[delds]

The owner of the board, I feel is responsible for the operation of that board.

If the administrator / owner doesn't have the ability to monitor everything that happens with the forums that he / she is overseeing , how can he / she know rather or not the forums private messages is not being used as a means to send or plan illegal activities, or possibly harassing others on the forums.

Having the ability to view all private messaging on the forums is an added means for the owner / administrator to verify that such activities are not taking place. As long as you include in a privacy statement that the owners / administrators of the forums do have the ability to read all private messages than you should haev your legal ass covered.

I would however like to be able to view all private messages in the entire forum system on one page, without checking it individually by user. Perhaps a page that would inidcate user name / time date / private message, of each message.