My 9 year old Niece got one for Christmas this year and my sister just found out it has wifi and that she can get on the intarweb with it. They don't have wireless but many houses around them have it with no security. I know nothing about the PSP, but is there anything that can be done to prevent her from surfing with the PSP or any other type of security for it?

12/30/2006 12:59:38 PM

well.. she would have to setup an internet connection herself before going on the web, but I don't know how smart nine year old girls are these days (and it actually might prompt you to set it up if you don't have one already)

I know there are parental controls on it, but I don't know how that works with the internet.

There's also a wifi switch on the side that you can turn off, but there's not much to stop her from just switching that back on.

I realise that's been no help, but that's about all I can say off the top of my head

12/30/2006 2:18:42 PM

Or you could just let her surf the net

12/30/2006 2:34:12 PM

If the wifi is completely open with no type of encryption then it is incredibly easy to connect with a PSP. The system basically walks you through it the whole way. Haha maybe turn the wifi switch off and then rip it out but that is lame, just tell her not to do it and accept the fact that she will.

Or you could make up some shit about it being illegal to use other people's internet and how she could go to jail and try to scare her into not doing it. 9 is still a somewhat gullible age.....

[Edited on December 30, 2006 at 3:22 PM. Reason : ]

12/30/2006 3:20:42 PM

the PSP's web browser is worthless anyhow unless you put a homebrew one on there, she'd never figure out how to use it even if she did get it connected.

12/30/2006 4:19:17 PM

I don't know man, 9 year old these days...

Thanks for the advice.

12/30/2006 4:37:59 PM

^^The web browser is limited but basic page surfing is still no problem. I remember in a hotel in Charlotte I checked the news and wrote an email on yahoo using my psp with the free wifi offered. Definitely cumbersome and slow but definitely usable.

12/30/2006 4:42:56 PM

What would a 9 year old girl get a PSP and not a DS?

12/30/2006 9:27:21 PM

9 year old boy, yeah, I might be concerned

but a girl? what? She gonna give away her address to some MySpace stalker?

12/30/2006 10:21:05 PM

If the wireless access points are open, they probably still have the default passwords on them. You could use a laptop to access them and then ban the mac address of the PSP so it couldn't connect.

Or just explain the situation to the neighbors and ask them to put a little security on their shit.

12/30/2006 11:33:36 PM