So today my dad came into my room and told me he was watching me online and was mad at me for swearing. Apparently he found my old fanfiction account? I haven't used it in years, but I'm probably going to delete it now.

I kind of? get why he'd be upset, but the thing is, I'm twenty years old and heading to college in a few weeks. It just doesn't feel right that he's tracking my online activity (although what he found is at least four years old), and I feel he's going to keep up his actions. A few years ago he stalked my facebook, and I haven't used it since. I told him I felt he was intruding on me, but he doesn't seem to care and seem to only want to find more websites I use so he con monitor me.

I have a similar problem - my mum looked at my posts on a band forum and then was upset with me over something I'd said about her. I got annoyed at her and told her not to do it any more because it's an invasion of privacy but she didn't agree with me because she said that because it's on the internet, it's not private and anyone's allowed to look at it. I don't know if she's still doing it but I think she got the hint and stopped (hopefully!).

What I'd suggest is deleting any old accounts on sites that you no longer use and try your best to increase privacy settings on the ones you still do use. If it's not completely possible to change your privacy settings so he can't see things, then perhaps change your usernames on those sites so he can't find you.

Sit down with your dad and talk about it.Remain calm and try to understand why he's feeling insecure and constantly need to check your private life.

It doesn't start out of the blue,so maybe having a chat with him would help. @ hyaka [Edit] If you really feel like he will not understand: Don't leave anything and keep your username and stuff like that private. Delete every log,password etc etc

As an addendum to every that has already been said, if you're using a household computer, be sure to log out of everything. Also be sure to delete browsing history when you're done.

Otherwise, I agree with FAR, it sounds like an issue that you two need to talk about or at least come to some kind of understanding.

On the one hand I can understand concerns about posting things online, in the sense that it's technically available on a readily accessible public forum, but on the other hand there's a lot of information passing through the internet, and there is a desire to maintain a sense of anonymity on the web and growing concerns that follow as more and more information becomes readily available about us on the internet.

How exactly is he tracking your online activity? Is he simply finding out your usernames on different websites and checking up on you, or is he using something like remote desktop or a keylogger? If it's the former, I would change all of your usernames and passwords or even delete your accounts. If it's the latter, I'm not sure what to tell you but I'm sure that somebody a little more tech-savvy would be able to help you.

Either way, you need to sit down and have a talk with your dad. Explain to him that while you are still his child, you're a grown adult now who is starting a life of their own and you need to know that he trusts you. Tell him that you're not doing anything illegal or dangerous online, and as an adult you have the right to use whatever language you want, especially on the internet. The way he's acting isn't fair, and tells me that he's having a hard time letting you grow up. It also might help to tell him that the account he found was several years old. Good luck!

My advice would be to delete all history or use private browsing where he cant look through anything. It is your personal business and you are past adulthood, he needs to get a life. I think you are luckier than my friend though, all the texts she gets and gives go straight to her moms email which is a bit insane and extremely intrusive