Do you know of the ways to monitor your son's use of the computer? You can let him use it for school work, and punish other use with extended periods of grounding from the computer for other purposes.

My youngest claimed that she, too, could do an incredible job of multi-tasking. She abused the computer rules to such an extent that she was grounded from it indefinately until she earned that privelage back. She chose to earn and secure other privileges first, so she has been off the computer for several months, except for an exception which she asks for maybe once per month. She has turned from IMing to texting. She found other ways to do schoolwork, watch movies, listen to music, play games... I'm amazed that in this computer age, she is so capable of getting along without it, while I am on it every day!

I keep punishments as closely related to the "crime" as possible, thus, I only take the computer away if it was abused. I don't take it if another, unrelated rule was broken. I'm wondering what your son did that you need to respond to.

At one time I had a program that could limit what he could do on the computer. For instance, I could block certain sites. So if you had one of these programs, you could block the movie download sites, and iTunes, etc. until he punishment was over. Just a thought!

It's mostly the internet that is a time-waster for us, so we use a program called cyber-sitter to limit the amount of time they can spend online to 2 hours. So if they need to do research to write a paper they'd better do it before the 2 hours is up! Then they can spend all night if they want using a word processor to type it up.

It helps, anyway...

It is possible to block my space and instant messaging and you tube. That is where most kids get in trouble. That is also where they spend most of their time. Oh yeah, Facebook. I don't know what that one is, just that it is sort of like my space and it can be trouble. If you or another family member, block those sites, It will be more difficult for them to what you call "multi-task" I am sure they can probalby find a way around it eventually but if you also take the phone they cannot call their friend the computer geek and find out immediately.
Also, for the longest time I had the computer in the living room. I have an open layout, so you could see what page they were on, and what they are doing. This is a very good idea! butterflyz

When my son is only allowed to use his laptop for schoolwork...I insist that it is positioned in the living room so that I can casually walk by and be sure he is following the rule.

If he can't...like Glinda said....he can find another way to get the work done without a computer...schools do not insist that kids do assignments online.

Also...if my son really is not allowed to use his computer at home for anything....he still has the option of getting to school early enough to work in the school library or lab for a bit to get his work done. The school library is even open during lunch for kids.

If he just needs to type without getting online....you can turn off his internet connection. However, in any event....he will have to be trustworthy in the end.