Child-Suitable Alternatives To Passwords? 895
An anonymous reader writes "Two months ago I donated my old PC to my little sister, who is 7 — I had promised she would get her own computer as soon as she can read and write properly. I then proceeded to answer her questions about how it works, as far as she inquired, and tried to let her make some choices when installing Debian (she can already use GNOME). As I explained password protection and encryption to her, I was pleasantly surprised when she insisted on protection measures being as strong as possible, so that no one else can screw with her computer. She knows that my younger brother has to endure strict parental control software that was installed on his machine without his consent. The significant problem is that she cannot permanently memorize abstract passwords, even if they are her own creation. I talked with a teacher who assured me that this is common at her age. My parents would probably be able to guess non-abstract passwords. What mechanism of identifying herself does the Slashdot crowd suggest?"
Pictures (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pictures (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
Why the parents need to be kept out, and why the AC thinks that any password will keep out parents who presumably have physical access to the system.
If the parents are taking an interest in keeping young children safe, then by all means let 'em.
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
In any case, I think as a primary corollary to your first question, one really needs to ask whether this is a decision that the submitter should be making with his sister. It seems to me, that with all of the talk on Slashdot about 'we must blame the parents who do not take care of their children', this is a decision the parents need to make with their daughter (or that she needs to make alone and can then argue with them afterwards about).
It seems like a ripe situation for family conflict when the (brother, presumably) interposes himself as he is doing here.
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Informative)
Anyways, as for passwords: what about acronym passwords? I love them because they're so easy to memorize, yet end up quite random. Have your sister think of a phrase -- for example, "Mom and Dad, leave me alone!" -- and then make an acronym out of it, like "MaD,lma!"
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh ... wait. "Cybernanny" software for high schoolers, yeah, I can see where that's the wrong approach. But what's the problem installing it on a computer for a seven-year-old? There really is a lot of really foul stuff on the Web, and stumbling on it by accident isn't uncommon. Why allow the child's experience to be colored by that?
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying I would use that access. I'm suggesting that 7 is too young to need it.
Side note--I thought we all agreed 5 years ago that 'boxen' was stupid.
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
As a parent, there's no way in a hell a 7 year old will have a lock down to keep mom and dad out, no responsible parent will allow such a thing, and the machine gets taken away if such a practice is put into place.
When your 18, go right ahead and make the 53 ch4R@ct3R password to lock your machine up, until then, accept the fact that you are the child and we are the parent, and you don't get root access or personal and private encryption, you ask the IT department (dad).
Cheers.
cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit.
If you're open about it, then the idea that there is automatic resentment is just bullshit. Seven-year-olds shouldn't get unresticted and expecially not unmonitored access to the internet. Should the kid be able to keep a private journal, sure. Electronically? Maybe, I don't know about that. Should the parents know who the kid is e-mailing, hell yes. Should the parent read e-mails to the friends, once they have been identified? Well, that's where you get into trust issues. When the kid is seven, yes. When the kid is sixteen, probably not.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
An unplugged box is fine.
Load up a few games. Show them how to use a Paint-like program and a word processor.
Teach them the value of money by giving allowance that they can chose to spend on a new game (and which one to pick!) or something else they may like.
Teach them the value of caring for things by waiting a bit to fix whatever they (potentially) break.
With the amount of educational software, and the fact that innate computer skills are already a requirement in the workforce (let alone 15 years from now when this girl will begin her career), a computer can be a valuable tool for a child.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was 7 or 8, I went into my room one day and closed the door, and didn't notice that the lock accidentally jiggled itself to locked. (The knobs were cheap junk and the locks were overly loose, so this happened occasionally.) My father tried to come into my room moments later, and flew into a rage when he found the door locked. He refused to believe me that I had not intentionally locked the door, and as punishment he removed the door from my bedroom - for two years.
I never forgave him for that. It was very traumatic for me. I couldn't bring myself to even speak to him for months afterward, and when he asked me to do any household chores my only reply was "when do I get my door back?". I felt nothing toward him but angry resentment for the next 10 or 12 years.
You are not in a position to judge another family's personal interactions with regard to privacy. You don't know the people involved or their histories or their opinions. If the kid, at age 7, is already sufficiently bothered by whatever her parents did to her young brother's computer, and her elder brother is sufficiently bothered by it to try to prevent his parents from doing it to hers, maybe they're actually unreasonable nutjobs. It's not our place to judge.
I spoke with a young woman once whose parents placed such draconian restrictions on her computer use in her teen years (severe time restrictions, IM buddy list restrictions, email restrictions, web filtering, and the software sends frequent reports to the parents with screenshots) that it actually interfered with her school work (the computer would lock her out before she could finish typing her homework), not to mention her social life (her friends had difficulty communicating with her, since her phone usage was highly restricted and parental monitored too). When they attempted to send her off to college with a laptop with their draconian control software still installed and just as restrictive as ever, she told them where to shove it and left. I'd be surprised if she ever speaks to them again.
If the parents in the situation this Slashdot discussion is about feel that their 7 year old shouldn't be using the computer the brother gave her, they can ask him to take it back, they can put it in storage, they can ask their daughter to show them her emails and buddy lists and web favorites now and then, or they can put it in a family room so they can see what their daughter is doing with it. If they don't do these things, that's their parenting choice.
Meanwhile, we could be having an interesting discussion of how to create decent passwords for people (like children) who are unable to remember arbitrary strings. I've met adults with the same problem, so it's not a moot question.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Funny)
W.T.F.
Kids can remember passwords, maybe not strong passwords, but words and letters are easy enough. I've seen it first hand.
Re:bullshit indeed, reading comprehension much? (Score:4, Insightful)
He comprehended you just fine. My question is, what color is the sky on your world?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If I say "2+2=4", and he replies "Bullshit, 2-3 does not equal 4...", he's neither understanding, nor participating in a meaningful way in the conversation. He's just making empty arguments for the sake of conflict.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
"Ma'am, do you have any idea who might have kidnapped your daughter? Has she been talking to anyone new lately? Has she had any new friends come by the house?"
"*sob* I don't know! She uses blowfish!"
You're legally responsible for your children until they reach the age of majority, and the only way you can possibly do that is to have some clue what your children are doing.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:4, Insightful)
Me too....
Ma'am, we'd like to congratulate your child on helping us catch our 13th child predator this year. She's a real wizard with netstat, tcpdump, traceroute, and whois. We think she's very well equipped for the challenges she'll face in her very bright future.
*beaming with pride* And to think it all started with that Debian install, a little blowfish, and encouragement!
Obviously, when fabricating completely fictional scenarios, you're a glass half empty kind of person.
Go ahead and shelter your kids if you like. Mine will be no strangers to the knowledge and skills they'll need to be well rounded people. Rather than take responsibility away from them, I'll teach them how to handle it.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Interesting)
And after they're 18, you don't get regular phone calls or visits, nor talks about their lives. You'll have denied them privacy for as long as it was legally possible for you to force that upon them, and the pendulum will swing back in full force, reacting to your actions with equal force in the opposite direction.
Maybe...until they have their own kids. But mostly that's crap. Children expect boundries...and they will keep pushing you until you establish some. Because, when there's no barriers, there's also nothing protecting you either. They may grouse at the time, but they will respect reasonable restrictions.
Boundries are the foundation that allows the now 16 year-old daughter to tell her boyfriend, "We can go in my room, but mom/dad will freak if I close the door."
I've got to wonder what this precocious 7 year-old wants to look at or do that she thinks is going to be foiled by her parents!
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:4, Insightful)
Because it would be oh so horrible and the baby jesus would cry if they kissed or god forbid, had sex? I'm sorry to tell you this but your arbitrary moral standards don't apply to everyone.
Also, my parents rarely set boundaries for me as a kid, instead they told me why it was a bad idea to do whatever it was I wanted to do, after the age of 13 or so they would just tell me I could do whatever I wanted but if I did something they had taught me not to do then I was on my own, but maybe raising your children to take responsibility isn't very popular these days?
/Mikael
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
Just thought I'd point out that your oversight in your title extends to your oversight in the importance of good parenting. Children need to earn privacy so they can respect the responsibilities it comes with later in life. Obviously you give them more and more privacy to practice with the older they get, but a seven year old cannot possibly be ready for that kind of responsibility yet.
In fact, the lack of structure you suggest will probably cause the exact thing you tried to avoid: a bratty kid who gets what he (she in this case) wants. I'm sure you are going to argue that you were referring to the extremeness of the GPs comment (i.e. no privacy at all until 18) but you know you'll be missing the point.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no reason a seven-year-old needs absolute privacy from her parents combined with internet access; to the contrary, it's a dangerous and potentially harmful scenario, and it is a parent's primary job to deal with such things. (And no, I'm not advocating a 'padded room' solution to childcare.)
Let's be clear here: privacy for dependents is not absolute. (In fact, privacy is seldom an absolute for anyone, but that's another issue.) Privacy for a seven-year-old should NOT be the same as it is for a 16-year-old or a college student. If your seven-year-old says "I'm going out for a while.", do you ask them where? With who? What time they'll be home? Do you let them go? When they're 16, you can expect different degrees of answer from them, and correspondingly give them more freedom (=privacy). When they're 21, your questions are less of a protective nature, and more concern/interest.
Explaining why they don't have absolute freedom and privacy is a big part of the challenge of being a parent. Kids can be raised (more or less) rationally, and if your reasoning is rational, they'll often go along (although not always, and not always without complaining). Unfortunately, making good decisions for good adult reasons doesn't always translate well to the age of the child. Explaining to a seven-year -old about online pedophiles, credit scams, phishing, and so forth is tough when she hasn't reached puberty or had a net worth more than ten bucks. You can simplify a fair bit, but there are some explanations that ultimately have to wait until she's older. "Because I said so" can actually be the right answer sometimes.
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:cat's in the cradle (Score:5, Interesting)
If you ask people 20 years after their teens, they will most likely say they didn't know as much as they thought they knew at that time. Most kids find a point in their teens when they think they know it all. Later they realize that if they knew what they know now, back then, they would have done quite a few things different.
It sounds like you can't make a definitive statement on your parents snooping either. IF you as you claim, didn't do anything wrong, how would you know that Dad was looking at your browsing history or cookies? He wouldn't tell you because you did nothing he objected to. He could have been reading your email and all and you just turned out to be a good kid regardless. Again, you wouldn't know unless you did something wrong that he felt like dealing with. And even then, he might have dealt with it in an unrelated way so you wouldn't put two and two together. After all, why expose the ways he found out about what you were doing that was "bad" and lose that ability in the future?
The primary role of a parent is to make you into the best person you can be and give you the opportunity to do this within their means. This might be subject to interpretation but it would require them to know something about you. Just because you couldn't catch them checking up on you doesn't mean they didn't from time to time.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You're limiting that statement to just children?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Or they were just very careful about it.
To borrow some phrasing... anybody can snoop. To snoop without anybody knowing they were snooped on, THAT'S the goal.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, but does that mean she'll be smart enough to choose not to go meet that really cool girl that's friends with her online?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You need to revise your scales a bit. I'd say by the time they're old enough to want privacy they're old enough to need it.. 11 or 12 maybe.
Or would you also routinely read your childs diary until they're 18?
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
Plug it in to the net, or notice little Bobby or Susy loading up stuff on it that you don't recognize from friends, then you bet it's time to want to know what's going on. Kids aren't adults, they don't get the same level of privacy from their parents that adults do, nor should they.
Parents need involvement in their kids lives, it's the way that they shape and mold their kids into functional balanced adults, as well as protect them from dangers the kid doesn't realize exist or doesn't believe in. It's the mark of a good parent, and it's something that's lacking in too many parents.
Re:Pictures (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, don't get me wrong, i don't monitor every email all the time, nor do I sniff their network traffic all the time. I DO trust them online, they have earned my trust (to get a myspace account, my daughter had to write a 2 page paper on internet stalkers and how to avoid them). However, if I see a change in behavior they don't care to discuss with me, I have EVERY right and the responsibility to find out what's wrong in any way that I need to.
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
"As a parent, there's no way in a hell a 7 year old will have a lock down to keep mom and dad out, no responsible parent will allow such a thing, and the machine gets taken away if such a practice is put into place."
I did not understand that point of view at 7, and I do not agree with it a 40-something.
It seems to go without saying that children are not entitled to privacy from their parents. I say it is up to the individual parent. Many parents DO respect their children enough to give them privacy. Some consider doing otherwise to be a form of abuse.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I do agree that 7 years old is a bit young for that, but in my case, it's my computer, I paid for it, I can do what I want with it...as is the case here. It's her computer, let her do what she wants. How is she gonna learn anything if the whole system is locked down? I would not be a future computer science major if my parents controlled everything
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
Either you're young enough that you're not a parent (i.e., that "computer when you were 3" was a Windows 95 machine) or you're old enough that the computer you had at home had no real user account control.
TODAY, with the internet everywhere, control of a household computer is as important as control of a household medicine cabinet or control of the family car. You might trust a teenager with it, but if you're stupid enough to trust a seven year old with it you should have your children taken away.
Re:Pictures (Score:4, Interesting)
I had "root" access to each of my computers as a child. The first was handed down to me from my dad when I was 9 or so and it was exclusively my toy, kept in my bedroom.
Of course, this was 1992, and it was an IBM XT (and later a PS2, err.. an *IBM* PS2). Aside from word processing and the few games that worked on a monochrome monitor there wasn't much you could do with it.
Now-a-days?
No way.
I cautioned my parents not to let my THIRTEEN y/o sister have a PC in her bedroom, let alone a seven year old!
Can anybody here think of ONE good reason for a 2nd grader to have privacy like this?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I have a secret :) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pictures (Score:4, Insightful)
Children don't -get- privacy from their parents, unless the parents should choose to give it to them. A family is not a democracy--it is a dictatorship.
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
A family is most definately *not* a dictatorship. It's a family, which has its own dynamic. Respecting the rights of the child (one of those rights is the right to privacy btw.) is fundamental to a healthy functioning family. In turn they should respect your wish to know what they're doing - but not every detail (and you will never find that out anyway).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Privacy is not a guaranteed right for children.
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm shocked that anyone would even think that. A child with no freedom and no room to grow would turn out to be a basket case. I'd wager social services would get involved at some point.
Re:Pictures (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Pictures (Score:5, Insightful)
I neither know or care anything about rising children. I will learn if I ever have any. I simply answered the question "why the parents need to be kept out"; since the summary gave me the impression that the it is the child who wants a "parent-proof" PC, I took this question to mean "why would a child want to keep its parents out".
You are seeing moral judgements where there is none, merely an attempt to see the world through someone elses - the kids, in this case - eyes while attempting to solve an interesting problem: how to secure a computer against an attacker who has physical access to both it and the onwer. Since the rest of your post proceeds from this flawed assumption, commenting on it further would be pointless.
Fingerprint Reader? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fingerprint Reader? (Score:5, Insightful)
The fingerprint will be the same, but scaled up so all proximity will be lost.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Fingerprint reader software (such as the wonderfully open source ThinkFinger) map out a fingerprint by locating easily identifiable marks, such as swirls or dead-ends, and map their proximity to other easily identifiable marks. As this girl is seven its fair to assume that in a few more years her fingers will be twice their current size.
The fingerprint will be the same, but scaled up so all proximity will be lost.
All that may be true, but it doesn't prevent them from simply re-enrolling her fingerprints every year or so as she grows.
Re:Fingerprint Reader? (Score:5, Informative)
The fingerprint readers we use in our computers at work read by proportional distance, not physical distance. If you define the distance between two key points at opposite ends of the finger as a distance of 100% and an angle of 0 degrees, the rest of the points are defined using those terms. So Point C may be at 23 degrees left, 15% distance, point D may be 16 degrees right, 4% distance, etc.
In that case, the fact that the finger grows larger over time makes no distance, because the points it's measuring are still in the same position, proportionally, just with a different scalar multiplier.
Re:Fingerprint Reader? (Score:4, Insightful)
Layne
Re:Fingerprint Reader? (Score:5, Funny)
If you have a fingerless daughter, train it to her toes (and retrain as above, when Strawberry Shortcake makes her rounds amongst the little piggies).
If you have a fingerless, toeless daughter who wants to use the computer anyway, for fucks sake, memorize her password for her, you heartless clod!
Re:Fingerprint Reader? (Score:5, Informative)
That being said just use a sticky note hidden somewhere or something. Or use a non-abstract password, like her favourite food, or least favourite food. How long would it take you to guess "fudgeicle"?
And, it's already been mentioned that the parents persumabally have physical access to the computer, and if they have the know-how and confidence to install some sort of parental control into a linux distro, then the password is not going to be a problem for them to bypass.
Re:Fingerprint Reader? (Score:4, Insightful)
In kindergarten I had to memorize my phone number and address. A phone number is a fairly random 7 digit code. A zip code is 5 more random digits. There is no reason to assume she couldn't memorize a 7 character string; even 5 digits worth of numbers is far more than sufficient to stop any manual attempts to guess the password.
Furthermore, even if she uses a common thing plus 1 number the search space is sufficiently large that it is quite unlikely that the parents would guess it. Beyond this she could write it down on a slip of paper and hide it in a book. Not the most secure, but it'll still take a fair bit of effort to get it.
This excuses several things, such as..
1. The child shouldn't have such access to a computer. It's just not a smart idea.
2. The parents are parents. The child is a child. Passwords have little effect when they say "you can't use the computer until we have the password" or "no sweets unless we get the password." Seriously, in terms of challenges it's trivial on both sides - the parents either can't crack the password regardless of complexity, or they can crack any password because they have physical access to the machine and the knowhow. The child can't withhold the password if the parents get serious about it, or she can, but she loses the benefit of the computer entirely.
passphrase (Score:5, Informative)
To Deal With Size Limitations (Variant on Phrase) (Score:5, Insightful)
For instance, in high school I listened to Tomorrow Never Knows off of the Revolver record by The Beatles nonstop. Since I know every lyric [lyriki.com] of that song, I might pick the opening line:
Re:To Deal With Size Limitations (Variant on Phras (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, it was good enough to prevent you from replying using his account, at least.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
mybigbrotherissuchageek
or
nowicantalktocreepsonlinewithoutmyparentsknowing
?
Why on earth does a kid of this age need a secure password?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Every login account on an internet-connected computer needs a secure password.
Re:passphrase (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:passphrase (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, I get it! Your spelling mistakes are a form of security! If you don't have the exact right level of literacy, your computer won't let you post. Ho ho, very clever!
Fingerprint? (Score:3, Insightful)
A fingerprint seems like a reasonable idea. If she's just trying to keep other family members off of it, rubber-hose cryptanalysis is unlikely to become a problem, and she's highly unlikely to forget her fingers anywhere.
Re:Fingerprint? (Score:5, Funny)
You were an only child, right?
Re:Fingerprint? (Score:4, Informative)
Fingerprint + Children = bad combo.
(A public service announcement)
Re:Fingerprint? (Score:4, Funny)
Especially when considering the Finger Paint and Booger factors.
Shape (Score:5, Insightful)
Have her make a pattern on the keyboard that she can remember. I've actually had a number of PIN codes that I didn't actually remember apart from the pattern they make on the numeric keypad.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, I ran into the main problem with this the day my keyboard broke; I went and got a cheap rep
Strange quote... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Otherwise, quit undermining your parents and let them raise your sister. You can contribute if you want by teaching her about computers, but do it in assistance to your parents, not in opposition.
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's a slippery slope. A seven-year-old child should be entitled to the kind of privacy necessary to protect their dignity (in other words, the same privacy to which any human is entitled) and keep them safe. Sending
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"Unable to grasp how to admin a computer" doesn't necessarily mean "incompetent to raise a child".
Most kids have a much better understanding of modern technology than their parents (and I suspect that has always held true). She may legitimately worry that, in their laughable attempts to snoop on her activity, they'll actually cause some damage. The very fact that the FP involves her brother giving her a computer rather than her parents would tend t
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Strange quote... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Funny)
It's not about trust. It's about accountability. See, I trust you guys, but lets face it - sometimes things happen and we all want to be able to have every person be accountable for their actions. So I'm just going to lock this bad boy down with a digital key long enough to choke a horse.
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
That judgement is learned, generally through the parents. And yes, you'll see lots of adults using their parents' poor judgement.
The second reason is that it helps prevent parent ignorance. If the parents participate in her "computer experience" they will become experienced, too. The younger kid had to endure safe-surf software because the parents didn't want to surf with the kid.
What gets me is that a 7-yo actually feels the need to hide things from her parents. This can be from watching her brother and deciding his frustration was bad, or it could be because she doesn't trust them so much.
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Or it can just be for the same reason that kids like having a "secret hideout" or "secret clubs" or whatever. Like everyone else, they like space --whether physical or conceptual-- that is their own.
Children, even that young, DO need a certain amount of privacy. But that's too young to be having privacy from parents in connection with her interactions with the outside world, and her interactions with the random & anonymous people that she'll meet there.
And being in her own room gives a very dangerous illusion of complete safety-- she would probably want parents present when wandering through a large, bustling crowd of unfamiliar grown-ups, but she's far less likely to recognize any danger when she's alone in her house with her parents in the next room.
If this computer is not connected to the internet, then sure, let her have a password that keeps her parents out of the computer. It's like having a room with a door that closes, or a diary that no one else is allowed to read.
But if it's attached to the Internet? That's another story. Her parents NEED to be involved.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
you need privacy even as a child, it's not like a parent has direct access to a childs brain. There are secrets that you should be able to keep.
A strong password is not necessary for this - and anyway, a password has no use to an attacker with physical access to a computer. Unless heavy encryption comes into play.
But then still, a child may need privacy, but the parents need to have a way to access it. Whether they should do it or not, that is another discussion. You are talking about a seven-year-old here. They need parental supervision, and a certain degree of control. Clear limits within where to operate. Keeping things secret as a child from
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, my son is 8 and he's only allowed to use the computer in the living room, and we can easily see what he's doing on it at all times. Kids are already going to obsess about keeping things from their parents when they're teenagers, there's no reason to start building that barrier when they're only 7.
Re:Strange quote... (Score:5, Insightful)
None (Score:4, Insightful)
at age 7 (Score:5, Insightful)
Parents guessing the password of a seven year old is ridiculous, is this a serious question ?
Re:at age 7 (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree with the sentiment, but am appalled by the logic. Privacy is an inherit human right, not a privledge. However, we allow parents to exercise those rights on behalf of the child, because the child cannot be trusted to do so yet. It has nothing to do with the costs of food/shelter/clothing, and a 20-year-old unable to secure funds (e.g. all their money was going to tuition) would certainly have an expectation of privacy.
Why keep her parents off exactly ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I have two daughters around the same age. They share a computer that we gave them for xmas. They have their own accounts, with their own passwords and my wife and I maintain the Administrator account. I could not fathom them having an Internet-accessible computer without us having full control over it.
Am I missing the point ? Because when I read:
"My parents would probably be able to guess non-abstract passwords"
it sounds to me like you're trying to keep a 7 year-old's parents off of a computer she uses when they have every right (and reason / responsibility in this day in age) to know what their young child is doing on a computer.
Of course I am all for teaching kids how to be security conscious and protect their private data. But it's a fine balance. Parents need to keep themselves in the loop in order to, you know, be effective parents.
Use a book (Score:4, Insightful)
Have her take a favorite book, start at a random page (or first page if she only needs to keep family members off.) Read the first letter of each page for 10 pages.
On a different topic, you said one thing that shocked me:
She's 7. I don't know how old your younger brother is, but at some age, it is a reasonable thing for a parent to do. It cannot suppliment for parenting, but it can be handy to insist on a website whitelist, or 2-hour cutoff.
Seven-year-olds shouldn't have the full rights of adults.
Why are you trying to undermine your parents? (Score:5, Insightful)
Use a passphrase... (Score:5, Funny)
And yes, I'm a parent.
Easy, use a pattern (Score:4, Interesting)
I would say the majority of non-computer users have trouble remembering really strong passwords (ones that make use of a mixture of letters and numbers and punctuation marks). I find the solution is to rely on muscle memory.
Pick a column on the keyboard and press every key along that line. For example 4rfv. Now hold down the shift key and repeat it. $RFV. So the password is 4rfv$RFV which is relatively strong for most uses but is a snap and simple to remember.
The only caveat is that it's not a password that you can type while someone is watching but then...really nobody should be watching when you type any password. Although, pressing the shift key can be pretty subtle.
Other patterns like squares or crosses work as well.
- JoeShmoe
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Keyboard patterns (Score:3, Insightful)
RFID! Embedded! In Her skull! (Score:3, Funny)
She's seven years old! Let her pick a password that's easy for her to recall. The important thing is that she's accustomed to passwords etc, not that she understands cryptographic science.
Easy. (Score:3, Interesting)
A seporate USB Keyboard a numberpad extenstion can work
A Lathe.
A Wooden Dowle.
A wooden box or sheet metal.
A drill with a bit the same size as the dowel.
Ok take apart the USB Number Pad rewire it so all the keys are in a straight line.
Take the woden dowle on the lathe and cut impressions for all the keys.
Cut out different sections from the lathed dowle so when spun over they keyboard it presses the keys in a unique fassion. Put the modified keyboard in the box and drill a hole in it just above the keyboard for her to put the Dowle key in. and hook it up to the computer. And have her keep the key. That whay when it asks for a password she just needs to put the key in and turn it. And it will type the password.
This may sound a bit extream but the instructions are easer then say getting Ubentu to Run in Parallels.
Anonymous Child? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bad parent in the making (Score:4, Insightful)
When you have a 7-year-old, feel free to lock yourself out of their PC.
Child-Suitable Alternative To Car Keys? (Score:5, Funny)
Nuts. (Score:3, Insightful)
Kids do what adults do--they write them down. (Score:5, Informative)
[No, they were not all the same. Some of them were quite complex, too, like 'ni*45FPN!ng'. I got to play "change-the-password" for a few hours that evening.]
I asked him how he got them: he shoulder-surfed us for every one of them. The reason he had them? He wanted to sneak down to the computer at 3 in the morning and play Spooky Castle.
That scared the snot out of me. Now, I know he may not be the typical kid, but it just goes to show that you really can't be too careful with your passwords.
As to the boy, I started encouraging him to use his powers for good. I teach network administration at an area college, so I started bringing him with when I had to configure the lab. He caught on quick, and was a huge help. He's just over 11 now, and while he's still one of the most tech savvy kids in the house, he has little interest in PCs (that might be a good thing). He'd rather spend time outdoors (even when it's thirty below zero) or with his pet cockatiel.
Re:Passphrase (Score:4, Funny)
Dad
nice one, some suggestions (Score:4, Informative)