DEAR HARRIETTE: I walked in on my teenage son masturbating while looking at porn online. I’m not a prude, but I have to tell you -- this bothered me. I know kids (and others) do this, but I’m worried that his porn habits will catch up with him. Will it blemish his chances of getting into college if somebody knows he is looking at that? He got his computer from his school. I don’t know if it’s part of a system that keeps track of downloads or page views. I don’t know how any of that works. I am worried that my son may have exposed himself to criticism by doing this. -- Risks of Porn
DEAR RISKS OF PORN: You make a smart point. If your son’s computer is a loaner from his school, he should not be using it to look up any questionable material, including pornography. Feel free to tell him that. Do not admonish him for masturbating. That’s a common occurrence for teens. You can point out that discretion is essential, and that means that he should stop watching porn on the school computer, scrub it of any residual files that may be on it and never do that again.