I think my son is going on web sites I don't want him on. A friend told me to buy Norton Internet Security because it has parental controls. I'm going to do that tomorrow. But is there any way I could see what web sites he's been on? Also, is there a way to see who he's been e-mailing??

I can understand your concern about your son as the net is FULL of sexual inuendo let alone pedophiles. To see what sites were visited you can do two things. The easiest is to left click the down arrow next to the address bar in internet explorer. Another way is to left click the history tab which is located next to the favorites at the top of internet explorer. However, if the history was erased you will not see it there. The only other way to view it is to go into the registry. Click Start and then run and type REGEDIT. From the drop down menu you will have to navigate to the entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\TypedURLs. If it doesn't appear there then your son has deleted it and I don't know of any other way to view the history. As for the e-mails, the only way to view that is to have access to his e-mail server and looking in the sent folder. That information is not recorded anywhere else. Hope I was of some help and I hope you're wrong about your suspicions.

Bob,click the link below for some good info on what you are looking for,and the best part of it all is that its free. PARENT CONTROL CLICK ME!!

XP hides a file called INDEX.DAT in your temporary internet file. XP does not list it or allow you to access it. Clearing internet history does not clear this file. The onlyway to remove this file is to use a good quality third party intenet eraser. If you don't have one then the file will still be there. However, to get at INDEX.DAT you will need aboot disk independent from XP and a file viewer. As for control of the internet, JOE (above) is on the right track

SOOORRRRYYY!! NOTE CONTINUED... INDEX.DAT will contain all sites visited and any downloads that have been done as well as the location of those downloads. As for Email... you could try checking the SENT ITEMS folder (if it is enabled)

I think for all intents and purposes, you should try the history options I suggested. Although Door is correct about the Index.dat file, most people wouldn't know how to access the contents of a .dat file and so I would never suggest such a thing. This sounds like a concerned parent who just wants to get to the bottom of things. The Sent Items folder will only contain attachments that were sent and not the contents of the email or it's text (which is what I think Bob wants.)

Hi Bob, Norton Internet Security does have parental controls but how good it is, I cannot say. You didn't say how old your son is and whether or not he's computer-savvy. A computer-savvy kid knows that he can just delete the file index.dat. When this file is deleted, a new one will be created containing no trace of what he has visited. Your best course of action is to have a word with him, or else he will do his entire web surfing somewhere else. i_XpUser