Kids and illegal file sharing...

[Defend Tacoma]

About 6 months ago, my ISP contacted me to inform me that my account was used to download some dumb movie I had never heard of. It turned out that someone had accessed my account through my wireless router. I'm usually quite good at securing my wireless network, but had turned encryption off for some troubleshooting and forgot to turn it back on. Lesson learned.

Since then my wireless has been locked down like a fortress. In an effort to keep from getting sued by a motion picture company or record label, I have had multiple conversations with my 13 year old boy on the topic. He is very well aware of the monetary consequences of getting sued by the industry.

Today I got another call from my ISP. This time my account was being used to share another movie i've never heard of. Vampires Suck. I checked the boy's computer (located in a common area of the house) and sure enough, limewire, a sharing program was chugging away sharing that movie and 27 other files. No word from 2oth Century Fox yet, except to my ISP.

I was considering restriction from the computer for a bit. How would you handle this? Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[kwk285]

My daughters aren't allowed to download any programs on their computers unless we say so. My wife and I check their computers from time to time. We also require them to give us any passwords and login information for programs on their computers.

 

[DE Shaver]

Such applications can not only get you in legal problems but you can inadvertently download malware. I would uninstall all downloading applications and create an account for each user, giving them appropriate credentials. For your young one, I would disable the ability to install new applications. Should he install new programs, Windows will detect the installation and request administrator credentials or approval for installation.

This solves a few problems. Firstly, he cannot install any other programs without your knowledge. Secondly, you protect your PC from having malware installed without your or your son's knowledge. Furthermore, you son can still use the PC and even the Internet, so you are not depriving him of the advantages of Internet access. If he doesn't like it, well, he was warned. You are a parent and have the responsibility to protect him and your family.

 

[SpyvSpy]

FYI limewire is a breeding ground for hackers and viruses.

 

[Defend Tacoma]

Agreed! I'm running Windows 7, and each person has their own user (not admin) account. I was under the impression that he would need the admin password to install such software. It is possible he watched me type in the admin password, however. Limewire is already uninstalled, I plan on switching my admin password today and running a good virus scan on the box today. Thanks for the input!

Such applications can not only get you in legal problems but you can inadvertently download malware. I would uninstall all downloading applications and create an account for each user, giving them appropriate credentials. For your young one, I would disable the ability to install new applications. Should he install new programs, Windows will detect the installation and request administrator credentials or approval for installation.

This solves a few problems. Firstly, he cannot install any other programs without your knowledge. Secondly, you protect your PC from having malware installed without your or your son's knowledge. Furthermore, you son can still use the PC and even the Internet, so you are not depriving him of the advantages of Internet access. If he doesn't like it, well, he was warned. You are a parent and have the responsibility to protect him and your family.

 

[bradyarz]

restrict his use to an abacus for 3 months.

 

[Saunterer]

www.opendns.com

Been using this for years with great success. And if you enter their DNS addresses in your router, anyone on your network will have security filters placed on them.

Worked real good too, when my wife was going to buy me something at Dick's Sporting Goods and she typed in dicks.com not thinking about what she was doing.

 

[The Knize]

Ask your son why he has the need to share files publicly, and whether he knows the difference between downloading files illegally and sending files illegally to others on a public basis? I can see why folks download files illegally, not that it is right. But why set yourself up to be busted for being a free public storefront for goods that belong to others with the ability to protect themselves?!

 

[Defend Tacoma]

I used to use opendns, but started using my ISP's DNS server, as some of the adult 'net content I consume was getting blocked. Perhaps I need to see if I can somehow forward that box to opendns and keep my box unfiltered. Guess I got some homework to do!

www.opendns.com

Been using this for years with great success. And if you enter their DNS addresses in your router, anyone on your network will have security filters placed on them.

Worked real good too, when my wife was going to buy me something at Dick's Sporting Goods and she typed in dicks.com not thinking about what she was doing.

 

[Defend Tacoma]

The kid is savvy enough to be dangerous, but my guess is that he didn't realize that Limewire shares your downloaded files by default. Im pretty sure he wanted the content but wasnt trying to share it up intentionally. It's a good question to ask him though!

Ask your son why he has the need to share files publicly, and whether he knows the difference between downloading files illegally and sending files illegally to others on a public basis? I can see why folks download files illegally, not that it is right. But why set yourself up to be busted for being a free public storefront for goods that belong to others with the ability to protect themselves?!

 

[Saunterer]

I used to use opendns, but started using my ISP's DNS server, as some of the adult 'net content I consume was getting blocked.

Did you just put in their IP addresses or did you sign up for an account so you could add filtering and have custom settings?

Example, ESPN is blocked by default on Open DNS, but you can go to their GUI and whitelist it. 3 minutes later, all is cool.

I say try it again and sign up for an account. After a few weeks of tweaking, you'll be surprised. Plus I put in a default picture of me pointing at the user, so when my daughters or friends try to go to "humor" sites; ol' Daddy pops up on the screen with the ol stink eye pointing at them.

 

[azmark]

FYI limewire is a breeding ground for hackers and viruses.

+1

I had it for a couple of days up until I finally figured that out.

 

[Walker]

I used to use Limewire all the time until i got an ipod which can only be used with itunes. I always heard that Limewire was a hotbed for viruses my biggest problem was that the file you would download wasn't the actual song you were looking for.

 

[jpb286]

restrict his use to an abacus for 3 months.

No, just a slide rule

 

[JCee]

Open DNS is great and I use it primarily due to my teen getting barraged with viruses and spyware (due to his visiting non appropriate sites). If you set it up on your router, you also have to make sure they don't have admin rights on their PC, as it is possible to override the DNS setting on the PC to something universal, like Google (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4), thus bypassing the benefits of Open DNS.

For my younger kid, we also switched him to a Mac. Besides not having to worry about malware, the Mac has wonderful parental controls.

 

[LarryAndro]

Out of curiosity, were the ISP calls from a reasonable person or an escaped Gestapo agent?

 

[Defend Tacoma]

Quite reasonable. I use a municipal ISP, so not one of the big guys. I really got the feeling that they were not interested at all in persuing the matter. The "advanced " tech I spoke with was very apologetic, and was quick to indicate that usually people just need to secure their wifi.

I'm a tech junkie so I know that can be the case, but in this case it was my boy. About 2 ago I left my admin account logged in, and he jumped on the chance to install limewire. He couldn't do it through his account as he doesn't have permissions to install software.

Out of curiosity, were the ISP calls from a reasonable person or an escaped Gestapo agent?

 

[dmm26]

This topic has always erked me ever since home computers have become the norm. I had friends children get into some serious trouble on the computer and couldn't figure out 1.) Since when do kids need to have their own computers for anything? I know that school is enforcing the use of a home computer for projects and such, but really they don't need to have access to the world from the comfort of their bedrooms behind closed doors! 2.) Why aren't parents watching to see what their kids are doing?

I know this isn't the case with all people and most cetainly not here. I know that the illegal downloading of music and movies is a lot more harsh in the U.S then up here in Canada. So like the OP and others have said just talk to your son/daughter about the dangers of the internet and the possible reprocussions of what they do on it.

If it were me I'd ban him from the computer for awhile and make him go use the computer at school if he needs it for a project.

 

[Defend Tacoma]

We did have (another) good chat about Internet habits. The computer is in a common area of the house- smack in the middle of the dining room. He now knows in no uncertain terms that he is not allowed to install software on the computer or download ill gotten stuff.

All accounts on the box are user accounts with the exception of my admin account so he cant install anything anyway, unless he sneaks on my admin account again. The common box is now set up to run through opendns's dns servers and I've set the browsing blocks to what I feel is appropriate for his age and maturity. His user account doesn't have permissions to switch the DNS servers so I should be good there too.

As long as he doesn't figure out he can use a live boot linux CD to bypass all that stuff I'm golden. I figure I'll check the machine once a week for anything obvious.
Thanks for all of the responses!

 

[Blue_2]

As long as he doesn't figure out he can use a live boot linux CD to bypass all that stuff I'm golden.

If he figures this out, he's well on his way to a profitable hobby/career in computers.