I was driving the ol’ trusty minivan yesterday with the family. We were in the middle of a 7 hour drive, coming back from seeing my parents over Memorial Day, and the kids were watching a DVD of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fast Forward series. One particular episode starred a character that was some kind of digital entity that acted like a virus and was trying to get to a main frame computer.
The Cody character (great-grandson of the old Casey Jones character – for you old TMNT fans) was telling the entity that the main frame was protected by “a gazillion firewalls”, so there was basically no way she could break in. She then said that she wouldn’t have to break in if Cody would just give her the password.
OK, I know this is a kid’s show, but come on! A gazillion firewalls (whatever that means) can be bypassed by a single password? This should be rated TV-M for graphically stupid security. I know I will teach my kids different as they get older, but I am going to have to fight through all this mush inserted by shows like this.
Of course, the violence and “almost-cursing” (the Turtles regularly say “OH SHELL!!” and “WHAT THE SHELL!!”) are totally fine. 
Vet
So how do you explain this to a 5-10 year old child? They’re barely going to understand the concept of a firewall, though they should be able to understand a password pretty well. I’d turn this into a lesson about exaggeration rather than trying to explain what a ‘back door’ is.
Be glad it’s TMNT; you could be having 7 hours of Pokemon or Teletubbies instead.
Hrm, my first thought was how dare you defile or otherwise speak ill about an awesome cartoon! But reading the SHELL phrases reminds me that the series has been “reinvented” from what TMNT I grew to love back in the day. Makes me almost not wear my TMNT bandanna in the gym anymore!
But you’re right, it really is just a kid’s cartoon about animated turtles using ninjitsu and weapons to bring down mutated bad guys…and you’re poking at the IT security details?
Oh Shell, I’m just happy they used the term firewalls!