I sincerely hope you never have to deal with it.

Anyway, since I requested info on locking down a system and not parenting advice or commentary on parenting skills (which seems to have taken over the thread) I will take the few actual tips and pass them along.

Sorry BTD, but in all fairness, it's like saying "I have a friend who needs some info on uncrackable combination locks for kitchen cabinets. His 18 year old son keeps smashing dishes on the sly. No parenting commentary, please!"

I'm with BtD on this one. We have no idea what he's doing, what the home situation is, what they've tried, what has worked or not worked. You know nothing about that family, all that was asked was for some technical advice, the judgment was pretty unnecessary.

I would say that BtD might have avoided some of it by leaving the details about age off, but knowing that it's a tech-savy 18yo actively defeating security vs. an 11yo who just needs to be kept from stumbling on across stuff accidentally is germane to the kinds of strategies that might be suggested, so I don't see anything wrong with the level of detail she shared.

I was light years away from what you would call a "problem child" and my parents were light years away from what you would call "ineffective parents", but I sure as hell knew plenty of ways to do things I wasn't supposed to be doing on the computer, was far more knowledgeable about it than my parents, and my parents sure as hell would have appreciated some advice on how to deal with it without being condescended to.

GD said it better than I ever could. Thank you.

Talked to my friend and he said they just ended up removing the modem and none of their computers can get online now.

Thank you again for the actual advice. Since I haven't had to deal with this I had no idea where to start.

Since there's very little that can actually be done to really secure a computer from anyone tech-savy, a few actual tips is all you're gonna get. And since you got the answers you were seeking, why the whining about the side topic?

Family computer management and parenting go hand-in-hand.

You're an active participant on this board and are probably pretty familiar with how easily threads can branch onto tangents. To expect otherwise is foolhardy.