collect their password or ban them from using the laptop. in these day and age u can never tell what kids are doing online or would u like to find out that dey have been visiting sites they re not supposed to be visiting. By d way y are dey hiding dere password if they hav nothing to hide.
madam if they are not yet adult collect their password or ban them from using the laptop. in these day and age u can never tell what kids are doing online or would u like to find out that dey have been visiting sites they re not supposed to be visiting. By d way y are dey hiding dere password if they hav nothing to hide.
Dear, your fears may be unfounded afterall. Its normal for kids at this stage to want some form of privacy. My kid brother keeps a diary and most times, am tempted to snoop but I put myself in his shoes and let him be! Its normal as a parent to want to know what kids are doing on the internet and I think there's a way you can control the kind of pages they view I mean pages that contain porn and the likes.
Poster its funny what kids of dis era do, 10-15 passwording their acct?, u shd let dem know dat ur d parent not dem, dey can password their devices when dey buy their own,let them know dat under ur roof,its ur rules n reg not there's..u will make dem open the acct infront of u n unpassword their acct..u ve to b monitoring dem big time.. Cos what kids do on computers now adays r unbelievable..
Pls don't b too harsh nor too soft but firm cos at these ages too much hormones..just b firm.
Thank you all and Mrs Sugar, you are Godsent. I will try that ASAP
Hi Mrs Sugar, I just returned to say a big thank you for the help. You be correct FBI. I followed your steps and was shocked to see all their accounts bare before me.
After checking everything from downloads to all their documents, I asked myself why all the stress cos these are just kids accounts with their video recordings that they love to do while playing at home and all their pics. The only downloads are pics of their fav celebs like Selena Gomez, Alicia Keys, Justin Bieber and others. With just nothing bad in their accounts I think I shoud just stop bothering and learn to trust them. There was no need for asking and they also have no reason to hide their passwords the way they did.
Parenting kids is not easy.
You're very welcome dear. Enjoy the parenting because as my mum says, the time flies by quickly and next thing, they're all grown up.
You concerned is well founded and is what a responsible parent will experience. It is not that we do not trust our children. It is that we do not trust the monsters that prey on them on the internet. I think this is the conversation you should have on this and even show them examples of what peodeophiles and serial killers do to unsuspecting kids. We live in a sick world and you would be remiss if you were not concerned.
Thank God pls chk from time to time sha.
Well thank God that there wasn't anything bad after all, you know children love their privacy, please just learn to trust them…happy parenting.
ild suggest you still keep an eye on them though.
You should still keep an eye on them and check their browsing history from time to time the internet can be a dangerous place and they are still young and vulnerable. That is how one 14 year girl old like that went to meet a supposedly 14 year old other girl she met on facebook and it turned out that he was an old 60 year old male paedophile! You still need to watch over their activities online do not relax you are their mother not their friend your rules should be law in your house. My sister got a desktop for the kids and it is kept in a part of the living room in full view of anyone who walks in the door and they are only allowed to use it for certain hours each day each kid has a designated time to use it they have learnt to share that way and she also controls what they can or cannot do online with parental controls
My dear, even though u saw nothing bad in their accounts, they have absolutely no right to deny you their password. Kids of today grow up too fast. Lay down the law. You are their parent not their friend. They live in your house, you feed them etc. Let's forget all this westernised way of doing things cos their kids are worse off. No child under 18 or even 21 has d right to claim privacy while living under your roof. Maybe if the parents of the kids that go to school and shoot their fellow pupils and teachers hadn't been worried about respecting their privacy, they might have seen their browser history. #justsaying
Mrs sugar,I love IT aldo I'm not a guru yet,but dis trick is something I will like to keep for future use..hope u dnt mind me using it..
Dear poster,I suggest u still keep a tab on them anyway..aldo I advice u dnt let them know u have access to their acnt..so they won't feel betrayed..but sometimes u can jokinly throw it at them to tell u their password..God help us all..
This is d 2nd time on this blog I'm seeing someone type "you are their mother not their friend" when describing how d relationship bw a mother n her kids shd b like.
A woman can be a mother AND a friend 2 her kids. U just need 2 know when and how 2 b strict in enforcing rules.
If u don't befriend ur kids, they will not be willing 2 confide in u in all things. They wod rather confide in THEIR friends
Kids who are teens wouldn't appreciate too much 'parents snooping'. Just check out a lot of wayward people today, their parents 'policed' them, thinking that was the way. But once they feel they've had 'freedom', they let loose.
I advise that you don't try to make them feel like they have no privacy. What are your fears? Are you a christian? Do you teach them about morals? They are teenagers and would be teenagers soon (for the younger ones). What do you tell them about sex? What do you tell them about the life of a true christian. Always admonish them, pray for them and make them feel open enough to communicate with you, but don't make them feel caged. They'll grow up someday and feel like "after all, mom isn't watching". So, give them a little privacy. My 2 cents.