[vanaden]

I really don't understand why children are on the computer anyway? And how would he have time to do something like that with no one checking on him?
I would punish if it was my child. That is evil.
Slapping the child on the wrist for doing something disgusting will in no way teach him not to do it again!
Back in the old days with paddles and switches, children were so much more in line...now a days when spanking is "child abuse" kids and teenagers are so out of control!

[PennySteed]

Remember that he is at a curious age, first and foremost. My eldest son just turned 8, and although we have not had that incident, we have had others. Until you can find out where he got the idea to surf for porn, I would limit who he hangs around with. When my son started turning violent, that is the first thing we did. Second, if that is your only puter, then by all means start putting blocks on it, and the tv. We have what we call a dumb puter in our house, it is not hooked up to the internet, so my boys can play all the games they want, but if they want on the internet, a parent has to be there. I would not punish him, just sit down and explain to him your concerns and then be open for questions, have Daddy do it if possible. If you start punishing him for this, then he is going to think that he is doing something wrong and dirty. Is it appropriate, by all means, no. But we have to be careful how we present things to our little guys, if we tell them that it is off-limits, then they are just going to try to find ways around your rules.
Before you ask, no I do not have porn in my house, my cable is blocked, and if DH is looking at it, then he is doing it when no one else, including me, is aware of it. Yes, we have had that discussion with both our 8 and 5 year boys. They were both caught in the bathrooms (seperately) with other kids looking at each others private parts.
Have fun with your talks, they are only going to get more interesting from here on out.

[Swimkidsmom3]

I would say either he stumbled upon it or a friend did. I have two boys 12 and 14 and I can remember the 12 year old working on a school project. I was in the kitchen (where our computer is) and he went to what he thought was a web site that could help. Wrong...it was a porn site. We quickly left that site and cleared out the history. Sometimes I think porn site use names that kids will go to, just to attract them.
Karen

[curious1]

Wow!! That is very interesting considering the fact I also have a 7yo boy. But sometimes when "someone" goes on to porn sites, even though they have deleted the history, the cookies remain and pop ups will come up during internet sessions. I think that maybe someone in the house is looking up porn and that's how he probably stumbled upon it.
About punishment? I would just tell him not to do it again and that it bothers you.
I hope that helps you out.

[SueR]

I'm as pro-spanking as the next mom, but you don't spank them for doing something they didn't know was wrong!

[browneyes01]

I think it's about time you start having the sex talk with him and I don't think he needs to see a doctor he is curious and that is normal, seven does seem a bit young to be interested in sex just have the talk and don't make him feel embarressed about what he has done.

[ahermitt]

No punishment.... treat him no differently than you would if he said a bad swear word for the first time. Tell him that is is not appropriate and not a real representation of sex. (Of course you need to explain this on his level). Lock down the computer with childsafe software, and put any computer he uses in a very public place so there is no privacy.

[mollymae]

I think most kids know how to use google if he'd heard some stuff at school and wanted to find out then i guess searching it would be an good thing normally. It's how you normally find an answer to a question. Don't punish him for being curious he didn't know he was doing anything wrong. If you tell him sex is wrong then if he wants a question answered then who is he gonna ask without feeling embaressed?

[ShannonGB]

Have you tried talking to him about the situation. I would understand if he were say 9 or 10 but 7? I really would suspect a pop up ad on the computer in this case. Don't be alarmed, just talk to him calmly about it and if he really did it out of curiosity (or because someone at school told him about it), then it's a good segue for the "birds and the bees" talk.

[Samual]

You would be surprised what comes up on search engines, I don't know if it is still the case but in the UK a lot of people made pornography sites with the names of children's tv programs, I remember once looking for something on Blue Peter, lets just say it didn't feature Mabel. Even Tsunami in google news pages gave me porn once, I'd hate to think what it would look like if someone had to have a look at my computer!