I’d rather not go into why, but I need to get this password ASAP.
I’d appreciate it if anyone could help me out.
I think I can guess why you are asking this. I do not know yahoos policies nor am I a hacker, but have you considered e-mailing yahoo admin and explaining the situation? Or better yet, ask the kid. If he/she refuses, and you have a legitimate reason to think the e-mail is potentially harmfull to the kid, then just take away the computer. If I am wrong and the kid in question ain’t yours, then you got no business trying to get the password.
Mail me if this is your child.
Also, I’ll agree with askeptic, Yahoo admin should be able to help you if you have legitimate concern that the child is communicating with someone that could be harmful.
Thanks, done. It is my child, and yes I have some legitimate concerns.
I’ll be extremely surprised if you get anything other than an automated response from yahoo. I tried writing to them repeatedly because they were allowing porn spam to get through to an “Under-13” account. It seems to me that if yahoo is going to call an account “Under 13” the company should have some type of filters in place.
Anyway, I never could reach a real person at yahoo, so my daughter was instructed to stop using the account and we opened her a more kid-friendly one. If your child won’t give you the password, simply remove the computer privileges. You can set up your computer to require a password in order to even allow web browsing. I’d do that.
Depending on the situation, another option would be to install keyloging software to keep track of every keystroke the child enters. There may be things going on that you don’t even know about, this will capture everything. Some of the programs will mail you a daily log so you do not even have to touch the PC after you install it.
However, before doing this, please weigh all the issues, including how this will affect your relationship with your child in the long term. Personally, I would have reservations doing it, unless I had a genuine reason to be concerned with their personal safety; ie: drug abuse, sex issues for a younger teen, etc.
I don’t know how to get the password but under certain conditions you may be able to read the child’s email. When my son has used his Yahoo mail he doesn’t log out afterwards, he just closes the window. If I get on the computer right after he’s gone and go to the Yahoo main page I can click on the mail link and read his mail files. I found this out while trying to read my own Yahoo mail. I think this works because he didn’t change any of the default email choices and stays logged on no matter what for about 15 minutes. I don’t think most kids would know to change the settings. I know…sneaky, but you have to be sometimes.
Slight hijack. What service do you recommend for kid-friendly email accounts?
I got an automated response from yahoo. I will continue to try to get to a live person but in the meantime I installed a keylogging program. I am concerned that there is more going on that might well affect her personal safety, and she is 13 years old.
As soon as I get the information I need, the internet access is going away until she proves to me that she can be trusted.
Kudos. I did some stuff through the internet that I regretted. The worse that happened to me was Dad yelled at me for always closing the window when he came up, and showed me how he could find every email sent by me or to me (I don’t remember where – some internet folder) which I just started deleting the bad stuff from.
Not that these aren’t good mistakes to learn from. “But it seemed all right to meet this guy” — and I’ll never be the same. (They never found out.)
But really, this post is just to say find all you can asap, and thanks for caring enough 
/S
Suse,
That keylogging software will eventually give you her password, and hopefully you won’t have to slog through all the other mundane crap. Also, from download.com, there’s a program that allows you to find passwords stored on the computer, if anyone has ever clicked the ‘remember me’ box while signing in. Search ‘passwords’ and it should be there.
Unless I’m mistaken, there’s a function called ‘Forgot your password’ when they ask you to sign in. This function allows you to obtain password through e-mail by typing in birthday, zip code and country followed either by ID or by e-mail address. You could always try that.
Hope that helps.
Nothing productive to add. Just wanted to say that I hope you manage to keep the kid safe.
Not too long ago, someone started a thread asking how to get past certain security software. He claimed the computer was his. The thread was quickly closed, simply because it was about circumventing security.
Here, someone is requesting information on gaining access (hacking, dare I say?) to someone’s email account. (S?)he claims it’s his (her?) son’s. The thread lives.
You can get a keystroke logger from thinkgeek.com. You can use it to catch the password as it is typed in, as well as any typing (like emails) and then you can just put all of the text into a text editor (like MS Word, or wordpad). Here’s the link—> http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5a05/ it’s tiny enough to not be noticed. If you want to save money, I’d bet you could find free software that did the same, but the person you are spying on might notice it running.
[cya]Hypothetically speaking of course.[/cya]
Here are a few:
https://www.kidsafemail.org/
http://www.kidmail.net/
http://www.justsafe.com/filteredemail/
http://www.crayoncrawler.com/community.asp
You know, Freheit, I didn’t feel so good about posting it either.
But the child is my own, and the keylogging software gave me enough information so I could be sure that she was safe. That was my priority.
There’s this fine line we have to walk once the kids become teens; on one hand, we want to allow them to have more freedom because we want them to grow up to be independent adults, and on the other we need to ensure that the mistakes they are making aren’t life-threatening ones.
But I understand your point. Just as I am saying this is my daughter, you have no reason to trust me, just as I point out to her that just because someone says they are a 13 year old girl doesn’t mean they really are.
It’s a tough question. The only thing I can say about the specific point you are making in my defense is that I had access to her computer to install the keylogging software on it when she was asleep, and then to check the log when she was away from home. I can’t see how a complete stranger with malicious intent would have that kind of access, but maybe I’m too naive.
Sorry for wasting the bandwidth, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for the helpful information, and thanks for caring enough to post it.