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30 Moments When Parents On Twitter Realized Their Kids Were Criminal Masterminds
Whether we like it or not, times are changing faster than we'd probably like them to. While we, adults, can easily remember the times when we had no phones or the internet, for kids these days, technologies are an integral part of their everyday lives. And probably, it's for the best to finally admit that children today can easily outsmart us when it comes to using various gadgets. Heck, I've known kids who couldn't read or write yet, but would easily find the clips they wanted on YouTube! If that doesn't tell you something, I don't know what will.
Speaking about kids, recently, one Twitter thread blew up. In it, a concerned father shared a humorous story of how his young daughter hacked their Netflix parental code. Astounded by her ingenious creativity, other people started sharing little anecdotes from their lives with children as well. Parents, listen up—as it appears, there's a good 99.99% chance that your kid also knows some sly techniques that you haven't even thought about. They're actually masterminds. They can open locks with hair clips. It's scary. Don't underestimate your kid's hacking and social engineering skills either, because this viral thread on Twitter proves just how oblivious adults can be. Scroll down below to read 45 stories other parents shared about their hacker and criminal mastermind kids on Twitter and don't forget to tell us in the comments down below whether you have such a story!
More info: Twitter
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it really really is. i wish i had the smarts to do that
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I spent far too long wondering what Call of Duty had to do with it and how he got away without it showing on a bill...
Hah! That’s actually Cash on Delivery, which is how he got away with it.
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How did he pay for all this? If this is true, he is a happy person that made his dream come true
Because children were expected to ask permission. Because hacking means stealing.
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Ah, the old “I’m a great entrepreneur; look how I cheated to get started...” it reminds me of Bobby Kotick, who, if I’m thinking of the correct sociopathic executive of a sociopathic corporation, likes to brag about how his entrepreneurial life started when he sold his mother’s ashtray... which he stole from his mother.
This is cool and scary. Remember the kid that built a nuclear reactor in his basement. Google David Hahn.
Parenting done right. Please make sure her ingenuity is nurtured so she becomes unique. And not mundane as the filth of humans that r bound to surround her . Make sure she is not boring like them. Nothing is worse than a wasted potential
the fact that she can text when she's 5 yo is astounding for me. my sister (who is 4) can barely even write words.
There was a story on the news a few years ago about a girl who bought herself a huge amount of toys from Amazon using her mum's fingerprint while she slept LOL
This family needs to work on trust and setting boundaries, this is not ok
Im the oldest and I cant think like this,and my youngest brother is 4
I simply forged the first excuse my mom wrote for me in one school ... so the teachers got used to the autograph I did. Just had to redo every legit excuse to keep it going, but it went. Actually, in THAT school, I finally reached the status of getting away with everything, but that required more...
Or... Take them to a crime overlord and begin there training. Viguorusly . U know better not to rot the brain
Send her to the hackers. She can be those cool hackers like in the movies
Isn't this kind of irresponsible as an adult to know she is spending someone else's money and not tell them? Or is it just for watching tv, like if they have a limit and you have to enter the passcode once past the limit?
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
A lot of parents seem to be particularly unbothered by the fact that their children are able to log in their personal spaces, including bank accounts. I definitely wouldn't.
In my family we know each other's password to everything and it's never been a problem. We just trust each other and respect boundaries.
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I'm baffled at the lack of trust and deceit in these families. I gave my kid a credit card linked to my account when he was 8, and he's never abused it. He's nearly 16 and still calls to ask permission to buy stuff.
You are extremely lucky and raising a good kid too!!!
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Waaaay back in the day, at a time where MAC OS 7.5 was the hottest OS on the planet, there was a little amusement program called "Grouch" basically every time you put something in the bin the grouch would come and sing "I love trash" or "I love it because it´s trash!..." And my infant daughter loved it. So did I until one day came home from work to an empty computer and a very happy daughter who had figured out how to switch the mac on and use a mouse.
Hopefully she didn't empty the trash!
Load More Replies... My dad's parental lock required restarting the computer to break the lock, then before it had fully finished loading up you kill the program with the task manager. Took nine-year-old me five minutes to figure out, took my dad six months to realise.
Even when kids show how smart they are, and parents are happily proud I wonder how normal it is for all this people to have an unhealthy relationship with their own kids. I prefer direct confrontation and a proper conversation about things they should or should not see or access, and even about bank security. I'm not sure why everybody is so afraid of kids knowing their password or reading their messages.
Messages are fine. Bank codes are absolutely over the line.
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raised my son in the 80s when home computers and gaming systems were just coming out so didn't have the issues that these parents have. but, even with the old school groundings my son got creative so i had to do so as well. when it was taking the gaming system i took all the controllers, including the knobs off the telly. as for other things like the stay home grounding (we lived in rural area) he didn't lose his bike; just the front wheel.
I stripped my son's room for bad behavior. He had nothing but a matress on the floor..I walked in and found him doing the one thing I didn't think about..throwing a ball in the air..one of his favorite activities..so I took the ball. Ten mins later I went back up and instead of a ball he was throwing and catching his dresser knobs. Carry on son.
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Simpler tech, but my parents didn't leave the password saved on our dial up connection, so I had to ask each time I went online. I found out I could copy the starred password and paste it into a document, and read it. Got caught a few weeks later (hard to be sneaky connecting with dial up, the modem is so loud XD)
I guessed our cable order code in one try..4 letters..mom's favorite in the family. Her dog..Ivan. don't be obvious. Rented porn all weekend.
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Kids are downright clever about hacking. It will be interesting to see how they try to stop their own offspring.
My dad took my phone because I had it late at night, so What did 16-year-old me do? Took his keys and went OUTSIDE to get it out of his truck and played it all night. Even texted my friend using if I could come over the next day. Got caught cause I forgot to delete my text messages. Dad came to pick my dumb a*s up in the middle of hanging out. 😬
I love most of this! Actually, most of these are ... either getting the school to take missing as excused, gain access to computers or TV programs ... this is harmless and shows they're creative and willing - the exact same way any law is enforced ... these are society's rules anyway ... or, even the better ones.
Harmless now. Hope none of these tech geniuses end up on drugs. Look out!
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I'm dating myself, but.... When I was either four or five, I watched the pattern my mom would use on the phone (land line....rotary) to call my grand mother....I was the only grand child at that point. So when she was busy one day, I called my grandmother asking for various toys. About a week later, she showed up with all the toys. My mom was bewildered. They talked and my grandmother assumed my mom just called the number at let me talk while she cleaned the house. And my mom, assumed she may have done that and didn't remember. In my early 20's I relate the story and my mom's jaw hit the floor. Said it always bothered her, as she knew she would never let me on a call unsupervised. Told my grandmother and she just laughed.
My kid ( underhanded master mind) is never allowed to use my phone for anything, and also gets furious when I'm one step ahead and he can't get away with anything. 🤣🤣🤣
And people still refuse to believe that smartphones (or whatever) are evil? Mindblowing, really.
Also..if you hang your full body weight on a combo lock and turn it opens right up. Never took anything but I got into everyone's shed. Lol
In h.s. I hardly ever skipped class..but when I did it was fine since my signature of my mom's name was on every paper ever signed for my h.s.. screw asking mom..I did my own paperwork. Hot free lunch too.😁
I got a call to my son's high school. During free time in computer class he somehow hacked thru the schools firewall and proceeded to turn off computers in the administration building. They tried to expel him for destruction of school property. I guess there were things that weren't saved before he turned them off. Yeah. Luckily several of his teachers (including the computer teacher) came to his hearing on his behalf. He got a few days at home.
I s**t downy schools whole system by doing my paper on hacking. I backed in and crashed the server. Got a week detention as it took that long to fix..but I got an a!
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I've done similar things myself. Everything from using Tor to get around router and DNS imposed restrictions, to using msconfig to disable monitoring programs, to even setting up my own private wifi network by bridging Ethernet connections and plugging in an old router. Maybe I shouldn't be posting this here...
I don't know if this is relevant but my when I was around 5 yo my mom noticed I can open all child proof bottles. After that she always asked me to help opening bleach bottles, medical containers etc. because she could't open those things. Proints to mom and dad for explaining, then I knew those things are dangerous. But still took it as a callenge; how does this thing work? Can I open it? Haha.
When I was eight, I got a little kid tablet fir Christmas. It had screen restrictions, web restrictions, reading book restrictions, and I couldn't access the internet. But, my parents also had an account on the tablet, solely for changing settings and helping me watch piano tutorials. So, eight year old me asked to watch a piano tutorial, while my dad was playing. Of course, since he was already at the piano, he just had me bring it to him instead of going on him room. I stood in the corner and watched him put in the pin(back when I had good vision ) and I entered it the next day to get in. Then I went and lifted every single restriction, and even though my account was now free reign, I converted entirely to using my parents' account. I have had the tablet for six years now and they still don't know that I use it sometimes very late to watch YouTube or whatever. I also once hacked into my mum's phone and added my fingerprint. It still works.
I also use my feet to grab some stuff and recently I have had balanced more than one min!
My friend in 6th Grade is dumber than me. She said so herself. I'm just in 4th.
I was a genius my parents didn’t let me have screens in bed so I took an old video camera put on tv and left then watched it when I went to bed
This was back in the 'before internet' times, but when I was about 12, I knew where Mum hid the Christmas presents before Christmas. When I discovered that I was getting Kings Quest V for Christmas, I couldn't wait, so I took it down, installed it, and started playing early. This was back when you had to have the first disk in the drive, but I didn't want to get caught, so I would put it back after I finished playing each time. In the 2 hours after school before Mum and Dad got home each day, I completely finished the game before Christmas and had to fake excitement when I opened my present.
Not too long ago I caught my niece holding my brothers phone up to a family picture and unlocking his phone using face recognition. When I see her I whistle the mission impossible theme and she giggles. No, my brother still does not know.
No idea how my younger brother did it. But when he was 4 he put a parental lock on the TV and the only channel accessible was Baby TV. Only he knew the password
I feel so old! The only thing I did as a kid was to read in bed at night, and my Mum found out almost every time, because she felt that the bedlamp was warm. Had no flashlight back then.
Me and My friend hacked into like EVERYONES computer at our school. We didn't know what to do after that. We ended up just using their search history to find games and to unblock some games. ahh the good times
A lot of parents seem to be particularly unbothered by the fact that their children are able to log in their personal spaces, including bank accounts. I definitely wouldn't.
In my family we know each other's password to everything and it's never been a problem. We just trust each other and respect boundaries.
Load More Replies... I'm baffled at the lack of trust and deceit in these families. I gave my kid a credit card linked to my account when he was 8, and he's never abused it. He's nearly 16 and still calls to ask permission to buy stuff.
You are extremely lucky and raising a good kid too!!!
Load More Replies... Waaaay back in the day, at a time where MAC OS 7.5 was the hottest OS on the planet, there was a little amusement program called "Grouch" basically every time you put something in the bin the grouch would come and sing "I love trash" or "I love it because it´s trash!..." And my infant daughter loved it. So did I until one day came home from work to an empty computer and a very happy daughter who had figured out how to switch the mac on and use a mouse.
Hopefully she didn't empty the trash!
Load More Replies... My dad's parental lock required restarting the computer to break the lock, then before it had fully finished loading up you kill the program with the task manager. Took nine-year-old me five minutes to figure out, took my dad six months to realise.
Even when kids show how smart they are, and parents are happily proud I wonder how normal it is for all this people to have an unhealthy relationship with their own kids. I prefer direct confrontation and a proper conversation about things they should or should not see or access, and even about bank security. I'm not sure why everybody is so afraid of kids knowing their password or reading their messages.
Messages are fine. Bank codes are absolutely over the line.
Load More Replies... raised my son in the 80s when home computers and gaming systems were just coming out so didn't have the issues that these parents have. but, even with the old school groundings my son got creative so i had to do so as well. when it was taking the gaming system i took all the controllers, including the knobs off the telly. as for other things like the stay home grounding (we lived in rural area) he didn't lose his bike; just the front wheel.
I stripped my son's room for bad behavior. He had nothing but a matress on the floor..I walked in and found him doing the one thing I didn't think about..throwing a ball in the air..one of his favorite activities..so I took the ball. Ten mins later I went back up and instead of a ball he was throwing and catching his dresser knobs. Carry on son.
Load More Replies... Simpler tech, but my parents didn't leave the password saved on our dial up connection, so I had to ask each time I went online. I found out I could copy the starred password and paste it into a document, and read it. Got caught a few weeks later (hard to be sneaky connecting with dial up, the modem is so loud XD)
I guessed our cable order code in one try..4 letters..mom's favorite in the family. Her dog..Ivan. don't be obvious. Rented porn all weekend.
Load More Replies... Kids are downright clever about hacking. It will be interesting to see how they try to stop their own offspring.
My dad took my phone because I had it late at night, so What did 16-year-old me do? Took his keys and went OUTSIDE to get it out of his truck and played it all night. Even texted my friend using if I could come over the next day. Got caught cause I forgot to delete my text messages. Dad came to pick my dumb a*s up in the middle of hanging out. 😬
I love most of this! Actually, most of these are ... either getting the school to take missing as excused, gain access to computers or TV programs ... this is harmless and shows they're creative and willing - the exact same way any law is enforced ... these are society's rules anyway ... or, even the better ones.
Harmless now. Hope none of these tech geniuses end up on drugs. Look out!
Load More Replies... I'm dating myself, but.... When I was either four or five, I watched the pattern my mom would use on the phone (land line....rotary) to call my grand mother....I was the only grand child at that point. So when she was busy one day, I called my grandmother asking for various toys. About a week later, she showed up with all the toys. My mom was bewildered. They talked and my grandmother assumed my mom just called the number at let me talk while she cleaned the house. And my mom, assumed she may have done that and didn't remember. In my early 20's I relate the story and my mom's jaw hit the floor. Said it always bothered her, as she knew she would never let me on a call unsupervised. Told my grandmother and she just laughed.
My kid ( underhanded master mind) is never allowed to use my phone for anything, and also gets furious when I'm one step ahead and he can't get away with anything. 🤣🤣🤣
And people still refuse to believe that smartphones (or whatever) are evil? Mindblowing, really.
Also..if you hang your full body weight on a combo lock and turn it opens right up. Never took anything but I got into everyone's shed. Lol
In h.s. I hardly ever skipped class..but when I did it was fine since my signature of my mom's name was on every paper ever signed for my h.s.. screw asking mom..I did my own paperwork. Hot free lunch too.😁
I got a call to my son's high school. During free time in computer class he somehow hacked thru the schools firewall and proceeded to turn off computers in the administration building. They tried to expel him for destruction of school property. I guess there were things that weren't saved before he turned them off. Yeah. Luckily several of his teachers (including the computer teacher) came to his hearing on his behalf. He got a few days at home.
I s**t downy schools whole system by doing my paper on hacking. I backed in and crashed the server. Got a week detention as it took that long to fix..but I got an a!
Load More Replies... I've done similar things myself. Everything from using Tor to get around router and DNS imposed restrictions, to using msconfig to disable monitoring programs, to even setting up my own private wifi network by bridging Ethernet connections and plugging in an old router. Maybe I shouldn't be posting this here...
I don't know if this is relevant but my when I was around 5 yo my mom noticed I can open all child proof bottles. After that she always asked me to help opening bleach bottles, medical containers etc. because she could't open those things. Proints to mom and dad for explaining, then I knew those things are dangerous. But still took it as a callenge; how does this thing work? Can I open it? Haha.
When I was eight, I got a little kid tablet fir Christmas. It had screen restrictions, web restrictions, reading book restrictions, and I couldn't access the internet. But, my parents also had an account on the tablet, solely for changing settings and helping me watch piano tutorials. So, eight year old me asked to watch a piano tutorial, while my dad was playing. Of course, since he was already at the piano, he just had me bring it to him instead of going on him room. I stood in the corner and watched him put in the pin(back when I had good vision ) and I entered it the next day to get in. Then I went and lifted every single restriction, and even though my account was now free reign, I converted entirely to using my parents' account. I have had the tablet for six years now and they still don't know that I use it sometimes very late to watch YouTube or whatever. I also once hacked into my mum's phone and added my fingerprint. It still works.
I also use my feet to grab some stuff and recently I have had balanced more than one min!
My friend in 6th Grade is dumber than me. She said so herself. I'm just in 4th.
I was a genius my parents didn’t let me have screens in bed so I took an old video camera put on tv and left then watched it when I went to bed
This was back in the 'before internet' times, but when I was about 12, I knew where Mum hid the Christmas presents before Christmas. When I discovered that I was getting Kings Quest V for Christmas, I couldn't wait, so I took it down, installed it, and started playing early. This was back when you had to have the first disk in the drive, but I didn't want to get caught, so I would put it back after I finished playing each time. In the 2 hours after school before Mum and Dad got home each day, I completely finished the game before Christmas and had to fake excitement when I opened my present.
Not too long ago I caught my niece holding my brothers phone up to a family picture and unlocking his phone using face recognition. When I see her I whistle the mission impossible theme and she giggles. No, my brother still does not know.
No idea how my younger brother did it. But when he was 4 he put a parental lock on the TV and the only channel accessible was Baby TV. Only he knew the password
I feel so old! The only thing I did as a kid was to read in bed at night, and my Mum found out almost every time, because she felt that the bedlamp was warm. Had no flashlight back then.
Me and My friend hacked into like EVERYONES computer at our school. We didn't know what to do after that. We ended up just using their search history to find games and to unblock some games. ahh the good times
