# Blocking children's access to porn online



## Stevevatcher

I'm posting this as a concerned parent and as a warning to other parents. 

Recently it came to the attention of my wife and I that our 16 year old son was selling pornographic material online. He was doing it as a small business and the ease he does this, is astounding and after some investigation our problem seems rife online. 

So this is to serve as a warning to other parents on how to watch out for the problem and protect children on the Internet.

This is the process we discovered he used.

Firstly he downloads porn which is not owned by him and free on the Internet from File Locker sites. Then he uploads it to another file locker like letitbit.net and he's paid when someone downloads it. 

Astoundingly the payments are going through well known credit card payment companies like Paypal and others. He earns from all the payments.

After some investigation I discovered a search engine site called filestube.com and discovered much much worse porn. Not only the normal porn which I find hard to stomach, though legal. There are also things like I can't think of without being sick. All being paid for through credit cards and companies like Paypal. It seems abhorrent that a household name like Paypal would be doing this.

These file locker sites are not small, research led me to Megaupload and a Multi Millionaire owner Kim Dotcom, who now faces jail for his activities. Until I researched I had only associated Megaupload with the downloading of music and films. 

So here are two ways to stop this kind of activity. Install a program like Net Nanny, it's easy I promise, from netnanny.com. And check the "History" on the browser. This is done by dropping down the tool bar at the top of the page on the web browser and allows you see where people have been surfing.


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## FirstYearDown

Wow, your son is very business oriented! That part is impressive.


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## Stevevatcher

FirstYearDown said:


> Wow, your son is very business oriented! That part is impressive.


He says he copied it off what another boy was doing. Another boy in his class. You do realise he's breaking the law.


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## costa200

Almost every kids know about this stuff. You parents need to get updated. I'm around them all day long. Believe me, they know a lot more of this than the average parent. They go circles around their parents even before they realize something is going on.



> So here are two ways to stop this kind of activity. Install a program like Net Nanny, it's easy I promise, from netnanny.com. And check the "History" on the browser. This is done by dropping down the tool bar at the top of the page on the web browser and allows you see where people have been surfing.


Sorry to brake it to you but if your kid is good with computers like he seem to be he'll get through that like hot knife through butter.


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## lamaga

Yep. This kid's going to laugh at NetNanny.


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## Stevevatcher

Then I need to step it up any ideas?


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## lamaga

Well, at his age, I don't think trying to out-tech him will work -- not unless you are a computer guru. Have you talked to him about why this is wrong, and tried to give him some alternate outlets for this entrepreneurial spirit?


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## ocotillo

Stevevatcher said:


> So here are two ways to stop this kind of activity. Install a program like Net Nanny, it's easy I promise, from netnanny.com. And check the "History" on the browser. This is done by dropping down the tool bar at the top of the page on the web browser and allows you see where people have been surfing.


My youngest could defeat Netnanny, Websense, etc. by the time she was a freshman in highschool. 

By the time she was a senior, she could defeat the GFI web monitor on my ISA server. (I'm an I.T. person.)

I'm having a hard time believing this would stop any precocious teen.


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## anonim

Stevevatcher said:


> Then I need to step it up any ideas?


put his computer in a public room. no bedroom computers, no laptops. he has between x and y hours to get his stuff done. install a keylogger and password protect that computer change the password weekly. you type in the password when he uses the computer.

He will *****, piss, moan and throw tantrums. stand your ground and tell him if he wants to use a computer thats when he has access to it, if he doesnt like it he is welcome not to use it at all.


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## ocotillo

anonim said:


> put his computer in a public room. no bedroom computers, no laptops. he has between x and y hours to get his stuff done.


Yes! Brute force is the only real solution. You have to treat the child the same as you would an employee in the workplace and remove the shield of privacy




> password protect that computer and keylog it.


With respect, that won't affect the simple approach a computer literate teen will take. For example, there are dozens of free Linux distributions that will boot from a live CD or thumb drive. (Knoppix, Puppy, ect.) Linux is quite popular among teens and in some respects even among the schools they attend because it's generally free.

Cold booting the machine into a different OS will bypass your password, your keylogger, and your parental control software. Piggy-backing on an unprotected Wlan or making a covert agreement with another teen who lives nearby or even using the free wireless internet that some cities are providing now will bypass your router, your firewall (If you have one) and your proxy-server (If you have one.)

The only way to stop this is as you said, to keep the computer where you can see it.


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## costa200

> The only way to stop this is as you said, to keep the computer where you can see it.


This... :iagree:


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## anonim

ocotillo said:


> Yes! Brute force is the only real solution. You have to treat the child the same as you would an employee in the workplace and remove the shield of privacy
> 
> 
> 
> 
> With respect, that won't affect the simple approach a computer literate teen will take. For example, there are dozens of free Linux distributions that will boot from a live CD or thumb drive. (Knoppix, Puppy, ect.) Linux is quite popular among teens and in some respects even among the schools they attend because it's generally free.
> _
> Cold booting the machine into a different OS will bypass your password, your keylogger, and your parental control software._ *Piggy-backing on an unprotected Wlan or making a covert agreement with another teen who lives nearby or even using the free wireless internet that some cities are providing now will bypass your router, your firewall (If you have one) and your proxy-server (If you have one.)
> *
> The only way to stop this is as you said, to keep the computer where you can see it.


Remove usb ports as a boot device in bios, then password protect the bios.

this is what the keylogger is for.


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## ocotillo

anonim said:


> Remove usb ports as a boot device in bios, then password protect the bios.


You would need to remove the optical drives as boot devices as well, since a live Linux CD is actually a little easier to prepare than a bootable thumb drive. 

But both measures are pretty ineffectual when the CMOS password is so easily cleared/reset with a single jumper that is usually clearly marked:












anonim said:


> this is what the keylogger is for.


A computer literate teen is going to find an alternate path to the internet after they have defeated any Windows-based controls you have set up, not before.


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## CLucas976

I must say, your kid is impressive with his functioning business skills. Most kids around here just sell drugs when they want to entrepreneur. 

That's pretty genius, really.


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## EleGirl

So how much did this budding business man earn?

When my children were in high school I used a keylogger that also captured screen shots. When I caught them going to sites and/or doing things they were not supposed to do they lost all internet access for months. They learned quickly not to try to hide things from mom.. (I'm a software engineer so I'm always a few steps ahead of them.)

The rule was that if they figured out how to get around the keylogger, uninstalled it, etc they also lost their internet use for months.

I have some issues with their friends thinking I was full of it with the monitoring. In a few cases the friends kept up the porn surfing. So I let them know that I'd print out all of the logs and give them to their parents... while I stood there with some logs in my hand.

That stopped them.


One of my daughter's friends (15) was online picking up men to meet for dates at the mall. The girl had no brain. She was trying to make dates for my daughter as well.

So I printed out the logs and gave them to her father and the police.

The girl never had those dates.

The only way to stop this is to be smarter than your kids and play hard ball with them.


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## costa200

EleGirl said:


> So how much did this budding business man earn?
> 
> When my children were in high school I used a keylogger that also captured screen shots. When I caught them going to sites and/or doing things they were not supposed to do they lost all internet access for months. They learned quickly not to try to hide things from mom.. (I'm a software engineer so I'm always a few steps ahead of them.)
> 
> The rule was that if they figured out how to get around the keylogger, uninstalled it, etc they also lost their internet use for months.
> 
> I have some issues with their friends thinking I was full of it with the monitoring. In a few cases the friends kept up the porn surfing. So I let them know that I'd print out all of the logs and give them to their parents... while I stood there with some logs in my hand.
> 
> That stopped them.
> 
> 
> One of my daughter's friends (15) was online picking up men to meet for dates at the mall. The girl had no brain. She was trying to make dates for my daughter as well.
> 
> So I printed out the logs and gave them to her father and the police.
> 
> The girl never had those dates.
> 
> The only way to stop this is to be smarter than your kids and play hard ball with them.


Damn... you bad girl...


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## Stevevatcher

There are more problems than just having your children uploading porn to sites. I have no learned that many of the owners of porn material are tracking uploaders and downloaders IP address and suing them. Parents are getting letters threatening court proceedings.


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## Stevevatcher

Been finding out more about this and it seems some people are being sued for piracy or threatened with a court case. Also that a company who produce Gay porn, has just got hold of a lot of information on people who were pirating their porn.


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## KirkSpock

Steve, while I think it’s a great idea to place the computer in an open, publicly viewed room in the house, please keep in mind that even the mindset or belief that you can control or curb your teens internet usage already demonstrates the generational and technical gap between you and your son. Almost any modern cell phone is, essentially, a mini computer. Free wireless can be found virtually anywhere, and access to computers may be found at any community college, library, buddy’s laptop, gaming café, etc. 
I mention this because you might be more effective talking about the issues and reasoning of your sons actions than trying to stop him from engaging in them; you will lose that particular battle. You might as well try to forbid your sons viewing of TV….you can’t, it’s everywhere, and what he “can’t” do at home he will do elsewhere. Have you considered helping your son set up some sort of LEGAL online business? He CERTAINLY has the drive, motivation, and skillset needed, something many other parents of 16 year olds would LOVE to see in their kids.


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## Stevevatcher

KirkSpock said:


> Steve, while I think it’s a great idea to place the computer in an open, publicly viewed room in the house, please keep in mind that even the mindset or belief that you can control or curb your teens internet usage already demonstrates the generational and technical gap between you and your son. Almost any modern cell phone is, essentially, a mini computer. Free wireless can be found virtually anywhere, and access to computers may be found at any community college, library, buddy’s laptop, gaming café, etc.
> 
> I mention this because you might be more effective talking about the issues and reasoning of your sons actions than trying to stop him from engaging in them; you will lose that particular battle. You might as well try to forbid your sons viewing of TV….you can’t, it’s everywhere, and what he “can’t” do at home he will do elsewhere. Have you considered helping your son set up some sort of LEGAL online business? He CERTAINLY has the drive, motivation, and skillset needed, something many other parents of 16 year olds would LOVE to see in their kids.


Hi Kirk
We have both spoken to him and told him of the dangers he faces. I realise stopping a determined educated kid is hard today. We're more concerned at younger children without his knowledge stumbling into unsuitable subjects online. Setting up a legal online business is a good idea, thank you. 

Stopping someone from doing wrong is always hard, protecting the innocent isn't easy either.


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