At what age should you allow your (own) kids into computers?

I have 5 year old son and 7 year old daughter, I let them use computer with timing. After they come back from school, I let them use for hour.Mean time the other party has to do her homework. They can learn alot of things in web, such as bbc for kids. Provided you are overseeing what your children are doing. They must admit their time frame that how long can they use.And one more commiment that after they finished their homework then let them use computer.

My kids will soon be 15, 14 and 11. This will be our 4th year to home school. When we started homeschooling I allowed my kids to use the computer with my assistance. Now that I have been showing them how to use it and places they can go that are fun and safe, I have started this year allowing them to use it with out me being right there. My little girl (10) I still help her, but I think I have taught them how to be safe so I think its okay. IMO, I think it's all in how you teach them and I also let them know that I do do history checks and I better not find nothing they shouldn't be doing.

My kids were using computers by the time they were 18 months old or younger in my sons case. Grandpa bought my daughter her own computer at the age of two. (Didn't ask and bought her one that was better than any of our, including his) she is 9 now and still has that computer. Grandma is now talking about getting her a laptop. But I homeschool my kids and started in preschool, using preschool computer software. We have a small computer lab in our house, everyone has their own computers. It is a must have in this house, we can go without everything but we have to have highspeed internet and our computers, well we also have to have our books, but everything else, like cable, telephone, we could give it up, but the computer has become a necessity.

I find it hard to determine what is really the ideal age for kids to be allowed to use the computer. Since my 2 year old is now competing with his older brother and sisters in playing with the computer. The olders kids from 7-11 can freely use the computer though of course they are not allowed to view adult sites.

Well, I dont know but me, i learned computers when I was 11 years old... I think it is safe to teach them to use computers at 11 years old.. Old enough to undertand how to play and use the computer.

As soon as they are interesting. It is the way of the future and why hold your children back? Teach them the right way to use it and tell them about the negative side of things when you think they are ready. Probably a good idea to wait until they can read!

I would say that there is no minimum age for using a computer, it all depends on the child's ability to understand what to do. It is rapidly becoming more important to use a computer in everyday life, so by the time a child of today reaches working age it will be a necessary feature. The sooner a child learns to use a computer then the further they will eventually progress.

with education now so much depending on the computers i think now the childrens have to learn computer and it uses very quickly. like i may not be able to buy them a whole encyclopedia book set, but yes i can def. give them a cd set which will cost be 2 or 3 grnads and that is quite affordable and so i think these are a few things which will make computers very much essential for even small childrens like student sin class 1 or 2 even.

I let my daughter on to the computer as soon as possible.It is always good to learn computer skills.She is now 11 and goes online just to play games.Now days you even have to sign in on a computer to get your haircut.

My daughter has had her own PC or Mac since she was 6 months old! It was fun to watch her teach 30-somethings some basic computer stuff when she was three!

Being a geekdad, We have a total of five full-time computers in the house, one being a laptop. All are wired to the internet, however on the kids computers I have installed a net-nanny-type program that works perfectly. My oldest daughter was about four when she got her own computer. She didn't have internet capabilities until she was about six and then I used a special web browser designed for children. They could only navigate to the sites I permitted - period. Now, I have five children, two of mine and three from my fiance. Only one child (the only boy - go figure!) has been denied internet due to where he was attempting to go! Everything has been pretty smooth sailing.