Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott
HMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm........well, a lot of things can be good.
Frankly, I'd MUCH rather my kids have Friends IRL and "Network" with them on the soccer field, in a chess club afer school, in church youth groups, or at the YMCA.
Why? Well, as adults, we know that everything that is written is not true. Kids can be very impressionable. I'm not necessarily talking about adults that might intrude upon their world through Myspace, but OTHER KIDS. Twisted adults were once pretty messed up kids.
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This is a good point because its far healthier to have your child out and about than sitting at home on a computer.
I'm in a bit of a different situation because I'm forced to spend mountains of time online (for obvious reasons). This value becomes somewhat inherited as some of my "online worktime" overlaps my "family time" as well. During these times, I get b00ted to the crap computer while my daughter takes over my main rig and she either plays the Sims2, listens to music (online) or works on her website.
The cool thing is that I never see her surfing any nefarious websites but even if she were to visit them, she's smart enough to identify that it's not a good place for her to be. She also knows (as I've drilled it into her) that the web is not the most "kid friendly" atmosphere in the world and NOT TO TRUST ANYBODY SHE MEETS ONLINE. This may sound odd being a webmaster but at the end of the day, you really don't know who may be at the other end of your internet line so taking unecessary risks is just plain stupid.
I will say though that internet friends are no less real than real friends, their just real friends you haven't met yet. I would caution everyone though that internet friends can live behind a wall of lies so they must adhere to far different standards than friends you can see. I've been online for several years now and I can say that even though I know literally hundreds of people, I consider only a small percentage of them to be actual friends and an even smaller percent to be friends I'd ever meet.
She also knows that it's unsafe to give out any personal information of any kind. I can't stress how important this point is because lots of kids just don't realize that predators lurk around every corner. The best thing you can ever do as a parent is talk to your children about the internet and be present while they surf. I'd strongly suggest having the computer in a family room, that way you can monitor all access indirectly without ever looking like a security guard.
You can also do as Scott does and set clear boundaries of what your children can and can't do online. In my case I'm not comfortable creating stringent rules too much because as a child I know I'd break the rules once just to see if I could get away with it. To think my child is any different is simply stupid. I'd much rather have her bump into whatever she bumps into, question me on it, discuss it and learn from it together.
I want to state though that I'm lucky because my child really doesn't do stupid things in general. She knows she's always got my full attention if she wants it and if she doesn't have my full attention, she'll pester me 'til she does. The computer is not the vehicle she uses to make time pass when she's here, it's what she does when I'm online so we can sit next to each other and be a family even though I'm working.