Monitoring Computer Use

There are several places to look on your computer for trails of sites that have been visited.  Some of these are well-known and others are rather obscure, but I'll show you how to access them.

(You may find it helpful to tell the people you love that you know how to monitor the sites they've visited.  Again, just telling them may be enough to dissuade the most casual surfer from going where they ought not go.)

Before I show you these tips, however, I want you to promise me you won't use them to erase your own trail so others can't see where you've been!  Even if you did, remember:

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.  Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13, NIV).

I also want to give you a another brief caution as we explore the history files of your computer.  

I had a friend who would sometimes visit illicit sites while his wife was out of town.  He would then go in and delete his history files so his wife wouldn't know where he'd been.  One day when he went to delete these files, he noticed several sites he hadn't visited before.  When he looked closer, he found out his wife had been doing the same thing when he was gone!

This shocked him into confessing his own sin to his wife.  They cut off their Internet accounts and waited a long time before going back onto the web.

With that caution in mind, let's take a look at some of the history files on your computer.