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question about browser history


Mom2boys
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I checked the browser history on my computer, and it shows that someone was on facebook from 6-6:15pm yesterday. The only person home at that time was my ds. He swears he wasn't on facebook, all though he does admit to using my computer. (And my husband saw him sitting at my computer when he arrived home unexpectedly.) Is there any way that browsing history could have appeared without someone actually going on facebook and visiting the four profiles indicated? 

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Well...I've had people or businesses send me links to a video or a meme that takes me to Facebook to view it, and I have been able to see those things without logging into Facebook.  My sil doesn't have a Facebook page but she still sees things like that when she clicks links on other pages she views.   For instance, she saw a piece of furniture on Pinterest and when she clicked it, it took her to the Facebook page of the antique store that has it for sale. 

 

Pretty sure your ds wasn't browsing for antiques but could he perhaps have clicked it from another site like Tumblr or something? Still, it's clearly Facebook when it opens that so if that happened he would have known that. And four profiles is a lot to stumble across in 15 minutes. 

 

 

 

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Well shoot. I was pretty sure that was the case, but I was hoping that maybe somehow there was a computer glitch that caused five erroneous browsing history entries. Yes, I realize how far-fetched that sounds.

 

But the alternative is that my 12 year old looked me in the eye and told me a boldface lie. Repeatedly. With tears in his eyes. He is the child that is going to turn my hair gray. But on the up-side, he may have a future in the theater because he is quite the actor.

 

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

 

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The profiles were actually mine and several of my friends that he knows (his music teacher, mother of one of his friends, etc.) None of his friends are allowed to have facebook accounts yet. In our homeschool group it is common to wait until high school to allow facebook accounts. I think he was just checking it out because he was curious. But, he broke our rule about not getting on the internet without permission. And he continues to deny he did it. So he is going to be punished for his dishonesty. 

 

Raising teenage boys can be a thankless job.  :banghead:

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The profiles were actually mine and several of my friends that he knows (his music teacher, mother of one of his friends, etc.) None of his friends are allowed to have facebook accounts yet. In our homeschool group it is common to wait until high school to allow facebook accounts. I think he was just checking it out because he was curious. But, he broke our rule about not getting on the internet without permission. And he continues to deny he did it. So he is going to be punished for his dishonesty.

 

Raising teenage boys can be a thankless job. :banghead:

I know it's so frustrating. Hopefully he will learn from it. At least it was just a few profiles of your friends. As far as the internet world goes, it could have been much worse.

I can remember looking my parents in the eyes and lying when I was a teenager. I have one boy who can do this and he's not close to a teenager yet. Ugh

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Not sure if you want parenting advice, but I'd take his word for it and let it go.  If he lied, he knows he lied and his conscious will work on him.  If he didn't, then you've not created a situation where he thinks he'll be accused falsely at numerous turns (the case in the childhood of someone *ahem* close to me).  Just keep an open relationship with him -- as it sounds like you have -- and continuously let him know that he can tell you anything without risking your anger.  I have found that my children that have lied to me will usually come back and admit it and be sorry about it. 

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I would put in safeguards that prevent access when you don't want him to have it. For example, you could set up a kids profile that doesn't allow for internet access and only allow them to use that when you're away from home. I wouldn't just let it appear as if he had fooled you. The tears may have been indicative of a guilty conscience working on him rather than upset at an accusation.

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I would put in safeguards that prevent access when you don't want him to have it. For example, you could set up a kids profile that doesn't allow for internet access and only allow them to use that when you're away from home. I wouldn't just let it appear as if he had fooled you. The tears may have been indicative of a guilty conscience working on him rather than upset at an accusation.

 

We do have that set up on the kids' computer, and on their ipods. But I left my laptop on when I left the house and he was able to access everything, no password needed. Lesson learned for me.

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So how do I access history on Chrome?  I mostly use Firefox, but I do have Chrome.  I'm not so familiar with Chrome.  I'm just curious now.

 

To the right of the text box where you would type in a web address, there are three black lines. if you click on those it opens up a drop-down menu, and one of the options is "history". Clicking on that will pull up your browsing history by date and time.

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Do you have access to you accounts a smart phone or tablet?  My Chrome also shows me all the history of my browsing on my phone and tablet

 

Jenn

 

ETA/: but is does not say which entry is from what device

This is a good point. If you have your systems connected via the cloud, then the history will show for all devices with some browsers. eta: It would be an easy thing to test.

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Time to set your laptop to have a screen saver and require a password to unlock the screen saver.  I have the one on mine set to not come on until the laptop has been idle for 30 minutes and it is really nice for keeping wandering teens from messing up my work laptop "by mistake".

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Sorry I didn't read all the other replies, but my initial thought is that you unemotionally sit him down and show him the irrefutable evidence. If he says it happened some other way, ask him to show you how it did happen.

 

This is not to prove you are right and he is lying. This is a forensic exam. Maybe present a hypothetical, like if he needed to be proven innocent or guilty of a crime, this is how his activity would appear to an investigator. He at least needs to know that everything is traceable.

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See, I disagree with Seasider (nothing personal SS!).  It's not a courtcase, or shouldn't be. What if he can't show how else it might have happened?  What if that skill/knowledge isn't there? Why not just show him you want to trust what he says?  It's possible, just possible, even if minutely possible, that there's some other answer to this. It's your relationship with your son, just let it go. There was a time when this person close to me referenced above went to the store with her mom.  She was about 16 or 17, I think.  The mom and daughter didn't have the greatest relationship at the time, but it wasn't horribly bad either. Overall the daughter was a good kid trying to make good choices.  Anyway, they were at the store and the daughter purchased some eyeliner.  The two met up and left soon after that.  Later, the daughter was using the eyeliner or something and the mom asked her where she got it.  The girl said she'd purchased it at the store.  The mom said she hadn't seen her do that and was convinced the daughter had stolen it.  The evidence (to the mom) proved her right.  The daughter was hurt and mad.  It took a long time for her to get over it.  It was very hurtful for the mom to take her own idea of what happened over what the daughter was telling her.  Or so I've been told. 

 

Anyway, I don't think it's worth a fuss.  So what?  Yes, deal with him being on the computer, but don't push "But I know you were on Facebook!" It's like the gal said above -- if it were p*orn or something, then yes deal with that.  But if he did do it, it was just curious about Facebook.  No big deal.  The wrong was that he was on the computer, which he's admitted to.  Deal with that in an unemotional straightforward way. 

 

ETA -- I have a daughter that has lied to me more than once.  There are times I blow it and push it beyond what I should.  But there also have been times when I've said, "Oh, okay.  I believe you" even though the evidence I understood proved otherwise.  To this day (she's 12), she wavers between being annoyed by and resisting me and wanting to be close/huggy with me.  The close/huggy comes after I've shown her respect.  The resistance comes when I'm gruff or accusatory or demanding over every little detail concerning her actions.  She's the one that will come up to me after the fact and say, "I'm sorry.  I lied.  Please forgive me" with a softened heart. 

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