Caught 8 y/o watching porn

[loganfuckingroy]

I've accidentally caught my son watching pretty hardcore porn while I reached over where he was sitting on the sofa to pick up a cup next to him. He tried to draw his iPad up to his chest but I pulled it down and saw a video playing. It was Pornhub and extremely graphic hetero porn.

I took his iPad and started searching through his history and this has been going on for a week. His search history started with Googling "naked people" and then he's been watching several porn hub videos every day. He's autistic and loves watching Minecraft/Roblox/robotics videos with his headphones on so I don't suspect. It turns out his dad left his Google account logged in on my son's iPad after showing him something on YouTube and that's how he's been bypassing the content restrictions I've put in place on our Apple/icloud family settings.

We've chatted about it but he's very embarrassed and thinks he's going to be arrested. Husband has taken them to bed, iPad has been removed. I'm just completely at a loss. 8 is so young and he's not neurotypical.

Thank you @Somehowgirl and others, I appreciate your comments. We have now put restrictions on the router (I wasn't aware you could do this and because my children are small still I hadn't considered) and as mentioned earlier, taken How Stuff Works off his approved list.

This is just so sad and depressing. Makes me feel real despair.

🙄 what a ridiculous and unhelpful comment. OP is horrified herself already without posters like you sticking the boot in.
OP - lots of us don’t agree with this utter nonsense - assume these parents never put a foot wrong.
As above, sort out the parental controls and have a sensible word with your son.

Since when have 8-year-olds been interested in sex? I do not believe a small child would sit on the couch and watch porn with his parents around.

@Quirkyme Don't be so fucking ridiculous.

There's a world of difference between 'accidentally left a Google account logged in' and 'using the kids' iPad to watch porn' as you just made up completely out of thin air, to fan the flames of hysteria from people who apparently don't remember looking at the lingerie section of Mum's catalogue or watching Eurotrash with the sound down at inappropriate ages in pre-internet days.

A mistake was made and innocent curiosity unfortunately led to something awful. I don't see what good sticking the boot into the OP will do.

If you DM me your address though, I'll pop your medal for being entirely fucking perfect in the post.

@HollyKnight well, he did. He said he didn't know what it was that he was looking at and he thought it was AI.

OP if it makes you feel any better I posted about a similar thing here over 10 years ago and had a similar pasting.

My mistake was to trust iPad settings and to leave ds playing geogessr (his go to calming game at the time) to have a quick bath.

In between the shredding there were some really helpful replies.

My son was not damaged at all, we tightened settings, we talked openly about what he saw and how it’s not for children. Some children are more curious about these things than others, it doesn’t make them deviants or you a shit parent. We all make mistakes. Some are obviously lucky enough to not yet have been lulled into complacency.

The fact he was watching it in the same room as you shows he has no idea what he's stumbled upon. He wasn't exactly trying that hard to hide it because he's far too young to understand. His father has very badly let him down but I'm sure you've all learnt a lesson and can move beyond this.

Most helpful response yet. Close the thread ❤️

Most are curious about sex!

Not at 8!

Thanks for this. My boy really is curious and I get what you mean with the calming app, his is usually Tetris.

Thank you!

I was told that no 8 yr old would search for “naked girls” and that my husband was obviously a paedophile.

Some children are more curious. We are all naked bodies under our clothes, children being curious is as old as the hills.

Maybe not yours, so you haven’t experienced this.
Plenty are.

You're applying adult thinking to an 8 year old. He had a normal curiosity to look at naked bodies. At 8 years old I was straddling the back of the couch. I didn't know what I was doing.

OP you should filter out bullshit comments like these and take the good advice from some posters. Your son will be fine and I'm sure you'll deal with it brilliantly

There are not enough eye roll emojis to respond to this, so take this one as representing one billion eye rolls

🙄

OP it sounds like he doesn’t know what he’s seen so no harm done.

Unless he brings it up again I wouldn’t talk about it, as it’ll make it more than it is.

Fucking hell that's bad.

@Quirkyme

I read the comments thanks.

I agree with this.

When I was younger, if I wanted to use the computer then I had to use the computer in the living room which was clear for my mum to see. We didn’t have tablets when I was younger (I’m only 25) but I think it’s important to have a laptop in the living room that he can use under supervision.

Allowing a child, especially one who’s ND, to have a tablet that he uses as and when in order to access the internet is pretty crazy. I say that as a mum of two children, both who have additional/complex needs btw

@MrsSkylerWhite

What does your 4 year old grandson have to do with anything?

Spudthespanner · Today 22:29
MrsSkylerWhite · Today 22:25

Not at 8!

There are not enough eye roll emojis to respond to this, so take this one as representing one billion eye rolls

🙄

We’ve had two 8 year olds. They’re 29 and 21 now. It just wasn’t on either of their radars. Sorry but I don’t get your response. If 8 year olds are regularly searching for porn now, the world is a whole lot more shit than I thought.

Whatever you think, cool as you may be, sexualised 8 year olds is plain wrong.

If you think knowing about porn at 8 years old is normal, you’ve got it seriously wrong.

Oh for crying out loud, there is a massive difference between a 3 year old and an 8 year old. There is no comparison. An ipad is fine for an 8yo, but the controls do need to be on (as the OP is fully aware).

And children are curious about naked people and have been since long before the Internet. Unfortunately hard core porn never used to be just a few clicks away.

Oh my gosh this thread is typical hysterical Mumsnet. Absolutely ridiculous yet again!!!Sometimes I read these kinda things and feel a complete sense of panic... Then I remember to get my brain back to the real world and just filter out the normal useful replies!

I'm so sorry this happened. I'm pretty sure your son will be absolutely fine and will not need therapy or your husband reporting to social services 🙄🙄🙄 I remember finding the rude channels on sky when I was around his age... I also remember Eurotrash when I was not much older...that was bizarre! Anyway I've turned out ok 😁

I confess I done this before.... I've logged in to kids tablet to install things and left them logged in accidentally! Luckily no rude Google searches were carried out and my husband knew about the router restriction thing too. But I confess I had absolutely no idea about it! He probably only knows as he works in internet security!!!
We don't get lessons on internet restriction as parents do we?
It took me ages and a LOT of research to restrict their phones (my kids are older and have phones).. it wasn't easy or straightforward at all! I wish there was an online course or maybe something done via school for parents?

I'm sorry if some of the replies on here make you feel like a bad parent. You're not. You're worried about him and what happened... So you can't be!