thank you everyone for your replies. Our computer is in the study attached to the family room, and I have been known to check on her conversations and I regularly check who she is talking to . They are mostly kids from school and the chat is pretty harmless. Just a special reply for Michael ... not to have access to msn is pretty much social death and ostracism for pretty much all high school age chn and from what i hear at my own school for yr 6 kids as well.So you have to weigh that up for your teen.We have net nanny and from what I understand chat on msn is from people in your address book or their friends. so it's not totally open to all.
Point well taken, if the computer is out of sight. I'd make sure you are checking her emails/conversations pretgty regularly. Just be aware that I'm pretty sure its possible to delete conversations in MSN after you've finished them, so if she was so inclined, she could probably hide some of her chats to you as well.