Alleged Letter from Father to Teen Son After Discovering Porn on His Computer: 'I Couldn't Be More Proud of You

There's a unique letter circulating online that claims to have been written from a father to his son. It's gone viral and there's no doubt that the subject matter -- pornography -- is driving the intrigue surrounding it. See, after Reddit user IrrelevantNinja discovered that his 13-year-old son was accessing porn on the Internet, he took action.

But rather than becoming angry and chastising the teen, the man decided to adopt a more interesting approach. Rather than punish the young man, the father detailed -- in a letter -- some of the steps his son can take to ensure he surfs porn in a safe manner on the web (i.e. without infecting the computer with viruses). And he concluded by assuring his son he was not angry and even "proud" of him.

Here's the twist -- before giving the letter to his son, he shared it with the Reddit community to get their feedback on his approach. The reactions, as highlighted by The Huffington Post, were diverse:

Many commenters praised IrrelevantNinja for his understanding. "Much better than my parents," user Nicker_Bocker wrote. "Everything in here is cool, and you rock for being a progressive parent," arcsine added.

Over on The Good Men Project, Cooper Fleishman agreed that the letter is "enlightened" but wonders if dad had a responsibility to do more. "Is he underestimating the influence of porn on young boys? Should he have told Mom?" Fleishman asks.

Aber83 offered another suggestion. "I think the letter is fine, but also think you should have a face to face talk with him, however awkward that may be. He's still quite young and impressionable and porn can be quite addicting and give someone an unhealthy view of sex."

The man reaffirmed that he went beyond simply being understanding and condoning his son's actions. He also explained some of the implications surrounding what some see as a damaging social phenomenon.

"I also talked to him about porn not being like real life and that women aren't objects like they are portrayed in porn," IrrelevantNinja wrote following the incident, thus addressing some of the critiques that were waged against him.

Interestingly -- and most controversially -- the father also posted some links to porn sites that would be safe for the computer -- suggestions that some have highlighted might be illegal (after all, adults offering suggestions on pornography to minors is certainly problematic). Regardless of the legal questions surrounding the scenario, the man inevitably deleted his Reddit account after the story went viral and doesn't seem interested in speaking out any further.

The letter (which The Huffington Post chose to edit by removing the porn links) is available in its entirety, below:

I want to start out by saying that I love ya and I'm not trying to embarrass you. Before you do anything else click the star in the upper right hand corner of internet explorer which is already pulled up and then click back on the icon to the right of the skype symbol in your toolbar to pull this page back up. ---------------------------------------> That history is the reason that you got that scamware and all the other crap on your computer. I want to tell you that it's ok. Listen, I was 13 once too and it wasn't so long ago that I don't remember. I'm not mad or anything. It's life and I did it too. I just want you to know that most of those sites are places that can and will ruin your computer. You were actually lucky that it only did what it did. There are viruses and other scamware that can completly ruin a computer and I can't afford to buy you another 1800 dollar machine because you went to a site that fried it.

There are sites that are completely safe and you can go on them and not have your computer turned into a piece of junk. You can go to these sites and not screw up your computer. Don't click on any links taking you to other sites and please only go to these. Ninty percent of porn sites have crap that can brick a computer ...

Listen, I won't tell your mom and I'm not gonna make a big deal out of this. In fact I'm not gonna make any size deal out of it. If you don't wanna talk about it that's fine and I completely understand. I've been on this earth three times as long as you and there's nothing you have done or will do that I haven't done before. If you want to completely ignore this ever happened then I can and will do that too. Please don't act awkward around me because of this. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. I just can't have an 1800 dollar machine turned into a brick because you haven't learned where to go on the internet. I'm not going to put a child lock on your computer or punish you in any way because as I said you did nothing wrong. I would like you to not be back here so much though. You literally spend all of your time back here. I'd like to see you more often. I like doing stuff with you and miss it.

I love you and I couldn't be more proud of you.

In the end, the letter seems to be more about normalizing the practicing of looking at porn and the cost of a new machine than it seems to be about correcting the behavior.

Despite the favorable reaction by some in the Reddit community, others would view this letter as a failure to properly discipline the teenager. Furthermore, the suggestion of pornography links that were recommended to the minor only adds to the complicated scenario.

What do you think? Was this good or poor parenting? Let us know in the comments section, below.

(H/T: The Huffington Post)