oovoo

[venusrice1]

Hi my 12 year old girl wants an oovoo a/c which looks like a Skype type of a/c except you can invite or be invited by your phone book, email, face book, twitter etc. Unfortunately we had to limit her internet use late last year as she set up a live blog from her bedroom that left her vulnerable to the public. My question is does anyone else understand this oovoo site as I don't believe she has the ability to protect herself from the public. Despite many discussions apparently we are making a big deal out of nothing.

She wants an account so she can instigate the calls. She can already be invited by someone else via email or facebook onto their calls. Afaik.

Its just another service exactly like Skype for video calls via a webcam.

tbh, if you had concerns before and she doesnt seem to have learnt from them, then the situation is no different with this product.

Make her use the computer in a public space though, not her bedroom, shes too young. That way you can see and hear who she is talking to, and ensure its logged off properly, and you can set her a time limit. So you have a compromise, she can talk to her friends if you are allowed to loosely supervise. You can hover unobtrusively and still monitor what shes at. Set some ground rules, no adding friends she doesnt know in real life and no connecting with people who hide their webcams.