I let my kids on the internet. I don’t do so because I think they need net skills to be ‘competitive’, I do so because there are a lot of interesting, educational, and just plain entertaining sites out there for kids. With my two younger children I am in the same room with them and while I don’t stand over their shoulder I check on them periodically. I let them go on the net for 30 minutes at a time; twice during the school week and twice on the weekend.

When my daughter was a younger teen (she’s now 18) when I let her go on I sometimes left the room and I have let her go on the internet for as long as 2 hours at a time. She was in a band and often worked on her music stuff as well as talking with her friends, doing research for school stuff and independent projects we do at home. I also didn’t stand over her shoulder, but I periodically checked her email and downloaded her instant messages, though I didn’t read them all. She was aware that I did this. It doesn’t make much sense to trust teens to drive a car but not feel that they don’t enough sense to properly interact with strangers on the internet.

I understand that there is a great deal of harmful stuff and on the net and perverted, damaged people trolling the net whose intention is to hurt and damage children. But I think of the internet like TV; plenty of it is crap and harmful but the good stuff shines through and is helpful and educational as well as entertaining to children. Fine in small doses and with supervision and monitoring.

My main internet don’t for kids and teens:
No private internet access: Keep computers out of kids’ bedrooms or if they have their own laptop no internet access on it. If they have a cell phone, don’t enable internet access on it. At most public libraries, even if your child has their own library card they still need your permission to go online. Do not give it; if they need to do research for school go with them and sit by them.

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