Tuesday, Jun 10, 2008    Text size: 

UTAH VALLEY, Utah — At a recent Brigham Young University conference experts warned parents that despite the installation of online porn filters, teenagers are finding ways to access adult content.

There are only a few ways to access pornography once filters are installed. Some filters automatically shut down Internet access after 10 p.m., so some teens log in early, turn the computer monitor off so it appears the computer is shut down and then sneak back after parents are asleep to surf porn.

"I have emails from parents whose child had managed to create an invisible user account," said Charles Knutson, a computer science BYU teacher. "I'm a computer science professor but that doesn't mean I know everything. My first reaction was can you do that? I dove in and I was shocked. You can do that."

According to conference speakers, even if filter software is impenetrable, neighbors may inadvertently offer porn to teens since many do not realize a neighbor's wireless Internet access spills over from one house to another, allowing teens to log in and access adult content.

"There are kids who are building a Linux boot disc, and they throw in a CD and you bypass everything," Knutson said. "There are bootable USB drives. There really is a subset of kids who are both tech savvy and committed to accessing inappropriate materials."

Experts said crafting ways to overcome software filters can be part of the attraction for teens and teens have a tech-savvy social network, passing around information and educating each other on ways to access porn on the sly.

In addition, Internet-capable cellphones are bringing porn to schools. "I have clients looking at porn on their cellphones while sitting in math class," said Dan Gray, clinical director of LifeSTAR, a sex and pornography addiction treatment program.