Tag Archives: computer

autism internet safety

My Son Was Hacked! Let’s Talk Autism and Internet Safety

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A few mornings ago, my son knocked on the bathroom door to excitedly tell me he was chatting with “Him”. Naturally the next words out of my mouth were, “Who’s THAT?!”

He explained that he was just surfing the web and a random chat window popped up, not associated with any instant messaging or gaming program. He told me the person’s name was “Him” and that he had a funny whisper voice.

Of course I immediately wanted to know what things my son said to “Him” – did he tell him his real name, where we live, how old he is? We have been over many, many social stories regarding Internet safety myriad times.

Justin started crying, revealing that he told the mysterious chat guy that he was 10, which broke one of our family rules. I comforted him (amazed at his reaction to a broken rule – this is HUGE and NEW!!) but also dug further into the situation. Three things that “Him” said really alerted me:

“Don’t be scared”

“I can hear you speaking”

“How old are you?”

The chat window disappeared, and I told Justin to take a screenshot and send it to me if it popped up again. In the meantime we searched his computer for programs that didn’t seem to belong but I could find nothing. (I’m a Mac person… didn’t really know what to look for but hoped it would be obvious!)

That afternoon when I came home, Justin told me that “Him” opened a new chat window and tried to engage him in conversation. When my son wouldn’t comply the creep opened my son’s CD drive! Wha? He had remote access? The next thing you know he hid the task bar and all my son’s desktop icons.

I had him shut down immediately.

Luckily, the dog and pony show of hiding icons and opening a CD drive was the worst activity that we saw. “Him” could have locked up my son’s computer, changed passwords, or worse – turned on his webcam and watched! Ironically, it was my son that found a Remote Access Permission setting in the Control Panel and disabled it. We believe that stopped “Him”.

However, with all the items Justin downloads on a regular basis, this (or worse!) could happen again.

So how do you protect a child that figured out how to write custom code and change online video games, film his screen while walking through his tutorial process and post how-to videos on YouTube by himself?

The FBI website has some great general Internet Safety Tips for Kids. To simplify for children with Autism, I created this:

 

How about you? What safety tools do you have in place for your children? Share by commenting below or posting to the SOA Facebook page!

The 27-Minute Game: No More Fighting

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Do you ever fight with your child about how long they play video games or use their computer? If your house is like mine, some days it takes an Act of Congress to get my son out of his room and away from his favorite digital world. Sure, I’ve bribed. I’ve threatened. I’ve fought. All efforts can be fruitless when you’re having “one of those days,” right?

I don’t have to spell out the consequences of a child being penned in a small room, sedentary for most of the day. For my child especially it affects his sensory system and hyperactivity level directly. Not to mention the irregular eating and sleeping schedule and lack of desire to wear more than boxer briefs as additional side effects.

Last weekend I was tired of the arguing, coercing, cajoling, and emotional outbursts (not mine!). I had a full day of freelance work ahead of me but I didn’t want my son to be a hermit all day, offering occasional appearances spinning through the living room like the Tasmanian Devil. I invented a fun way to allow us to interact more and give him regular, much-needed diversions from Minecraft.

Sort of making it up as I went along, I gave my son a digital timer set for 27 minutes and instructed him to close the computer and come out when it went off. He was not in trouble and it wasn’t a new “rule,” rather a game we were trying.

When he came out I also closed my computer, put my phone away, and we played tic-tac-toe and hangman on paper. We had so much fun we started drawing afterward!

Wrapping up that enjoyable break, I handed him the timer, again set for 27 minutes. The next time he came out I had the table set with a fun “food-sculpture” breakfast laid out (yes, I play with my food!) for us both. We enjoyed a really nice, uninterrupted meal together.

The next round of our 27-minute break consisted of an obstacle course I set up in the back yard. The next, brushing the dogs together. No matter what project or email I was in the middle of I would close my computer and prepare something for us to do with our break. The exciting part was that when he came out each time he never knew what activity to expect.

What do you think started happening? The breaks starting becoming longer than the 27 minutes on the computer. My son’s mood and energy were consistent. We laughed. We engaged. We got stuff done.

In my current reality it is not always practical to get in the car (the one where the air conditioning doesn’t work – UGH!) and go do fun stuff. Sometimes I have to make do with what’s going on at home. The 27-minute game is a great way to have fun and manage both my son’s and my OWN habit of burying our faces in the computer for too long.

How about you? Do you have a way to keep healthy intervals flowing in your home? Share your thoughts by commenting below or posting on the SOA Facebook page!