My child keeps factory resetting his laptop to bypass parential controls

[Artsswer]

We only let him use his Windows laptop for school and basically, he has failing grades, doesn't do his school work, and spends all of his time talking to a foreign girl he met on Roblox which we do not approve of (could be a groomer, even if we ignore the failing grades).

 

Here's the general gist of what I've tried

1. Whenever we try to block sites on the router or hosts files, he simply uses a VPN to bypass it.
2. We previously let him use a MacBook and tried using its parential controls to prevent app installs and block websited but he managed to either reset the administrator password (I generated a random one with letters and symbols so there's no way he could've guessed it) or factory reset the computer.
3. Just recently, we switched to a Windows laptop and used Microsoft's family safety features which worked great for a day, until he managed to factory reset that computer as well 

Note: I had taken careful precautions to make sure the administrator account's passwords were very complex, and he only has access to a standard account.

 

I'm beginning to lose all hope here as I've tried everything to limit or track his usage, but he spends all his time trying to remove it and succeeds in doing so every time and I don't know how. I assume he's using recovery mode and the command prompt to do it but how would I even prevent that type of bypass?

[Lightwreather]

I know this isn't remotely helpful, but I have to say: That's one smart kid.

[Shimejii]

Basically what your going to have to do is either Just watch him while they use the computer or give them computer time and then take it away after its done. 

 

You are pretty much SOL if he uses a VPN to bypass the Security of much of the filtering.

 

If you see that he keeps doing it you just gotta figure out ways to punish that actually work and explain just what hes doing and the dangers of it. Not gonna say go full darwin award but if he continues to ignore it you may have to just remove their ability to do anything but homework, like a Chrome book or something that can ONLY do basic functions to do HW

[Kilrah]

Add a password to the BIOS, he might be booting off a USB drive which allows him to wipe anything on the drive including the protections and just do a clean install regardless of the permissions he has in the OS. 

If the BIOS is set to only boot from the internal drive and locked with a password that's pretty hard to bypass.

 

 

If that's still not enough then yes, simply remove physical access.

 

 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

Also, you should search Google and YouTube for the different ways that kids are bypassing parental controls, that's how he is finding them, after all. Knowing what they are will help you lock things down more effectively.

[Artsswer]

6 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Add a password to the BIOS, he might be booting off a USB drive which allows him to wipe anything on the drive including the protections and just do a clean install regardless of the permissions he has in the OS. 

If the BIOS is set to only boot from the internal drive and locked with a password that's pretty hard to bypass.

 

If that's still not enough then yes, simply remove physical access.

I'll definitely do that. I was assuming he didn't have access to any USB drives but he could've borrowed one in secret from a friend or school. Hopefully he isn't able to reset his computer through other means or I might have to buy him a chromebook. 

[abit-sean]

 

4 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Add a password to the BIOS, he might be booting off a USB drive which allows him to wipe anything on the drive including the protections and just do a clean install regardless of the permissions he has in the OS. 

If the BIOS is set to only boot from the internal drive and locked with a password that's pretty hard to bypass.

 

If that's still not enough then yes, simply remove physical access.

Adding a boot password would help, this would stop any restarts required to reset to factory settings.

[Artsswer]

12 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

I know this isn't remotely helpful, but I have to say: That's one smart kid.

Now if only he used his brains for school...

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Ngl if your kid is literally wiping drives and bypassing every restriction you set, that is one smart or crafty kid

 

12 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Add a password to the BIOS, he might be booting off a USB drive which allows him to wipe anything on the drive including the protections and just do a clean install regardless of the permissions he has in the OS. 

If the BIOS is set to only boot from the internal drive and locked with a password that's pretty hard to bypass.

 

 

If that's still not enough then yes, simply remove physical access.

 

 

Dont mbs have boot menus where you can select which drive you can boot off? on my p5q its f8 and my g31 its f12, or does the bios ask for a password if you try pressing those keys (if bios is passworded)?

 

 

Btw dont just shove a ton of random characters and forget cause bios passwords are hard to reset and i mean it, cmos clear wont reset the password for all i know so you will have to do some bios flashing with a bios programmer lke ch341a, and the clip on that thing is annoying asf so you are prob gonna have to do some soldering

[jaslion]

4 minutes ago, Artsswer said:

Now if only he used his brains for school...

Kids have different interests and will engage differently. It's just how it is. I mean as a teen I was hard failing my last year of middle school (barely 30%) but ended up finishing in the top 3 with a 96% average for semester 2 pure out of spite for a teacher calling me an idiot :p.

 

Might wanna look into why they are failing school and have a good calm talk about it. One where you really listen and don't judge. Might find a way to motivate and reward your kid appropriately.

 

That and also teaching them about online safety and moderation.

 

As for ways to bypass.

 

The moment a usb stick can be used to boot from it's game over. No protection stops that. So the bios password is a must. However WRITE THAT DOWN SOMEWHERE because you do NOT want to loose that password. Also make sure to disable any boot options that aren't the laptops drive. Because if you leave it at stock it is entirely possible that they find a way to trick the laptop into booting from one of the active options that aren't disabled.

 

As for parental controls. Well yeah they are quite easy to bypass still and Microsofts parental control stuff whilst good and amongst the better isn't unbreachable. So do make sure to closely monitor their usage.

 

As for the Roblox chatting. Is it only in the game or also via other chat apps? I recommend you check for that too.

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Dont mbs have boot menus where you can select which drive you can boot off? on my p5q its f8 and my g31 its f12, or does the bios ask for a password if you try pressing those keys (if bios is passworded)?

Normally they do not allow this when a bios password is set.

[LogicalDrm]

15 minutes ago, Artsswer said:

Now if only he used his brains for school...

And don't worry about this forum helping them. Our "no hacking" policy covers all means and reasons of bypassing set restrictions.

[Moonzy]

Reminds me of me when I was a kid, my parents tried to keep me off of the PC but failed every attempt as I would find ways to bypass it

 

If you indeed feel like stopping him from using a PC, the only way is to prevent him from physically accessing it if he's that well versed in tech (google is a powerful tool nowadays)

 

I personally feel like the right move is to educate him on the right stuffs and let him be, but I understand if that's not a viable route for you to take.

[SolarNova]

How old is this kid ?

 

Would be kinda impressive if this is a child for which such locks are meant for, but if this is like a high school guy, like 15 say for example, then such locks arnt likely to work better than actually talking to the kid. Though telling him who he can and cant talk to isnt likely to go down very well.

 

In the end the best parental control ..is 'real' parental control. Actual parenting, not relying on software.

 

#nopoliticsintended

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

Reminds me of me when I was a kid, my parents tried to keep me off of the PC but failed every attempt as I would find ways to bypass it

Yeah did the same thing as a kid. My best ever find was a 80gb hdd when I was 11 and adding that to my computer that ran a clone of the other os. They couldn't understand how I kept being able to play gta san andreas or unreal tournament 2004 when they broke the game disks and uninstalled the games from my computer :p. It also save that computer from being broken after it had been tossed outside a couple times on the curb for going a bit over allowed computer time :p.

 

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

If you indeed feel like stopping him from using a PC, the only way is to prevent him from physically accessing it if he's that well versed in tech (google is a powerful tool nowadays)

Doesn't even have to remove the computer just the charger is enough. That adds a automatic limited use for the laptop and thus they have to use their time wisely or be without a device. Could be a good system for learning constraint.

 

I fully agree with you on educating or they'll just keep doing what they are doing.

[Moonzy]

3 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Doesn't even have to remove the computer just the charger is enough. That adds a automatic limited use for the laptop and thus they have to use their time wisely or be without a device. Could be a good system for learning constraint.

 

I fully agree with you on educating or they'll just keep doing what they are doing.

They'll just buy a charger like how I just find a power cable for my desktop, my parents tried that trick too

 

Whatever means you have, the drive of kids to solve issues when they want something is not to be triffled with

Internet cafes might also be a thing at your place like it is at mine, where there they might actually get bad influence

Best thing you do is to guide them and hope they stay on the right path, as my parents eventually did

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

They'll just buy a charger like how I just find a power cable for my desktop, my parents tried that trick too

 

Whatever means you have, the drive of kids to solve issues when they want something is not to be triffled with

Best thing you do is to guide them and hope they stay on the right path, as my parents eventually did

Fair enough should have known that would be an option since I did the same with hiding spare power cords :p.

 

Indeed the best thing a parent can do is a understanding parent parenting well.

[Kilrah]

35 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Might wanna look into why they are failing school and have a good calm talk about it. One where you really listen and don't judge. Might find a way to motivate and reward your kid appropriately.

Yup. You don't want to completely remove the one thing they are apparently interested in, and unusually skilled at... That wouldn't het them to get better grades, just make them depressed.

 

But find a way to explain that the rest is important too, and force a reasonable balance of letting them tinker with what interests them and doing what they have to.

 

That takes talking, not just software.

[Artsswer]

19 minutes ago, SolarNova said:

How old is this kid ?

 

Would be kinda impressive if this is a child for which such locks are meant for, but if this is like a high school guy, like 15 say for example, then such locks arnt likely to work better than actually talking to the kid. Though telling him who he can and cant talk to isnt likely to go down very well.

 

In the end the best parental control ..is 'real' parental control. Actual parenting, not relying on software.

 

#nopoliticsintended

Believe me, we've tried to. It's gone to the point where he pretends to cry and understand but doesn't try to change or make us understand why he still does this. We've tried every approach we could and the only conclusion I've come to is that he just doesn't want to study. When I asked him what he wants to be in the future, he says a 'therepist' which at this point, I don't mind - whatever he wants to do I guess. The issue is that he's likely gonna need a degree of some sort to qualify for that but he doesn't seem keen at all to put in the work it requires. I've tried figuring out what he wants to do, even if he wanted to become a content creator of some sort, I wouldn't object but at this rate I just don't see any path he could take. We can't support him forever, we've made that clear to him yet he isn't willing to show us he can do anything besides waste his time on games like Roblox and talk to online strangers.  

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Artsswer said:

Believe me, we've tried to. It's gone to the point where he pretends to cry and understand but doesn't try to change or make us understand why he still does this. We've tried every approach we could and the only conclusion I've come to is that he just doesn't want to study. When I ask him what he wants to be in the future, he says a 'therepist' which at this point, I don't mind - whatever he wants to do I guess. The issue is that he's likely gonna need a degree of some sort to qualify for that but he doesn't seem keen at all to put in the work it requires. I've tried figuring out what he wants to do, even if he wanted to become a content creator of some sort, I wouldn't mind but at this rate I just don't see any path he could take. We can't support him forever, we've made that clear to him yet nothing had changed since. 

Might wanna actually look into some counselling or therapy then to maybe help them move forward I know it helped me when I didn't know what to do moving forward.

 

Eventually they'll run into a wall and that might be a wake up call. However it might be too late by then. So my advice is to act now and keep trying.

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, Artsswer said:

Believe me, we've tried to. It's gone to the point where he pretends to cry and understand but doesn't try to change or make us understand why he still does this. We've tried every approach we could and the only conclusion I've come to is that he just doesn't want to study. When I ask him what he wants to be in the future, he says a 'therepist' which at this point, I don't mind - whatever he wants to do I guess. The issue is that he's likely gonna need a degree of some sort to qualify for that but he doesn't seem keen at all to put in the work it requires. I've tried figuring out what he wants to do, even if he wanted to become a content creator of some sort, I wouldn't mind but at this rate I just don't see any path he could take. We can't support him forever, we've made that clear to him yet nothing had changed since. 

What you're going through is pretty much what my parents were, I suppose

 

I never told them who I'm talking with online when they asked, I throw tantrum when they're using the PC, which in hindsight was really childish of me but hey, I was a brat.

My grades weren't great, but I excel at certain things, computer is one of them, and eventually I graduated from my engineering course

 

I pretty much spent half my childhood on MMO, talking to strangers online since I was 9 (my parents tried to stop me using my PC when I was 10 and 11, gave up after few months and just let me be)

I would play MMO until 2am everyday and go to school at 6, sleep thru half the classes and get horrible grades, but I guess everything worked out for me

 

The only thing my parents did right is educate me on online security and told me to be careful of strangers, which I took to heart

I'd say give online strangers some credit, most of them are harmless (back then, at least) it's good to be skeptical but not too much

[Somerandomtechyboi]

13 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

You don't want to completely remove the one thing they are apparently interested in, and unusually skilled at... That wouldn't het them to get better grades, just make them depressed.

Actually gives me an idea

 

Maybe you should have the kid study cybersecurity, if the kids already bypassing parental restrictions then they prob might be interested in cybersecurity

 

Or maybe the kids like me and interested in computers, maybe they can build computers to sell as a hobby, i asked my mom on my 11th birthday that i wanted to build a computer and maybe start building and selling computers for a profit, well im 14 now and i havent sold anything though i think ill focus on fixing and flipping dead computers and eventually build my own to sell.  Too bad now im just screwing around with xoc and attempting to make a tec ram cooler with scrap metal ;-;

 

i think you should analyze what the kids interested in and what skills he has, personally im just interested in computers and "skilled" in fabricating/diying sht to save money although it looks like its a fire waiting to happen

 

then you may be able to share with us and maybe we can give a reccomendation for you

[adarw]

damn this guy is good at google searches.

[tkitch]

Relatedly hilarious story:  (Read the whole thread) 

 

[Radium_Angel]

Change kid's account to limited user, use Group Policy to remove access to such things as the start menu, command prompt, etc. Give him access to only the icons on the desktop, and nothing else. With GPO you can lock down the system so tightly that can't bypass that. GPO is awesome.