Well, he might not do it directly, but Microsoft – as part of their ever growing Live series – are launching a free service for parents allowing them control everything their child does online, from what they can see to who they can email, IM, chat to etc. Standing tall in the shadow of Netnanny and CyberPatrol or any other guardian software, Microsoft are planning to release it towards the end of this year as Windows Live pulls out of beta.

The company aims to simplify the process by allowing a parent, or administrator, to monitor every family member’s Web activities within Windows Live. The service is only available for certain versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and will be compatible with the upcoming Windows Vista operating system

Bill is already offering similar services on a subscriber basis through MSN but looks set to drop the asking price. Just out of interest, does anyone actually use any net monitoring software? It was never an issue with our house growing up, mind you, it wasn’t exactly the most available at the time in comparison to today’s market (the software that is). Interesting to see if people are still using it….