Children and electronics

[BourbonChicken]

My 15 year old DS is accessing internet at night on his desktop computer/PS4 and I am struggling to deal with this. We have got a BT Home Hub and we have set up Access Controls so he can't use internet at certain times. However, he is easily able to bypass this (don't know how exactly).

He looked like death warmed up this morning. I insisted on looking at his computer history and saw that he has been on it for a large part of last night.

I am at my wit's end wondering how best to tackle this. Thinking of getting his PC/PS4 out of his bedroom but am wondering if he will sneak down in the night and use it even if placed downstairs. Maybe I will put them in my bedroom.

He has his PC and iPad password protected. I am thinking of getting him to remove this so I can check his history daily. He will probably find a way to cover his tracks anyway. I take his iPad to bed with me each night as it is.

It feels like dealing with a drug addict. He cannot self regulate his computer usage.

Anyone else had this problem and found effective strategies to deal with it?

Another vote for take the router with you around the house after a certain time.

Thank you for all your advice.

Opting out of Fon combined with changing Login again will be done asap. Ultimately, I think that I will have to put his electronics in either my bedroom or my home office. Don't especially fancy either of these, but needs must.

Unplugging the router would be a good idea, but it means I can't browse netmums before going to sleep. Selfish to say I know! I realise we have got two routes to go down:

Option 1: DS's Electronics to be taken out of bedroom and put in communal area or my bedroom. Downside: put up with him talking to his friends loudly on Skype all evening.

Option 2: Router unplugged and removed from socket (or lead removed) at 10am and no one has internet or Netflix after then.

Either option involves suffering, but sacrifices must be made. Just need to decide which is the lesser of the two evils.

Change your BT password and don't tell him it. Signing into BT FON requires your BT email and password (iirc). This will prevent him using that.

Failing this you need to confiscate equipment, he is absolutely taking the piss.

Removing your router won't help if he is using BT FON. it doesn't require your router.

Is he maybe tethering his phone internet and using that?

If he's good with technology, you're screwed. I used to just hack the neighbours' (Don't do this anymore I might add! I just pay for my own connection).

Is he on mobile contract? Because he could be using his mobile as a hotspot.

Have you changed the routers username and password from default settings so that he hasn't accessed it? It's unklikely he's brute-force hacked the router.

I don't have a BT home hub so can't check. Tell me, does it block with MAC addresses or IP addresses? IPs can be easily changed. MACs take much more knowledge to spoof. Way beyond the average 15 year olds. I doubt he's tethering his mobile - it's slow and would use up his credit / plan allowance pretty quickly.

No way in hell would I let him have passwords on his phone / iPad etc without also knowing them.

Of course he could easily delete the history and, if he's smarter, date-accessed of cookies, data files etc.

Hate to state the obvious but why not ask him how he's done it?

If it were me, I'd set the rules out clearly. If he didn't follow them (and your router can tell you what has been connected and when) then punish him if he didn't respect them and you; removing devices sounds apt.

I had a television in my room but wasn't allowed to watch it after a certain time.

My father came in at 1am when I was watching TV in bed. He calmly cut the plug off the lead with a pair of scissors and went back to bed.

I learnt to follow rules.

Also, can the router run a white list time policy instead of a black list? That would stop him spoofing MAC addresses etc.

Thank you for all the latest posts. He doesn't have a phone so is not tethering. He is very cagey about how he has hacked router.

I am going to get his passwords removed on PC and iPad.

I am going to look into whether Home Hub uses IP or MAC addresses. Will Google this or ring BT if can't find out.

I will also find out how I can check internet usage on router.

When I woke up this morning, have decided to remove his electronics into my bedroom and he can use them there in appropriate hours only. He is devious and just cannot be trusted.

Well done OP for starting to get a handle on it.

Move the media out of his bedroom, maybe to the lounge? Remove the power cords at night.
Problem solved.