Got locked out of my kid's computer!

[EarthDog]

Because all men eventually learn how to never get caught.

Exactly.. Don't think for a SECOND that he stopped looking. He just stopped getting caught, Dad.

 

[Jetster]

Exactly, its important to develop those skills

 

[Kreij]

Protecting your daughter from the evils of the internet is important, but it’s more important to teach her to protect herself and at the same time reinforce the trust you both share.
Here’s what I would do ….

1) Praise her for figuring out how to circumvent the system and tell her you are proud of her for being so smart.
2) Tell her that the Family Safety stuff is not just there to stop her from doing things, but to protect all the computers that use the internet in the house.
3) Tell her you will re-install the protection software, but will give her access to it (the password) so if it’s stopping her from doing something she can configure it differently, and that you trust her to do the right things, IF she gives you the admin password because you may need it when she is not there to fix something.
4) Re-install the protection software and note how it was set. Then in the future you can go look to see if she shut anything off to give you an idea of what she is up to, and you will have the admin password in case you need to fix something.
5) Give her a big hug.

If she will not give you the admin password and refuses the deal, pull the CPU out of the rig and tell her "have fun".

 

[qubit]

Protecting your daughter from the evils of the internet is important, but it’s more important to teach her to protect herself and at the same time reinforce the trust you both share.
Here’s what I would do ….

1) Praise her for figuring out how to circumvent the system and tell her you are proud of her for being so smart.
2) Tell her that the Family Safety stuff is not just there to stop her from doing things, but to protect all the computers that use the internet in the house.
3) Tell her you will re-install the protection software, but will give her access to it (the password) so if it’s stopping her from doing something she can configure it differently, and that you trust her to do the right things, IF she gives you the admin password because you may need it when she is not there to fix something.
4) Re-install the protection software and note how it was set. Then in the future you can go look to see if she shut anything off to give you an idea of what she is up to, and you will have the admin password in case you need to fix something.
5) Give her a big hug.

If she will not give you the admin password and refuses the deal, pull the CPU out of the rig and tell her "have fun".

More seriously sensible advice from The Kreij.

The strong educational / explanatory and non-authoritarian slant will make her feel good about herself for being smart and it'll reduce the chance of friction and tensions in the household, along with helping to develop her skills and become even cleverer. Oh and it'll make her more likely to behave and hide things less...

 

[a_ump]

+1 to Kreij

 

[Ikaruga]

BP is Mom

oh, thanks, I did not know. Please accept my apologies.

 

[natr0n]

Ask for password and/or threaten with a full format !!!

 

[entropy13]

Well at least your daughter haven't gotten access to some pictures of yours, BP.

 

[GreiverBlade]

You have a intelligent daughter

was about to say that... wow just wow ahah

sidenote: i hope you can fix this issue but ... dont be mad at her, its pretty awesome what she did, even if its not right

Protecting your daughter from the evils of the internet is important, but it’s more important to teach her to protect herself and at the same time reinforce the trust you both share.
Here’s what I would do ….

1) Praise her for figuring out how to circumvent the system and tell her you are proud of her for being so smart.
2) Tell her that the Family Safety stuff is not just there to stop her from doing things, but to protect all the computers that use the internet in the house.
3) Tell her you will re-install the protection software, but will give her access to it (the password) so if it’s stopping her from doing something she can configure it differently, and that you trust her to do the right things, IF she gives you the admin password because you may need it when she is not there to fix something.
4) Re-install the protection software and note how it was set. Then in the future you can go look to see if she shut anything off to give you an idea of what she is up to, and you will have the admin password in case you need to fix something.
5) Give her a big hug.

If she will not give you the admin password and refuses the deal, pull the CPU out of the rig and tell her "have fun".

totaly agreed!

 

[Black Panther]

3) Tell her you will re-install the protection software, but will give her access to it (the password) so if it’s stopping her from doing something she can configure it differently, and that you trust her to do the right things, IF she gives you the admin password because you may need it when she is not there to fix something.

Thanks Kreij, that seems to be the best compromise I might try so far.

Perhaps I'm soft-hearted, it's just that she burst out crying (puppy-dog eyes, sniffles and all) telling me that she felt hurt that I didn't trust her by having 'my account' on her pc.

Throughout the entire year I've had family safety on her pc - she only watches youtubes like ctfxc (I figure they're amateur video makers on youtube?) and similar 'vlogs' (video-blogs = vlogs) all her online time. She has facebook but rarely checks it.

The only requests I got were to download some Disney/Family videos *cough cough* off a well-known pirate site, but then she wouldn't know what's legal to download and what's not...

She never searched for anything inappropriate for her age. In fact to date she still closes her eyes and goes 'ewwww' whenever she catches us watching a movie with people making out. To explain the reason for family-safety I told her (she's an avid Sims player) would you want to accidentally see something where people are woo-hooing (sims speech for having sex) without a blanket over them and you see everything? And she went all EEWWW....

I still have to figure out how she got hold of the pw in the first place. My guess is that she secretly found my little black book of passwords.... then put it back in place... (so sorry to disappoint any who thought my 10 year old was some genius budding hacker).

Well, she might be, but she sleeps too early and too heavily for her to get the better of me.

 

[Ikaruga]

1) Praise her for figuring out how to circumvent the system and tell her you are proud of her for being so smart.

Sorry if I'm spoiling anything here, but I just can't agree with this point. I think it's wrong. I can't help it, sorry again :shadedshu

 

[GreiverBlade]

Sorry if I'm spoiling anything here, but I just can't agree with this point. I think it's wrong. I can't help it, sorry again :shadedshu

sometime saying its wrong and getting mad is the best way to worsen the trust issue, a bit of child psychology and not letting her getting above her head due to the compliment is a good way, taking a step back and mixing fun + lesson without punishment as long as it is understand as it should be.

i know its hard but worth the try

 

[Ikaruga]

sometime saying its wrong and getting mad is the best way to worsen the trust issue

If you read back, you will see that I did not suggest anything like that. Yes I proposed that she should also lock her out, but only to let her experience the consequences of her actions, and definitely not to start a "war".
Negotiation about knowing the admin password, or any kind expansions of her "user rights" can only begin when she releases the computer she locked down, and when she understands that taking away things how she just did will bring her nothing but only trouble in life. That's why I could not praise such an act, even if it's quite an achievement from a technical point of view (for example, would you also praise her if she would have done a highly sophisticated credit card fraud on a bank account, only because she needed money?)

All of this doesn't mean that one should not hug the child at the end ofc, but moral standards are very important imho.

 

[GreiverBlade]

im speaking of the interpretation on the side of the child not that you said to start a war

frankly if i had a son/daughter who did a bank fraud or something technically wrong i would be proud and amazed of what he/she did but i would also make him/her realize its wrong ofc the law would be here to do the worse part of the scolding ahah, but here we dont talk about something that important ,

we talk about something where scolding could be more hurting than making her realize its wrong but well done,

at last i can agree with the last sentence ... since its what i tried to explain with my crappy swissglish

ok ok i know ... steal a egg steal a cow ... password admin overtake by a 10yrs old little lady will allways end in fully fledged cyber criminal

 

[Steevo]

Assign yourself system level rights and remove the password by batch script?