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Melinda

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 11, 2008
4
0
Are there any keyloggers for macs that will collect asterisk keystrokes? I want to get my child's passwords on our computer.
 
Oh dear, not another one of these "parents don't trust their children" threads. Out of curiosity, how old is the child, you could just ask him/her.

Secretly finding out their passwords isn't the best form of trust you can show, as if you find something that needs confronting them and it isn't that serious then you risk losing all trust with them, and that's not a good road to go down.
 
If it's your computer just go to the Keychains.

I was going to suggest that too, but that'd only work if they saved passwords, and if they saved passwords there wouldn't be a need to find out what they were as it'd log in automatically.

Keychain Access can be found in your Utilities folder in your Applications folder and the password it'll ask you to enter to view a password is your computer accounts login password.
 
Obviously like most idot lazy people, I googled keyloggers before going through the hassle of googling for a forum like this, registering, signing in to my email to verify, and then posting in order to ask about it just so that I can end up googling whatever responses I recieved. :)

The problem is that sometimes PC keyloggers show up even though you search for Mac keyloggers and also, they don't always tell you if a program will reveal asterisk keys typed. I was told that not all programs do. With all due respect, you do not know my child and you have no idea weather they ought to be trusted with a bunch of online strangers.

Those of you that have been Im'ing me - Thank you so much! :)
 
Obviously like most idot lazy people, I googled keyloggers before going through the hassle of googling for a forum like this, registering, signing in to my email to verify, and then posting in order to ask about it just so that I can end up googling whatever responses I recieved. :)

The problem is that sometimes PC keyloggers show up even though you search for Mac keyloggers and also, they don't always tell you if a program will reveal asterisk keys typed. I was told that not all programs do. With all due respect, you do not know my child and you have no idea weather they ought to be trusted with a bunch of online strangers.

Those of you that have been Im'ing me - Thank you so much! :)

keylogger osx - first page had lots of results. Why are you goggling forums? Sorry, I don't mean to be THAT rude but something as simple as google that my grandmother can use you would have had your answer like an hour ago.

You have a question, "Key loggers for Mac" so you google Key logger mac osx or just key logger osx and blam, I found one link 3-4 hits down that linked to this forum to a forum post (searching these forums would have brought this post up as well) that had links to MANY key loggers.
 
With all due respect, you do not know my child and you have no idea weather they ought to be trusted with a bunch of online strangers.

Quite frankly, we don't have to know your kid. If you can't ask them and get the information you need (or can't trust them despite that), then you shouldn't allow them to be online without supervision. Spying on your kid, no matter who they are or how old they are, is just a horrible horrible idea.

jW
 
Why shouldn't I google forums?..I'm assuming you meant google and not goggle. I wanted to find a forum so I googled it. Just like I wanted to find keyloggers, but again googling doesn't let you know which ones reveal asterisks and which don't. But the feedback I've been receiving since signing up here has helped alot. When I went to this site which is one of the top google sites my friend told me that these were PC loggers. http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/keylogger-mac.html

Anyway, another confusion is that my husband once mentioned there was windows installed on our mac laptop. But I use PC's at work and don't really use the macs at home. When I look at the mac laptop it doesn't look like windows screen & icons. I guess maybe I'll have to experiment with both a pc & mac logger. I guess this will be my excuse to use the macs now.

lofight: She has been through counseling because she set up a meeting with a man 3 times her age on myspace. She was barred from using the computer for a year, but I found that it only made her use others in friends houses or around school. I'd rather she do whatever she's going to do on our own computer so we can at least keep an eye.
 
Are there any keyloggers for macs that will collect asterisk keystrokes? I want to get my child's passwords on our computer.

Fyi - all keyloggers do is collect all keystrokes. the asterisk character is a UI enabled feature... long story short: your son's password will be collected. logKext is a good one -- runs on the kernel.
 
Welcome to MacRumors, where our motto today is: Not ALL of us are nosy busy-bodies that know better than you.

On the serious side, I'd recommend becoming more educated on computers. They may not interest you, but obviously they interest your child and they can be very dangerous. If you don't become educated that won't stop your child.

I wish you luck, rearing a child in this day and age is not an easy thing to do.
 
Are there any keyloggers for macs that will collect asterisk keystrokes? I want to get my child's passwords on our computer.

**** that, its your computer. Tell her no password no computer. Get a job and buy your own.

**** parents need to grow a set. back in the day if you said no, you would get your ass whooped and your MITS Altair 8800 or IMSAI computer taken away.
 
you should set up your kid's account to have limited privileges. Go in under your "administrator" login and turn change their account to "managed." You can control which websites they can get to, which applications they can open, etc.

If you really need to know the passwords, chances are, they are all the same one, and chances are, it's the same as the user login password for their account. you can find out what that is with Keychain if you're logged in as an admin.
 
**** parents need to grow a set. back in the day if you said no, you would get your ass whooped and your MITS Altair 8800 or IMSAI computer taken away.

Hehe. I promised myself I wouldn't get into a discussion about the morailty of spying on kids on computers, till I saw this post.

The "whoop the kid and take away the Altair" worked in the days when libraries and kids next door didn't have computers of their own. You couldn't just hang out at the library back then and use their computer, or go down the street.

Things have changed, ol' timer. We have this whole Internet thing now, and a newfangled Myspace contraption. Lots of public places and people have computers, sometimes more than one. And sadly, the perverted creepy old men who used to troll candy stores and playgrounds, now troll the internet and myspace.

I don't advocate parents tightening the noose like this in just any case, but the OP clearly shows that her daughter's abused her parent's trust. While I don't relish installing keyloggers on computers (Mac, Windows or whatever), the OP's doing what she has to do. Don't give her any grief for trying to bring her kid up right, and maybe if/when you have kids, you'll have the right to tell people to butt out of your business, even if you ARE okay with your kids talking to CreepyGuy58 on Facebook.
 
Hehe. I promised myself I wouldn't get into a discussion about the morailty of spying on kids on computers, till I saw this post.

The "whoop the kid and take away the Altair" worked in the days when libraries and kids next door didn't have computers of their own. You couldn't just hang out at the library back then and use their computer, or go down the street.

Things have changed, ol' timer. We have this whole Internet thing now, and a newfangled Myspace contraption. Lots of public places and people have computers, sometimes more than one. And sadly, the perverted creepy old men who used to troll candy stores and playgrounds, now troll the internet and myspace.

I don't advocate parents tightening the noose like this in just any case, but the OP clearly shows that her daughter's abused her parent's trust. While I don't relish installing keyloggers on computers (Mac, Windows or whatever), the OP's doing what she has to do. Don't give her any grief for trying to bring her kid up right, and maybe if/when you have kids, you'll have the right to tell people to butt out of your business, even if you ARE okay with your kids talking to CreepyGuy58 on Facebook.


Still back in the day the fear of punishment and getting in trouble was enough to keep you straight. Back then Parents did not let their kids speak back to them like they do today and their word was the final word no ifs ands or buts. But you have to be strong and keep limits etc and always be a parent. Usually what happens is parents are very passive and try to reason with them, try to become a pal etc.. by the time they hit their teens it becomes a mess.
 
To most of the replys above: "This thread is NOT about the morality of keyloggers, the OP simply asked if they exist for macs"...

Let's stick to the topic and help each other out!
 
To most of the replys above: "This thread is NOT about the morality of keyloggers, the OP simply asked if they exist for macs"...

Let's stick to the topic and help each other out!

These questions have come up before, in fact if people searched the forums instead of starting new threads we'd never know.

But even with all that, for those of us that have thought this out and heard it time and time again, if you get caught, or say you peeked at their password and things, your relationship with your children will become even more strained. Trust is better than never talking to them again.
 
These questions have come up before, in fact if people searched the forums instead of starting new threads we'd never know.

But even with all that, for those of us that have thought this out and heard it time and time again, if you get caught, or say you peeked at their password and things, your relationship with your children will become even more strained. Trust is better than never talking to them again.

I do not disagree with, I just stating that sticking to the OP's original question is more beneficial for everyone. Like you said, there are many other forums on Computer Ethics. In fact, go to your local community college and you could probably find a class on this...
 
Wow people, the lady asks a simple question and your "righteous indignation of censorship and supervision" alarm kicks in, followed by others need to train people on doing google searches and finally followed closely by a critique of parenting.

Seek to understand before you make yourself understood. It works try it :)

Melinda, they are your children living in your house, using your computer. You have the 100% right to do anything you wish to in this regard.
 
Wow people, the lady asks a simple question and your "righteous indignation of censorship and supervision" alarm kicks in, followed by others need to train people on doing google searches and finally followed closely by a critique of parenting.

Seek to understand before you make yourself understood. It works try it :)

Melinda, they are your children living in your house, using your computer. You have the 100% right to do anything you wish to in this regard.


I agree.

Kids are not little adults, they are kids who need to be supervised by parents. Sometimes, kids can be tricked into thinking something is innocent, when in fact it is dangerous. making sure your child is safe is most important. A parent must do anything they can to keep their kids safe.

This is not a case of trust. It is a case of parental responsibility.

I applaud the original poster.

Some people would let you believe that the OP should look the other way and trust her daughter. If someone hurts her, is she supposed to find comfort knowing she "trusted" her child?
 
beginner to logKext

hi everyone!!
im a complete beginner at this. hope someone can help me!!!
i installed logKext, its running however the logfile text are jumbled up...could it be because i am using an 'azerty' keyboard instead of a 'qwerty' keyboard?
how do i fix this?

and how do i change the password or turn off the encryption?

please help ! someone please clear my confusion !!
uhuhu :confused:
 
This is such the wrong way to go about checking what your children are doing on the internet.

Firstly, you do realize that in this day and age, 99% of child computer users know how to wipe the trail (history / cookies etc) of what they've been up to, hiding it from their generally computer illiterate parents?

Even if you get his / her password all it will do is log you onto their account, you'll most likely not find anything.

Instead, properly applying restrictions on their account and seeking a session logging program that you can view exactly what they've been up to would be a much wiser move.

If you know enough about what a keylogger it and how to use it, you should be in enough of a position to apply proper regulations on a child's account.

A successful child <-> parent relationship (yes, it is two way) is one built on trust & respect. He / she respects you enough to understand why such restrictions are put in place and you have trust in them and your child's use of what they are given access too.

Keylogging your own child is pretty grim. :(
 
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