Kids and the internet.

I think that first you need to explain to her about your concerns. I also think you need to explain how people that are up to no good can get her information. I do not stand behind my daughters but I do check history to make sure they are in only certain areas. My daughters are on myspace and facebook so I have an account there and I do go and see who they have on there accounts and what is being said. I make sure they don't use their full names. You can still do all these things with her computer in her room and she has to know you will be doing it. I think she will be fine as long as you are there and you help her know the dangers.

There is a lot of hysteria about children and the internet these days. People seem obsessed with the idea that the minute that their precious one goes online someone will cyber leap on them and drag them off to their lair. There are some very good reasons for this I have no doubt. My feeling, and the line that we took with out daughter, was that the computer was situated in a "public" room. The dining room in fact. she was not to go to chat rooms without her mother or I looking to see what was going on there. Her Bebo/Myspace accounts were to be locked and only friends that we knew about could be allowed to join. It was far from "safe" but she seemed to struggle through her teenage years quite satisfactorily. In fat the only incident that we had was me! My wife had a friend that was thinking of starting to run an Ann Summers party franchise. I went on the net to see what the fuss was all about with AS these days and minimised but didn't close the browser window. My daughter came along, the window opened and she quite innocently asked whether we "oldies" were in need of help to "re light the fire" and called me through to view the window. I may have blushed a tad. LOL. Personally, I wouldn't let her have a PC in her room yet, but only you know how mature she is. If you do, I have no doubt that you will give her firm direction about how to use it and where to go. And what happens if she transgresses. I do know of a girl that met a boy through a chat room. Fortunately he was everything he said, but there was a general agreement that it was a very risky thing to do. Her parents had him come to the house to meet her so that they could vet him first.

My son is 9 and has his own PC in his room, connected to the internet. He has had it for almost 2 years. The vast majority of the time he still uses my PC though. Before putting the PC in we did have a long discussion about internet safety and from what we an tell, he has stuck to that. I know they talk about internet safety in school so I think that helped drill that information into his brain.

My kids are almost 13 and 15 and have been using the internet for a few yrs now....I dont stand over them watching their every move AND I dont have the blocker on either..BUT we do have keylogger installed on their system which is a great program to have IMO...Plus we've always had rules and they know what is and isnt allowed and they also know all about internet safety etc etc all of which is non-negotiable..

How old are your kids? I have two teens and a four year old, and up until recently, all the kids only used our computers, which are in our master. This enabled us to both keep an eye now and then and also somewhat limit the time spent browsing so they wouldn't be online all hours of the day. I also created a myspace for myself a few years ago in order to help keep tabs on my daughter's page, as she was posting and sharing some things which were not appropriate and getting in fights with people online and at school about the content. The kids now do have their own computers with internet in their rooms, and the novelty has worn off a bit, they both have average usage and I do not check much about anything. I still warn them about internet predators and how not to include personal info such as phone numbers, addresses, or locations which can be recognized unless they are very broad. When we build a computer for the little one, we'll probably ok a list of sites and she won't be able to browse anywhere but the preapproved ones, and the list will grow or restrictions slowly removed as she gets older and more well-versed about using her computer. I think that technology is a good thing - anybody can use anything badly or for evil purposes, it doesn't matter what it is. Intentions and purposes are the root of the problem, not the technology itself. There will always be stupid people, predators, weirdos, and persons who are out to harrass and make others miserable. The key is to find and use reasonable and common sense ways to protect ourselves and our children and to enjoy what is available.

My nephew is a pain in the butt for online gaming. I think this is a real problem area for kids because when faced with all the flashy images, movies and the plug ins required to view content they forget everything you tell them about what can mess with the system and downloading that so called plug in might be a trogan or whatever. When it comes to games, kids really don't care as long as they get to play. So you have to keep a watchful eye on them and the system, especially when errors pop up and the child tries to hide it!!!

I don't stand behind my daughter 24/7 while she's on the internet. She has her own child account, so no pervert can contact her. She knows why she has a child account and that it's for her safety. Every once in awhile she gets on mine or my husbands account, but we watch closely and we get a email of detailed of everything she did online. Mostly she looks up facts about space and wolves.

My 13 year old Son has his own computer in his room. He leaves the door open and I wonder in occasionally to see what he is up to. he likes youtube, and chats on MSN. Most of the time however he is on his fathers PC in the living room and I can keep track better in there. I do think it is very important for parents to keep up with their children's internet activities, I do not think we need to be paranoid and stand over their shoulder all of the time.. But instead keep eyes and ears open. Ask Questions and keep up good communication.

My son is just 6 years old so I don't usually let him access the internet without supervision. I don't want him to accidentally stumble into some materials that are not really good for kids so as much as possible, I do not let him access the net without adult supervision.

Do you know whats the reason for your daughter having a own pc.maybe she wants to chat with her friends without anyone watching her chat.its better kids surf the internet for one hour.more than that will be harmful for their health.

Maybe when my girls are 14 or so they can have one in their own room it would still have the parental locks on it etc, until then they will use the family one under my supervision I mean its only my eldest who is 4 who uses it anyway and its always games on cbeebies things like that so its not a problem however I do lock the internet search engine if she is on there just incase I know she cant actively search for things but she can sure use the mouse and well she could type anything in by accident lol so just to be safe

yeah, it's easier for weirdo's to get to young people cause when your chatting with someone you can't know whith who you are really chatting. You could be an old man as far as i can tell. (joking =D) I just mean it's so easy to lie on the internet! And yeah it's a good idea to check them both occasionally! Also have something like a history thing on your internet so you can check on whut sites they were! =D

I feel sorry for parents these days. It must be very hard to feel that your kids are safe from the barrage of, often unsavoury, information. I am not a parent myself. One thing that I find re-assuring though, is the way that software writers nowadays include a good many tools within their internet browsers to help protect children (Parental Controls) - internet explorer being a good example of this. For the sake of an hour or two study into the internet options on a browser, it can be possible to restrict the type of information which children can get access to. I know that this is often easier said than done - especially if one is not a computer expert, but it must surely be worth a try. Knowing that the internet is unregulated affords all manner of 'undesirable' features within its scope and any parent, I am sure, would be rightly concerned about this subject.

just leave and chech for virus.

Any way , the www take away our time and health. My nephew just don't go to schllo and have a half day work, but after the working, he always stay beside the computer to play the game , i don't want encourage him to do so, but , i also can't find any reason to talk back for his action, because if he don't do this , maybe , he will go out together with his weather friend for drinking, that is worse than this ,so just let it be. may be this is the social trend, anyone could stop it ,right?

Hi TinaP40, Kids and the Internet can be a big problem today. I believe that parents have to use their own judgement, as to when kids can be left alone, or have their own PC in the bedroom. All children are not alike, so you may have very few problems, while a friend might be in just the opposite situation. It is important though for everyone to be careful, and parents have to be able to talk openly with their children. Blessings.

With the quicken pace of development,technology improve so much.more and more people use computer.adults use computer to work,children use it to play games or do homeworks.most of the people use them to communite with friends.Nowadays even a small child can use computer adroitly. But with it,it's hard for adults to controled the children.In the internet,you can see everything,can know kinds of people all over the world maybe kind and maybe bad.you can catch the opportunity and also you will lose yourself. In our country,some young children lose them in the internet game,they can not control themselves.they don't want to go to school and study,only play computer.It's not well i think.Parents are vexatious. But i think it is not good to watch behind children when they play computer.It is like when some one write journal when you standing behind her/him watching.You told her/him how to judge by themselves,what's right and what's bad.It is more helpful i think.

if i had a kid, i'll just leave it up to her. but before i do that, i'll do some restrictions on her pc like she can't go to this site, she can't use the im, and all she can do is visit some educational sites and nothing else

you should really be careful that they don't join social network sites... or even if they do, make sure they don't add details that a pedophile would find useful!! I heard many horrific stories about children being tracked down through facebook... You can always put protection on the internet sites by blocking adult material...

There's stuff I've come across that I'd rather not have seen, and I'm in my 30's. My children are going to be closely supervised - but with explanations as they get older as to why. It's also a collosal time waste, I would never have done any homework if the internet had been around then!