How do you punish kids that hack?

[limp1058]

I've done stupid **** like that all the time, at school, home and other comps, no to brag.
Kids will be kids....Let um learn until he accually ****s something up. Then let him take the punishment by law......

[gaxprels]

I think the mother should have a talk with him, as well as take the computer away for a while. I DON'T think she should go too harsh on him, though. If she goes too hard on him he may rebel and try that much harder to "hack" and go that much deeper into the criminal aspects of the art. I think the mother should be educated as well as the son on what hacking really is and how to do it legally and ethically. They could start with the Happy Hacker web site. I think they should especially start on the "sucks to be me" pages of that site. Then he should try out a *nix. Linux or FreeBSD are good choices. Just my two cents worth. Hope this helps.

[dark1]

Originally posted by limp1058
I've done stupid **** like that all the time, at school, home and other comps, no to brag.
Kids will be kids....Let um learn until he accually ****s something up. Then let him take the punishment by law......

that's how i was tought!!!

[Ennis]

Let him learn the hard way, tough love they call it and it sure as hell works.

[Terr]

I think you should explain to him how other people tend to react when they find out. Try to get him to understand how criminal it is, even if it is a 'neat thing to do with the computer'. Let other people know that he used a trojan on someone. I think a priority, is to Make It Uncool, if he's the social type. If he's not, simply allude to technical knowledge WAAAY beyond his level, and hopefully by the time he learns enough technical know-how to feel like nobody will catch him, he'll have learned some maturity...

I dunno, really. I don't know the kid.

[Widgewaam]

I don't think ignoring it and waiting until he gets into big trouble is the right answer. She should warn him and have other adults or that policeman explain what could happen to him. I think taking away the computer is the wrong thing to do. Computers are good things, they just have to be used right. If he won't listen to his mom and other adults, then he'll get what's coming to him. Bars on all side of the walls and a cellmate named Bubba.

[TrblWarrior777]

Dudes, Dudes, Dudes... Heh the funniest thing possible in the world is that the exact same thing happened to me. I used bo2k to hack all of my friends comps, as in installing it on their comps when they slept or whatever. Sending it to them over aim telling them its not a virus its just residue left over from my computer (they are soo gullible) well anyways my parents got many a phone call, they were pretty upset... I actually hacked my friend's dad's comp which is a lawyers computer w/ legal documents all over the place lol. I am 13 and after my parents got 2 phone calls they were pretty upset. The worst thing in the world for a parent to do is take away the computer. Right now I am completely obsessed with the computer and how it works and programs and everything... hacking is very entertaining etc. I still enjoy exploring but I have deleted bo2k and now I am learning to program and I want to learn to gain access w/out a prog or a trojan. I personally think that all that should happen is he should have a long talk and have to delete the remote access programs. The worst possible thing to do to a computer literate kid like me is to take the most entertaining and exciting but fun to learn thing away... I may someday be richer than bill gates you never know considering I am a computer genius, or at least everyone I know can't do half the crap I can on the computer... they ask me a question about the computer if they have one... heh well don't punish the kid too hard.

[Katari]

Let the kid do what he wants. For crying out loud he has a sub trojan and has infected his kids computer. At least he is learning and didn't install a monitoring software on there and then think he was all cool cause he figured out how to find out what others are doing. He won't turn into a full fledge hacker (Even if he probably thinks he is one now) by playing around with trojans. He probably just read grc.com and was like cool.

No Biggy

Katari

[stflook]

I think you should tell her to take his computer away. If he wants to hack because he has a passion for the technology, that's fine as long as he does no harm. He, however, obviously doesn't care at all for the knowledge part of hacking, and CERTAINLY doesn't respect what he's doing. He just wants to do damage. He needs to have his computer taken away before he gets in over his head.

[briareus]

i suppose you could just cut off his feet.