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I don't agree that much with what you are saying, mainly from personal experience. 1. Even if parents find out they probably have no idea what it means (legall

I don't agree that much with what you are saying, mainly from personal experience. 1. Even if parents find out they probably have no idea what it means (legally or literally) 2. You can open a bank account really easily online for free. (You can find photoshop ID templates for every possible country, maybe they check them more nowadays but some years ago you didn't even need to change any of the hashed numbers and it would be accepted by most services, even PayPal) 3. I did get caught at one point by my parents, they proceeded to take away every bit of technology they could find, so I ended up doing more shady stuff (on a lended machine at mcdonalds) to make enough to buy a new computer and keep on with life as usual. Had to re-buy a new computer every year or so when they found out. My perspective on the thing is that most parents won't even fathom the idea of what hacking is, so finding out their kid is a "hacker" won't change a thing in their day. And if it does a "hacker" will always find a way to keep on going anyway, trying to not get caught along the way, it's the job spec. Now what I can agree on is that if the kid tells their parents they're getting money illegally and asking their parents to hold it in their bank account, and the parents agree, then that's just plain stupidity, and a lot of that goes on in the world, parent or not parent...

yawz 8y ago
May I ask, as a parent, what would have been the sensible approach to what you were doing from the point of view of your parents?
- kjullien 8y ago
  I don't think I am able to answer this. If you took a bank robber instead of hacker you could ask the same question and if anybody had an answer to this I don't think there would be bank robbers in the world. edit: This actually feels like more of a personal philosophy type of thing. Say maybe I consider "borrowing" money from a big corp. that screws over the average working person at every chance it gets a good thing. They probably don't. You surely have your own opinion. Hope you see what I mean. edit2: actually now that I think about it, if you (as a parent) have prior knowledge of the field then you surely could spend quality family time orienting the kid in the right direction, while still keeping him happy doing the stuff he wants to do, namely "hacking". This way if he ever ventures too close to the thin line of legality you can be there to have a say in it and make him realize there is suc a thing. (Because to be honest at that time, I did have the notion that what I was doing was illegal, but no idea of what how consequences would affect me, I was a kid. It's the same as kids and the concept of death. Only now do I actually REALIZE that most of the stuff I did could have landed me years of prison time, even if you told me at the time I would not have cared, because being a kid and thinking you are hot shit all the time makes you try crazy stuff just to see how far you can take it)
pavel_lishin 8y ago
> Even if parents find out they probably have no idea what it means (legally or literally) At least one kid admitted that his parents know exactly what he's doing, in the article: > He said he knew what he was doing was illegal, but his parents were aware of his activities and had not stopped him. Furthermore, parents aren't idiots. I got into some shit as a kid, and while my parents weren't the tech-savviest folks around, they were usually pretty quick to catch on that something was amiss. And keep in mind, that today's parents probably grew up with computers themselves.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  > Furthermore, parents aren't idiots. Plenty of adults are idiots, and many of those are parents.
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    Relevant example in the news today: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-father-accused-directing-his-daughter-5-steal-package-porch-n950436 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-father-accused...
siruncledrew 8y ago
Regardless of whether parents understand hacking, computers, or Fortnite, I think parents would be able to tell if something was up based on differences in what their kid is doing. The spectrum of Fortnite "hackers" ranges from a bunch of idiots being handheld by internet users on how to use off-the-shelf scripts to those that actually have an understanding of computer science and information security to DIY their own malicious code. I somewhat agree that if a kid is making $200-$400/mo doing some 'video game nonsense' selling "skins" or whatever, then parents could be apathetic to whatever their kid is doing in their spare time. Now if a kid was coming to a parent with salary-level money, or buying expensive items, then that would be a more serious sign their kid is involved in something. And given they are too young to legally be employed, there would be a lot of questions where the money came from. Once this level of money is reached, it's easier to fall into a path of being a career criminal. If someone is raking in a few thousand a month as a teenager from Fortnite account theft, who's to say they wouldn't have the confidence to get involved with other crimes like identity theft, bank fraud, stealing credit cards, etc. It opens the door to a lot of bad life decisions.

yawz 8y ago

May I ask, as a parent, what would have been the sensible approach to what you were doing from the point of view of your parents?

kjullien 8y ago
I don't think I am able to answer this. If you took a bank robber instead of hacker you could ask the same question and if anybody had an answer to this I don't think there would be bank robbers in the world. edit: This actually feels like more of a personal philosophy type of thing. Say maybe I consider "borrowing" money from a big corp. that screws over the average working person at every chance it gets a good thing. They probably don't. You surely have your own opinion. Hope you see what I mean. edit2: actually now that I think about it, if you (as a parent) have prior knowledge of the field then you surely could spend quality family time orienting the kid in the right direction, while still keeping him happy doing the stuff he wants to do, namely "hacking". This way if he ever ventures too close to the thin line of legality you can be there to have a say in it and make him realize there is suc a thing. (Because to be honest at that time, I did have the notion that what I was doing was illegal, but no idea of what how consequences would affect me, I was a kid. It's the same as kids and the concept of death. Only now do I actually REALIZE that most of the stuff I did could have landed me years of prison time, even if you told me at the time I would not have cared, because being a kid and thinking you are hot shit all the time makes you try crazy stuff just to see how far you can take it)

pavel_lishin 8y ago

> Even if parents find out they probably have no idea what it means (legally or literally) At least one kid admitted that his parents know exactly what he's doing, in the article: > He said he knew what he was doing was illegal, but his parents were aware of his activities and had not stopped him. Furthermore, parents aren't idiots. I got into some shit as a kid, and while my parents weren't the tech-savviest folks around, they were usually pretty quick to catch on that something was amiss. And keep in mind, that today's parents probably grew up with computers themselves.

newnewpdro 8y ago
> Furthermore, parents aren't idiots. Plenty of adults are idiots, and many of those are parents.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  Relevant example in the news today: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-father-accused-directing-his-daughter-5-steal-package-porch-n950436 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-father-accused...

siruncledrew 8y ago

Regardless of whether parents understand hacking, computers, or Fortnite, I think parents would be able to tell if something was up based on differences in what their kid is doing. The spectrum of Fortnite "hackers" ranges from a bunch of idiots being handheld by internet users on how to use off-the-shelf scripts to those that actually have an understanding of computer science and information security to DIY their own malicious code. I somewhat agree that if a kid is making $200-$400/mo doing some 'video game nonsense' selling "skins" or whatever, then parents could be apathetic to whatever their kid is doing in their spare time. Now if a kid was coming to a parent with salary-level money, or buying expensive items, then that would be a more serious sign their kid is involved in something. And given they are too young to legally be employed, there would be a lot of questions where the money came from. Once this level of money is reached, it's easier to fall into a path of being a career criminal. If someone is raking in a few thousand a month as a teenager from Fortnite account theft, who's to say they wouldn't have the confidence to get involved with other crimes like identity theft, bank fraud, stealing credit cards, etc. It opens the door to a lot of bad life decisions.