Kid gets privacy when kids turns 18 and starts paying rent for his room or moves out. Till then the only privacy he gets is in the bathroom and a knock on his bedroom door about a minute or two before I open it.

You can tell who's an adult and who's still a teenager in this thread. It's pretty funny. If this kid is underage, you have every right (and responsibility) to know what he is looking at on the internet. Every parent should know they're kid isn't looking how how to build a bomb or something. However, the fact you don't just know that by knowing your child and have to resort to looking at his Internet history raises some big red flags. And his use of language, at that. My kids wouldn't dream of trying this, but I don't check their Internet history or Facebook pages unless I have to. (3 times, 12 year old was being bullied, had to make sure it wasn't going on outside of the bus stop, and yes, my 12 year old has parental controlled Internet privileges, and once I caught the nine year old neighbor boy using one of our tablets to look up "SEX"

I'm on both sides, honestly. While I agree it isn't cool for OP to snoop, the son could simply delete his browser history to keep his dad from snooping.

I dobut you'll see this in amongst all the other comments OP but here goes. Protecting your son won't come from breaking his trust, but from having the appropriate discussions and boundaries. Being an effective parent means helping him learn how to protect himself.

You totally deserve it! If you're going to go through his shit at least have the balls to admit it!

YDI for breaking his privacy. I don't really care if a parent wants to check their kids browsing history honestly, but when you lie and say you aren't that's a problem. Be open and honest, or you're going to break the kids trust and they won't be open and honest with you. I always knew my parents might check my history because they admitted they might, but I was fine with it, and I don't think they ever did... we had trust on both sides... you get what you give. But anyway, it's so easy to delete history or just browse incognito so the history is wiped when they close the window. Chances are if he suspects you're looking which he obviously does he'd going to do that, so you won't likely find anything anyway. So you're breaking his trust for nothing. If you're concerned maybe you need to talk to him about it and/or supervise him while he's on the computer.

He probably used that language just to prove you're a liar. you've been outsmarted by your kid. he knows you check it. the feature ctrl + n creates a private page that does not go into browser history if on chrome and he is probably using a private feature like that so give it up. Your only recourse is to go APOLOGIZE to him for being a liar and a snoop. ask for his forgiveness and promise to earn his trust.

You're the reason he's like that. Congratulations.

Lol at "looking like" a lying bastard. As if you didn't just admit to all of us that that's exactly what you are.

You, OP, are a horrible parent. I understand that you think you are protecting your child from the scary things on the Internet, but honestly, have you ever met someone that has strict parents growing up? Those kids turn out ****** up. I'm not saying let your kids be free to do whatever, because that is very obviously not the answer. But leave them room to grow and learn on their own, and be able to come talk to you about the things that they learn and experience. My best friend growing up had extremely strict parents, went through her browser history, checked through her room, barely knocked before entering her room, grilled her about if she was using drugs. Now all through school, yeah she had great grades, never got into trouble. But she also had no real friends, and became very secretive about even the smallest things to everyone. Once she had freedom, she was like a catholic raised girl that suddenly found out about sex in college. Suddenly she didn't care about college, she only wanted to party and see friends, she was promiscuous, and worst of all, she was STILL secretive about it to everyone so even if she got into a bad situation no one would have known. I was raised in a house where my mother straight up told me that if I wanted to do drugs or get drunk, she would willingly buy them for me, as long as I talked I her about why I wanted to first, and did it at home. That way she would know I wasn't buying something less harmful (weed?) that had been laced with something deadly, and not from some shady guy in a back alley traded for sex, and she would know that at least I did it some place safe, where I would have people who cared about me, and weren't also on drugs in case something went wrong. I never took her up on the offer though in all the years I lived with her, because she also instilled a healthy level of "Drugs are bad for you" in me because we talked about them, she shared stories about her younger years and how she used to do a lot of drugs, and how it really wasn't all it looks to be from movies and stuff. When I got to college, my mother was appalled at the other parents on the move in day. They were asking questions like "how safe is the campus?" And "how can I check my kids grades?". They were acting like their 18 y/o were just going to live elsewhere for a little while and they had to be sure they were safe. My mother knew that she had raised me to ask those questions before I decided a college, and that she didn't need to check my grades, because I could check my own and know the consequences of a bad grade. I was capable of taking care of myself when I went to college without my mother even speaking to me for weeks at a time if that. Of course I made some stupid college mistakes (that first time I had a pregnancy scare was a little intense), but nothing really horrible happened. So, OP, please, give your kid some privacy. Seriously, stop lying to your kids, that's just a dick move (and you wonder where your kid gets it?) .