OK, try these in order. Stop once (if) you get something on the screen -
- Turn off the PSP, and turn it on again while holding R.
- Do the same as the above, without the Memory Stick.
- Try turning it on with the power cable inserted.
- Do the same as above without the battery inserted.
- Leave the battery out for 5-10 minutes and try all of the above again.
If absolutely none of these work, the chances are it's a brick, or as you describe it, a paperweight. The next step is to ask your son (and yourself) what could have happened to cause it to brick. Some causes of bricking are as follows -
- Turning off the PSP while it's performing a system (firmware) update.
- Deleting crucial system files using a homebrew app like PSP Filer.
- Running a virus on your PSP (though viruses are very uncommon)
- Screwing with the idstorage (difficult to do without knowing what you're doing, but 99% of the time this is unrecoverable)
So, three of the four ways it could have been bricked are recoverable. How? Using a Pandora battery and Magic Memory Stick. I'll explain more if you get this far in my message without your son's PSP working again.
BTW, please don't be afraid to post any more of your confusions of this forum, or email me if you'd prefer.
Any help would be great 
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