The Awareness Advisor

At msnbc.msn.com, the story of American Idol contestant Diana DeGarmo reveals how computer monitoring software could have stopped an Internet stalker and saved the tv star from months of trauma.

DeGarmo shares her story with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, and explains that the harassment began with her Myspace account. At first, her Internet stalker began with emails, then moved on to cell phone calls. Apparently, this person didn't just want to harass Diana DeGarmo, she wanted to be Diana DeGarmo. Now an identity thief, the stalker used DeGarmo's identity to solicit sex and drugs online, and was emailing or calling her victim up to 100 times a day.

When DeGarmo finally asked her the stalker what she wanted, the response was $1 million dollars. It took months before DeGarmo's stalker could be tracked down and put behind bars.

Here is a case where computer monitoring software could have prevented months of misery. With a good computer monitoring software system, like Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, stalking victims could rely on email recording, chat recording, website recording, and more to provide the authorities with the necessary information to put a stalker away for good. WebWatcher is also easy to install and easy to use, allowing for quick and convenient results.

No one deserves to be harassed online like DeGarmo, but unfortunately this is a fast growing crime. With WebWatcher, the victims of Internet stalkers can do something to protect themselves before things escalate out of control.

At kget.com, the disturbing story of a registered sex offender highlights Internet safety concerns, and serves to remind us that social networking sites can be as dangerous as they are useful. Parental control software is, to date, the only real method of keeping kids safe when they use the Internet.

The article is about a 24-year-old sexual predator recently released from prison. Upon his release, the man in question returned home to the same city in which he committed the crime of child molestation. The first thing he did was to remove his tracking device, and head to a library so he could use the Internet to find a new victim.

Registered sex offenders are not supposed to have access to the Internet for this very reason. So how did police find out what the predator was up to? The popular social networking site Myspace found his profile, where he was referring to himself as "the beast" and asking girls to "rate him."

In this case, Myspace helped the authorities to get a dangerous criminal out of their site, and to boost internet safety in general. But, what about all of the predators out there who aren't registering with the police, or who haven't been caught yet? Myspace can't be expected to keep track of someone whose information isn't available. With over 70 million users, the social networking giant would find such a task impossible.

This is why parental control software is an absolute necessity for parents today. WebWatcher, the highest rated parental control software system on the market today, allows parents to block websites, record emails, record chat conversations, and more.

With good software like this, parents can allow their kids to enjoy the benefits of Myspace and sites like it without having to be afraid of who they might meet online.

At ezinearticle.com, we are asked whether or not an online affair "counts" as infidelity. Well, rising divorce rates are perhaps a better barometer for answering such a question, and explains the current popularity in computer monitoring software.

The article states that in terms of an "cyber sex," the partner in question is probably satisfying "sexual desires and fantasies they are living through a virtual world." However, a recent poll of over 300 divorce attorneys reveals that an addiction to cyber sex or pornography is fast becoming a leading cause for divorce.

In fact, 1/3 of today's divorce litigation has been linked to an online affair or Internet addiction involving cyber sex. That means that thousands and thousands of marriages ended this year because of Internet infidelity, making it a leading cause in the rising divorce rate.

Computer monitoring software has also exploded in popularity, and of course the relationship between infidelity and computers is an obvious one. If someone is cheating, chances are they've sent their other partner an email, chatted online with them, or perhaps even ordered them a gift online. Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, the highest rated computer monitoring software system available today, allows spouses to record emails, record chat room conversations, and even record visited websites.

In light of all this evidence, it seems silly to ask whether or not Internet infidelity really counts. Instead we should be asking how to stop this sad phenomenon and save those marriages that have been put at risk.

Registered sex offenders are going underground, failing to register and finding new ways to perpetrate crimes in response to legislation aimed at controlling their whereabouts. Many are trolling social networking sites, leaving parental control software as the best line of defense against Internet predators.

At DesMoinesRegister.com, we find that an unexpected reaction to legislation aimed at protecting children may have actually put them at greater danger.

The Iowa law prohibiting registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and day-care facilities "backfired," leading those offenders to avoid registration.

Furthermore, as the article reminds us, most crimes against children are committed by someone that the child knows.

Or in the case of the Internet predator, thinks they know.

Myspace.com's recent struggles to keep registered sex offenders off its site reveals where these predators go when they can't have instant access to kids. Masquerading as a new "friend," an Internet predator can often get information from a child that leads to their identity or whereabouts.

This is why child protection still begins in the home, and in terms of the Internet, it requires parental control software.

WebWatcher has received such high reviews among all parental control software systems because of its ease in use, invisibility while running, and many options. Parents can block websites, record emails and chat room conversations, and even access their child's Internet use record from a remote location.

Keeping registered sex offenders away from schools was a great idea that created unforseen problems, but keeping them out of your home and away from your kids when they log online is always a good idea.

As John Rosemond makes clear at the washingtontimes.com, Internet predators are a much greater threat to kids today than child abduction by a stranger or unknown sex offender.

Media coverage has done a lot to make us aware of the dangers of child abduction, but the truth is that your child has about a one in a million chance of being grabbed off the street by someone they don't know. The vast majority of child abuse and abduction cases involve someone the child knows, and perhaps is even a family relation.

But Internet predators are only now becoming recognized as the danger they really are.

Statistics vary, but 20% of kids who use the Internet are reported to received unwanted sexual attention, and 1 in 35 will be stalked offline by that same person. Those statistics add up to millions of kids who are approach by an online predator.

Of course, child abduction and the danger of sex offenders are issues we should all be aware of, and powerful media attention has done much to help us with that.

But to combat the Internet predator, parents must be educated, kids must be educated, and sophisticated tools like parental control software should be standard in every parent's home.

Good parental control software isn't hard to find: Awareness Tech's WebWatcher is the highest rated in the bunch, offering website blocking, email recording, chat recording, and more. It's also easy to use, and completely invisible while it's running.

There are many, many dangers to be faced by children today, but with diligent parents, stern lawmaking, and parental control software we can do a lot to protect those kids and to put Internet predators behind bars.

While Myspace is struggling to remove sex offenders from its database, the only real solution to protecting kids is still parental control software.

At the courant.com, the issue Myspace is facing sounds dangerous, and almost hopeless. With 550,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, how can the social networking giant expect to keep them all away from the kids who use the site regularly?

Myspace is indeed working to build and implement technologies designed to block convicted sex offenders from accessing the site, but such technology is based on the known names and addresses of the offenders. As Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said, "the database would be ineffective without age and identity verification," since all the sex offender would need to do to bypass Myspace's blocks would be to lie.

And as we have all heard, sex offenders and Internet predators are very good liars. After all, this is how they manipulate their victims.

Here again is why parental control software is the first and best answer to protecting kids from predators. A good parental control software system, like Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, can give parents multiple options, like website blocking, website recording, email recording, and chat recording.

No one can protect a kid as effectively as a watchful parent in the home. With WebWatcher, every parent can check on their child's Internet use, making sure that their new "friend" isn't a sex offender in disguise.

Productivity in the workplace undoubtedly came to a crashing halt last week, as Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, exceeded all expectations.

Online sales totaled $608 million dollars, up 26% from last year. According to theithacajournal.com, more and more people are "getting comfortable shopping online," and this year looks like a record setter in terms of online shopping.

Unfortunately, managers and employers whose employees enjoy Internet access will be paying for this explosion in e-commerce.

Year round, the estimated loss of employee productivity brought about by workplace Internet use costs American businesses $85 billion dollars a year. Much of that productivity is sucked away by employees who do everything from banking online to cruising personals, but the #1 pastime is online shopping.

Clearly, this time of year is an expensive one for business owners.

No wonder so many Fortune 500 companies rely on computer monitoring software. Computer monitoring software, like Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, allows managers and employers to keep an eye on productivity in the workplace, as well as to limit the risk of liability that has been linked to inappropriate Internet use on-the-job.

With an estimated savings of several thousand dollars per employee, purchasing computer monitoring software could be the best Christmas Present any business owner can buy for him or herself.