Teen bedroom PC

[Polito45]

My son's PC (I built him his own one when he was around 8 or 9) has always been in the sitting room where I could monitor what he was doing on it.
I told him he couldn't have it in his bedroom until he was 15. My fear was the soul-less American/Russian pron fest that's so easily accessed.
I don't mind the odd bit of donkey porn, that's only normal. I watch that myself but some of that stuff is like looking in a butcher's window.

When I was a kid the best (and only) that was available was taking your mum's Kay's catalogue into the loo and looking through the Lingerie section.
Swiftly skipping through the heavy-duty corsettes. Pretty innocent stuff and that's how I think it should be at that age.

Anyway, I have now installed his PC in his bedroom. My question is... do you think 15 is too young to have a PC (with interwebs) in your bedroom?
Some of his friends have had one in their bedrooms for years. I've repeatedly warned him about the dangers of talking to people he doesn't know on-line.
He looks at me like I'm mental when I tell him to always remember that that 14 yr old girl he's talking to could easily be a hairy-arsed 40 yr old man.

Some yrs ago I installed a PC in the kitchen/dining room of a couple with 3 young girls. I was sitting talking to the couple about how to control interweb access for the girls when there was an "Ewwww!" from across the room. The youngest girl had typed in "Poo" and "head" into a search engine and the 3 girls were sitting looking at a picture of a guy with a poo on his head...

So... is 15 too young for full (private) internet access or do you think whatever it is you think?

[Ekona]

I was looking at jazz mags from 13. Assuming he's not a 'tard and understands that meeting hot 17 year old girls on the Internet actually means rapings from a 55 year old paedo, then I'd say it's more than old enough.

[RB]

As long as you tell him that you can and randomly will remotely view his screen then it'll be fine.

[Matius]

A colleague at work who told me that he had recently given his children access to PC's/laptops in their rooms now they were older. A few months after this he discovered that he was meeting his ISP's monthly bandwidth limit only a few days into the month. He then apparently spent his Christmas holiday setting up a proxy in the house for all Internet traffic to go through, and told his kids that he is now watching!

A few days later his son suddenly found his Internet access restricted to a few websites because his dad had caught him trying to torrent copyrighted material. Apparently my colleague is now stuck in a cat and mouse game with his son whereby the son keeps trying to use external proxies and VPN's to tunnel his way out... And his dad keeps shutting them down. My colleague is insistent that his son won't win (it has only been a few weeks so will wait and see).

It's not quite the same as the risk against predators (or indeed anyone else who feels they can use the anonymity of the Internet to lie), and it may not stop your son accessing adult websites - but putting something like that in place is a great way to let them know you're watching. Using the excuse of watching for illegal activity could also be a valid excuse to put something in place.

[Sam]

I built my first one at around the age of 13 or so, it has an AMD Sempron 2x256 of ram, and an 80GB hard drive. Stayed in my room. About 3 months later it was filled with all kinds of shit quality porn and viruses. Typical moronic teen.

I'd say let him have it in his room. Worst that happens is he finds out the workings of a vagina.

[Polito45]

Assuming he's not a 'tard...

Of course he's a 'tard, he's 14½! All boys are retarded at that age. I certainly was.

Apparently my colleague is now stuck in a cat and mouse game with his son whereby the son keeps trying to use external proxies and VPN's to tunnel his way out...

Worst that happens is he finds out the workings of a vagina.

I don't really mind if he's looking at porn. I was having full intercourse at 14 so I'd be a hypocrite to deny him access to that.
And he has already infected his PC with multiple viruses. I've had to get out the Dettol & a wire brush and wipe his HD several times.

I'm not sure about monitoring him RB. when I put the PC in his room I was kind of saying - you're old enough to do whatever you want to do on it now.
I guess I'll trust him until the cops show up at my front door asking if I have a son called Silvio Berlusconi.

[MrPeg]

Want me pretend to be someone else and teach him why he should never trust someone on the internet?

[Polito45]

Hey dad, remember that girl I was telling you about? The one that's a bit odd?
Turns out she has a hairy arse... AND ... a penis!

[Joe]

meeting hot 17 year old girls on the Internet actually means rapings from a 55 year old paedo

Or not!

[Ekona]

Bah, you're always the exception