At What Age Do You Think Kids Should Be Allowed The Internet Access By Themselves?

[enigma79 0]

I have an 8 yr old asking for a facebook account, just because her friend has it!!!!Hmm Talk about the fast generation......they are ready to zoom already.Ofcourse I am not about to let her be near the internet without either of her parents around. But it got me wondering, how long can I stop her from having an online presence.When do you think kids should be allowed to be internet savvy and to what extent?Also, I'd appreciate any tips on child-locking the computer, what are the best softwares out there?

[Bikerman 2]

With the rate they grow-up nowadays, I reckon kids are probably ready for the internet by the time they reach 35ish...

[Ananya 0]

KIds can be allowed to access internet at a tender age like at the age of 8 or10 yrs.But the main problem is someone elder one should accompany him/her so as not to allow him/her to access sites featuring pornography. Otherwise letting a kid to access google so as to make him/her get acquainted with the latest things happening around the world is good.A fixed time slot should also be fixed for internet access. Because internet access is not just the only way of acquiring knowledge.A kid must read novels,story books and newspapers.Moreover a kid shouldn't restrict himself/herself to home and must go out for playing sports too that will help in building a good physical/mental health.Nowadays excessive use of computers is making kids remain indoors itself & as a result they are becoming obese.

[sheepdog 10]

LOLOLOL, I'm with Bikerman! 35 sounds mature enough if you ask me. Really, keep kids away from the internet. Way too much weird stuff on here and you can't watch them constantly. Make them go play outside, make friends, ride bikes, play baseball in the park, or build a tree house. Let them be KIDS not nerds. They will thank you when they grow up and are physically and mentally fit.

[demonboy1990 0]

my mum allows my brothers and sisters on the internet only when she is around and can watch what they are doing,they have facebook accounts but my mum makes sure they are not doing or on something they should not be on,i did not go online until i was 13 i used the computer in the library for about a year then used the schools computersand did not get my own until i was 15 or so, i have being online ever since except for times i have moved,i never got a social network account until i was about 15 or 16 kids start early these days and as long as you keep an eye on them they will be fine.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I think any age is really fine, but with supervision. Supervision can be removed if the child is "mature," but that's a bit hard to define. While some bad habits can be taken up by use of the Internet, it also has a ton of positive aspects. The world is moving towards a more technology-based lifestyle, where things like Email are replacing physical letters and even things like banks can take their deposits online.I think waiting too long puts the child at a hurt for understanding technology and how to use it.It's really, because of all of this, hard to define a proper age. I've met children under the age of 10 that are mature, and 50-year-olds that act like infants.

[Kubi 0]

LOLOLOL, I'm with Bikerman! 35 sounds mature enough if you ask me. Really, keep kids away from the internet. Way too much weird stuff on here and you can't watch them constantly. Make them go play outside, make friends, ride bikes, play baseball in the park, or build a tree house. Let them be KIDS not nerds. They will thank you when they grow up and are physically and mentally fit.

That's a rather poor opinion of kids who use the internet. I grew up around computers and the internet. I spent a lot of time outdoors as well. Joined the military shortly after high school and am making more money(outside of the military, of course) working with computers than most of the kids I knew in school who never touched a computer. I'm glad that my parents allowed me access to the internet when I was a kid. The world today revolves around technology, growing up around it makes it easier to transition into a technological role. There are plenty of ways that a parent can monitor their children online. Numerous programs allow parents the ability to restrict websites based on category/meta data. They can also limit the amount of time you have access to the internet. It's up to the parent to be responsible about what their kids do when they're online. The simple fact that a child uses the internet certainly doesn't make them fat and mentally/socially inept

[rpgsearcherz 5]

They can also limit the amount of time you have access to the internet. It's up to the parent to be responsible about what their kids do when they're online. The simple fact that a child uses the internet certainly doesn't make them fat and mentally/socially inept

 

I don't really think the amount of time spent online is necessarily a bad thing, depending on what that time is spent doing. As a direct example, it's been proven that certain game types increase intelligence and the ability to think critically (such as RTS games), as well as increase reaction speeds and ability to analyze (RTS/FPS). Furthermore, some people spend their time online learning about things.

 

I agree that the Internet doesn't make you fat or socially inept as well, as there are many people I know that are hardcore PC users/gamers that are skinny, have well-paying jobs, and are very well socially connected solely because of the Internet and what it brings to the table.

[Kubi 0]

I don't really think the amount of time spent online is necessarily a bad thing, depending on what that time is spent doing. As a direct example, it's been proven that certain game types increase intelligence and the ability to think critically (such as RTS games), as well as increase reaction speeds and ability to analyze (RTS/FPS). Furthermore, some people spend their time online learning about things.

 

I agree that the Internet doesn't make you fat or socially inept as well, as there are many people I know that are hardcore PC users/gamers that are skinny, have well-paying jobs, and are very well socially connected solely because of the Internet and what it brings to the table.

 

I didn't state that spending a lot of time online is a bad thing. It's not, as I mentioned though it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what their kids do online.

 

The second statement represents myself pretty accurately.

[sharmiladevi 0]

My kid is just 4. If I switch on my desktop/laptop, shes able to access google as it is a homepage in mozilla firefox and then she will type abcd and like that shes able to do by herself. What I do is I just allow her to access it in my presence and after sometime, i will plug out the modem and will say its over for you and she will listen to it and then will be weaned away by herself. I would say there is also a risk of seeing cartoons, which sometime endup in liplocking scenes, but I dont think it is always possible for us to keep an eye on them wherever they go and whatever they do. See now everything is getting advanced, so we cant stop anything, rather we can educate them about both good and bad things as they grow older. Moreoever, they get addicted to the internet when there is lack of outside activities, so I would suggest for a kid to have a right balance of everything and for that to happen, parents should first follow it in their life, when we keep on browsing the whole day in internet, kids will naturally tend to do that.

[adriantc 0]

I don't think denying something to kids is going to resolve the issue. Of course since I'm not a parent my words don't have a real weight in the issue, but from a general standpoint when you forbid something, specially to kids, they sure will make an effort to avoid it. I think the parents should concentrate on explaining why you should not spent too much time online or what is good and what is bad online. And lets not forget the Internet is a huge step forward if used for a rational purpose. I wouldn't consider spending 2 hours everyday on Facebook for example is rational use of course.As sharmiladevi very rightfully pointed kids imitate whatever their parents do. You can't expect to keep your kids away from Facebook if you do that all day. Also if other kids do it at school, I think its almoust impossible to stop them from doing whatever everybody else is doing. We are like it or not animals in origin so the herd instinct in very powerful in all of us. The more I think about it the more I realise parenting is not only a full time job, but a really hard one ^_^Also giving them something else to do should also work. Maybe a sport which also has other advantages.It's not less true that in my case my love from childhood is the computer. I did spend a lot of hours on the computer... But the computer is now my means of living. So it doesn't really matter how much time he is spending. If he uses it for other things then games and Facebook maybe he should be encouraged.

[sheepdog 10]

Yes, it is a poor opinion, but it's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. All you have to do is look at kids around you today. Look at the little morons that harrassed that bus moniter to tears. And then were stupid enough to post the video of their torture of the poor old woman on face book. Is that what computers are doing to our young people today? What kind of social skills are they learning to treat another human being like that? They seemed to think it was just fine to do that and disrespect their elders. Children did not act that way when I was growing up. A child would NEVER speak to an adult that way. And I doubt any kids would of even tried it, knowing full well our parents would of busted our buts darn good for such antisocial behaviour. If children do not get out in the real world and make real friends and socially interact directly with other humans, they will never learn to live in a civilized society. You don't learn people skills sitting in front of a computer screen.

[Iniyila 2]

I think it really depends on the factors i will say :1. Country : in some countries keeping a kid away from internet really doesn't mean (actually the town/state is important too) , many schools today teach kids to use internet and computer from start at the age 7, and kids should do their homeworks by computer and email it to their teachers so how you want to keep your kid away from internet when their school system needs your kid to work with computer and use internet to send their homeworks ? even some schools have virtualized some or their courses and your kids have to sit behind a computer/tablet and use internet to learn that course and this thing is just getting more and more popular everyday and we can not deny it. but in some other countries schools are still using old fashioned method so your kids don't have to be familiar with internet for doing their homeworks and learning stuffs. so it really depends where you live to decide what age your kids should be before they can access internet by themselves, i know that parents can control their kids access but when they need to use internet for their daily homeworks (they have to search and gather information for their homeworks) then controlling them is really hard and needs lots of time which i doubt most of parents can do it.2. Friends : friends your kid has are very important, if i was a kid and had friends whom all of them had a facebook account i wanted to had one too. so if you live somewhere, where people let their kids to access internet by themselves in a specific age you can not restrict your kid from accessing internet when his/her friends can. so you should live in a place that other parents think as you or you should think like other parents of that place. and of course you can not force your kid to not get friends from that place because kids will find their friends first in where they live and second from school.now i personally think that the most important thing is to educate our kids to use internet correctly, if we can educate this then there will be no need to restrict their internet access but this is very hard and can not be done only by parents. the society is very important too, unfortunately these days less people care about such things and they think kids should learn everything in the very early ages but i don't think so. you can see that our society wants our kids to grow up very fast and i think our kids will not have the chance of being a kid anymore. changing this process is very hard and if you don't want to be a part of it then you should live the cities and go live in a outlying place which is not a solution either.the only thing that i can say now is that in a country where kids get into business in the age of 8 how you can expect to control their internet access for a long time ? trying to be a good parent while you care about your kid and in the same time wanting our kids to be like their friends is something really hard these days. so now about age restriction i can only say if you have the time keep your eyes on your kids activity not only in internet but in all aspects till they get to 15, don't restrict their access directly but try to convince them to do a self control. i know it is hard but we all should try if we love our kids.