BitTorrent is a technology used to share large files. For example if you wanted to download a large file, you'd usually have to download it from one site. If the site has a lot of people on it, it'd take a very long time to get it. With BT, everyone gets a chunk of the large file, and shares it with everyone else, so that everyone can get that same file faster. It's quite useful.
The content he can run into depends. Mostly on what he's looking for. Most times it's things like music, and movies, sometimes comics, and other misc. large files. There are tons of "Tracker" sites that help people find popular files, many are specialized for people trying to find one kind of thing.
It should be of note that what they _may_ (not always) be downloading may be protected media (movies/music) content, which being in possession of pirated material would be illegal in many countries. Lots of people take this with a grain of salt though.
However, BITTORRENT, or TORRENTING is -NOT ILLEGAL- It's a very effective technology and is heavily used by some media companies to share their content (Like revision3.com) with users without killing their servers, and to share great software projects (like Ubuntu Linux). Bittorrent is merely a tool. Can be used for good and evil just like you can use a fork to eat, or stab someone in the neck. The key is responsible use. It does not cost anything to use, and anyone who suggests it, is running a scam (Though some trackers will charge some fee to access their stuff in order to keep quality high, and to support their tracker service.)
There is the possibility of finding things like Porn on there, naturally, but you have to be looking for it porn (contrary to popular belief) does not stand out asking you to grab some, you have to FIND it. And stopping someone from accessing one of many torrent trackers is like restricting access to google.
Stopping it would be a challenge, due to the nature of the technology, and how savvy you and your child are. I'd think you could do something with port blocking, but you'd have to know which ones needed to be blocked, for the application he's using, and he'd have to not be smart enough to know what happened so he wouldn't go and fix it.
Personally, I just think a good discussion with him on the subject, what it is, what he does with it, and what rules you want to set on it will be far more productive than to subvert his browsing habits, which'll only just make it more tempting to rebel.
http://www.bittorr en t.com
Answered by Madhurima
at
5:58 PM on June 19, 2008