difficult child, Porn, Net - Computer guru's, help please ASAP!

[mattsmom27]

Before easy child and I left to her Tuesday night swim lessons I was sensing something fishy with difficult child who was on the computer at the time, wondering when I'm leaving, very anxious to be alone in the house. By the time easy child and I had dinner out, then her lesson, difficult child had turned up at the gym. easy child and I got home and I checked the history on the computer. Literally the minute I was out the door he was doing google searches to visit some pretty foul xxx porn sites. First instinct, kill him. However I never liked blood and dont want to rot in jail. Second thought, he is NEVER getting computer privledges under MY roof EVER AGAIN. It's gonna not be pretty I don't think when he surfaces from the gym. :Hot Head: Geesh, he is only 11 freaking years old!!! :Bonkers:

So computer guru's, years ago I had my computer set up that it would not load PERIOD without a password. I remember it was so simple to set up and I want it done by the end of tonight again. I cannot trust difficult child and am not playing the game of taking cords or mouse etc away every time I go out. The password will keep him out, trust me I'm make up a password he'll never guess!

So anyone wanna help me remember how to do that?

Thanx, I need a bloody xanax only I don't take stuff like that.

What is it with men/boys and computer porn???

Melissa

 

[tiredmommy]

I don't know, but I do know the gurus will need to know who your internet subscriber (aol, msn?)is and what your operating system is (windows 2000?). Some internet providers have parental lockouts.

 

[GoingNorth]

If you want to password protect the machine at bootup (right when you start up) you need to dig out your manual (or go to your motherboard mfr's website) and follow their instructions for getting into CMOS settup and setting a bootup password. This will conclusively prevent computer from starting up.

Be warned however that if YOU forget the password you will have to open case and pull CMOS battery (or reset dipswitch on some boards) to clear out the password.

WIN2000 allows for setting of passwords, permissions, the like. XP, 95 and 98 have some crippling faults in this respect. With 2000 you can set up password protected profiles for the kids, set them up a hardware profile that does not allow use of modem, ethernet connection, etc., and hence will keep them off internet.

That said, 11 is about the age they used to start swiping dirty magazines so I think that might be a bit normal...just heavier duty dirt available nowadays.

toK

 

[Fran]

I have a password protected Screen saver. Is that what you are talking about?


To protect your files by using a screen saver password
Open Display in Control Panel.
On the Screen Saver tab under Screen saver, click a screen saver.
Select the On resume, password protect check box.
If Fast User Switching is turned on, select the On resume, display Welcome screen check box.

Notes

To open Display, click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
Selecting the On Resume, password protect check box will lock your computer when the screen saver is activated. When you begin working again you will be prompted to type your password to unlock it.
Your screen saver password is the same as your logon password. If you do not use a password to log on, you cannot set a screen saver password.
Fast User Switching is only available for stand-alone computers and users in a workgroup. It is not available if your computer is part of a network domain.

 

[Coookie]

Melissa,

Just a note....run virus scans, as many as you have. My difficult child (3 years ago) was surfing some pretty nasty sites and it messed up my computer and husband's computer. I don't remember exactly what got in but it was pretty nasty. My system eventually locked up (so did husband's) and it took days to clean them out.

Don't mean to scare you but something to think about...

Hugs

 

[DammitJanet]

Yeah if your using XP you can set him his own account with no internet access. You just check which programs you want him to have access to as administrator. With win98...you can set up a bios password. I forget just how to do that because its been years since I have been on win98. Something to do with hitting an Fkey at startup.

On xp you can set up only one account..the admin account and password it and then no one can get on without that password. You can also password protect the screensaver. At least you can on my Pro edition. I can lock this sucker up so tight, no one can get it.

 

[mattsmom27]

Thank you all for the advice

Fran, yes that is what I meant. I actually remembered how to do it and did it. I tried myself to get the computer to load in anyway without the right password, no go. So that's good. And it is a password he wont guess/couldn't guess. Made up of letters and numbers, one I'll remember because it is the password assigned to me for here on the board ... ohhh the irony in that!

I do plan to scan for viruses and spyware etc tonight before bed and make sure nothing sinister has gotten through, thankfully I'm pretty computer savvy (about most stuff) and have gotten good at making sure there are no bugs in this thing.

I am more angry than anything that the sites he was looking at had VERY YOUNG GIRLS. I'm talking no way these kids are "legal age", and that is considered CHILD PORN and it is very strictly prosecuted around here. I can just see it now, me getting arrested for my 11 year old viewing pictures of young girls. :Hot Head:

He's still not home which is good, considering it gave me time to calm down.

Melissa ... password protected and he is NOT going to be earning his computer privledges back either!

 

[Loony Smurf]

on mine you go to the startup menu as soon as you turn it on, it'll tell you what button to push, and set up the supervisor password. There's two different passwords to use, be sure to get the right one. I THINK it's the supervisor password.

Heck, I use both, and my kids each have their own account on the puter, and the screensaver has a password on each account. :Bonkers:

 

[OTE]

I obviously don't know as much as you do. I have windows XP pro and each of my kids as their own account. So they only have access to their own documents and programs that are installed on their own account. They each have access to AOL but each kid has their own account and password. Each kid has a different level of access on AOL. And I've done all this quite easily. I can adjust their level of access on AOL very easily at will. So they can earn extra time, certain websites, e-mail or IM privileges, etc when I give it to them.

I have AOL specifically for the kids. It gives me easy and fast ability to control what they're doing on the internet. And I can tell you from personal experience that AOL updates their ratings on internet sites 24/7. They're very responsive if my kid finds something they haven't. The software you install like net nanny updates monthly I think and you need a subsciption to get the updates. I compared the costs and felt that AOL was about the same considering the parental controls and the virus protection. Obviously AOL also has the filters for viruses, spam, etc.

Mine was about 11 when he started with the porn.

I also bought a spyware program for about $60. It records the screen (just a screen shot) every certain number of seconds depending on what I set it on. I have it set so the kids don't know it's on but it can be set to tell them you're recording. This way i can also read all their e-mails and IMs too. Much better than just the history of sites visited.

It's been my experience that once they get on the internet it's a powerful incentive to behave. They can earn an hour and AOL just shuts them down when it's over. They can earn an upgrade to a higher level of access for report card grades. Ah.. one of the few rewards that don't cost money! LOL

 

[BonnieJean]

Melissa, well I went through the porn searching scream already with difficult child just a couple of months ago. Here's what happened as a result....difficult child got computer infected with not one but SEVEN viruses. Thank goodness that weren't fatal ones!

Your computers history is an amazing thing...when my difficult child realized that I knew it was him and exactly what sites he had been on, he freaked. Of course complete denial was the main key for him, but I did a complete deep scan of the computer and all files and unless you have more than one user who is an administrator (My 14 year old shares administrator duties with myself, but I warned him that that option can be easily changed should I find ANYTHING inappropriate on his file.)you should be able to see each and every single solitary file upon scan completion. And it will show you the exact name of the file as well. My difficult child swore it was not him, but it was his file that was named and the girls with horses having you know what is not my idea of a good site. It's VERY XXX!!!

This two sites should help you. The only thing I would ask is which Windows are you running? XP is not hard, but make sure you change YOUR options so that you are the sole administrator. To do this, go to Control Panel, click on User Accounts and change your options there. This is for when you have multiple users and Windows XP has just that. Your only other option is to delete all users but YOU, if you have Windows XP and this way, with password protection, it won't matter how many times he switches the reset button on the harddrive or not, he will not be able to get in. Again, this would depend ONLY if you have Windows XP. I know Windows 98 does not have the multiple users account option.

The help button also teaches alot for Windows XP. I've had a hard trial and error time with this too. The one good thing about difficult child doing this, is that now, he rarely stays up late and rarely comes online late after the house is all quiet.

P.S. By the way, I should have mentioned too, my son, like everyone else does, has email and from the looks of things, he first clicked on the XXX site from an email that was called Girls have sex with horses. Ugh...

Good luck!
BonnieJean

 

[DammitJanet]

Oh I remember that darling Girls and horses site...Is it still around and doing business? LOL. Gosh...Cory found it when he was 12 I think. Maybe he was 13..cant remember. Thankfully Corys run thru internet porn was shortlived.

Now my poor husband got caught in one heck of porn loop one time off an email because he is so computer illiterate. He didnt know not to click an ad and omg...the sites kept popping up over and over again. He freaked out!!! He must have had 50 sites open and he couldnt close them. I think he finally pulled the power cord. LOL.

 

[busywend]

Screen saver password is not enough. He can turn the computer off and on again - no screen saver. Then he could go in and turn off the screen saver password.

You must do it on start up.

If you can find it in your control panel you can make a password on start up. I could not find it and I am working on XP right now, which is probably not what you have.

Try going to www.soundbytes.org for more advice on how to keep your kid off the computer.

 

[Fran]

Wend, I have another password when I close down the laptop.
I always worry about theft more than my kids.
It is password protected to open windows and then password protected screen saver.

 

[painted_girl]

you've gotten lots of good info.Here's my favorite site

http://www.theeldergeek.com/

for us old computer geeks ...or computer geek wanna be's :wink:

 

[hannahsmomjulie]

Ok, here's the proceedure from a highly experienced computer nerd:

1) when your computer boots up it should give you a message that talks about entering the system setup using either the F1 key, the Esc Key, the F12 key etc. Hit the key when it tells you to and hold it down. This will interrupt the boot sequence and put you into the system bios menu.

The system bios is the place where the really basic booting information for the machine is held and run. It's what tells the mother board and the CPU (Intel/Pentium/etc processor chip) how to communicate with the hard drive, cd drive, floppy, etc.

2) follow the menu systems within the bios until you find the 'set password' function. You can always exit without saving if you fear you've changed something by accident, so don't be too afraid to nose around in this menu system. Just don't poke around with any of the other settings. Set the password, being VERY careful about type-o's. Once it's set, you can't re-do it without knowing the password you just set unless you wipe the system setup, and that's no fun.

3) enable the password, exit saving the changes.

In most systems, the bios will be read all over again, and you'll have to enter the password at this point.

Once this is finished, no one can boot your easy child unless they know the password. It simply won't get to the point where it starts windows at all.

You can change the password if necessary using the same process.

Sincerely,

Your resident profession computer geek.
Julie