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Several years ago the company I worked for used a program called VNC to remotely access other computers. When you engage it, you literally take over control of the remote keyboard and mouse and your screen displays what is on the remote machine.

I installed it onto the machines in my home (self-taught network engineer), and would occasionally engage it while my kids were using a machine. My message was clear - I'll extend my trust to allow you to surf where we agreed, but just because I'm not right there, it doesn't mean that I'm not watching.

Several years ago the company I worked for used a program called VNC to remotely access other computers.

Similar programs are Remote Desktop Client, or RDC, for Windows (they even make a Mac client so you can control a Windows machine from a Mac), and ARA -- Apple Remote Access -- from Mac to Mac. Timbuktu used to be a popular cross-platform tool, but I think it's faded away since much of its former functionality has been built into the OS. There are similar *ix tools, but I haven't used them.

My favorite solution for places like classrooms and public libraries is that kind of remote access -- give the librarian or one big monitor with a split screen showing the display of every computer on the network. Too small to read e-mails, but enough to see if someone is viewing porn or playing games when they oughtn't.

That reminds me of another point I didn't hit earlier -- the kids will never have admin access under my roof. Today, one of the big problems is that the kids know more about computers than their parents do, but in the not-too-distant future that will no longer be true.