Internet in Kids Room

[LaraK]

And maybe, just maybe people's motivations are a little more benign. Nobody wants your child to be hurt, and I think the responses you have gotten are about keeping your child safe, not about living for other people's embarrassment.

Honestly, I'm thinking "some people are just idiots." Kids are curious and sometime, particularly in the adolescent years think they are much wiser than they are. Kids also learn a whole lot more about technology than their parents realize, including ways around filtering programs. There are a lot of really bad people out there who use the net to get to kids. We just had a girl picked up with a pedophile in our community who lured her on the net. It's scary stuff and it's real. If your kid decides he wants to get around a filtering program, chances are good he'll be able to and you won't know a thing about it.

And this idiot thinks that people have been luring children through the ages, they're just using a different forum. I'd rather preditor proof my kids...but thanks for the feedback.

 

[Pigeon]

And this idiot thinks that people have been luring children through the ages, they're just using a different forum. I'd rather preditor proof my kids...but thanks for the feedback.

I don't think it's an either/or situation. Sure, I teach kids about predators, but I don't think for a minute that's foolproof.

 

[JimmyPicker]

Nobody wants your child to be hurt, and I think the responses you have gotten are about keeping your child safe, not about living for other people's embarrassment.

My lurker comment was not directed at the DIS or anyone who has given me advice or opinions here.

All the advice and opinions are welcome, even the ones that don't agree with putting the net in his room. This is how you make an informed decision, by researching and asking questions, and looking at both sides of the coin.

Once I have enough information, I can decide if I want to put it in his room.

 

[TheGoofster]

Just today, my wife was homeschooling our son, and she was using the laptop to show him some visual examples. They were looking up Hieroglyphics, and she clicked on a site that claimed to have different examples of hieroglyphics. What came up instead was very graphic porn. (And yes, I've set the browser to the strictest filtering level).
I say this just to give another example of how many sites do their best to trick people (especially kids) into clicking onto a seemingly innocent, even educational site, and instead bombarding them with stuff that they don't need to be seeing. I know that a good filtering program will eliminate most of this junk, but I don't think any program is going to eliminate all of it. From what I understand many of these programs depend on users to help them catch this kind of stuff, unfortunately not all of it is caught (and or reported) before kids get a chance to see it.
Sorry to bring this back up, I just thought it was interesting that this happened so shorty after reading this post.

 

[daisax]

I thought you couldn't "accidentally" stumble on stuff on the internet until the day I decided to do a little preliminary shopping for furniture. So I went to a sofa website and the next link I hit to look at a couch went directly to a site with ads which were two adults with no clothes on in the bed enjoying some sort of "marital aid". I was shocked. I think your kid could easily be directed to stuff you may not want them to see just based on that experience.

This can happen when you're in the livingroom with the kid, too. (I got slammed with a barrage of porn once when looking up the website of a local hospital!)

 

[Pigeon]

This can happen when you're in the livingroom with the kid, too. (I got slammed with a barrage of porn once when looking up the website of a local hospital!)

Sure, but then at least you are there to fix the problem, rather than have the child left to "wander" around on their own for who knows how long.

 

[Tuffcookie]

No internet in DS's room. Our computer, with internet, is in the livingroom, in full view of mom!

I would not recommend Net Nanny. I had it for a while and then I had problems. When I went to delete the Net Nanny program from my hard drive, it would not delete completely. I ended up taking it into the shop to have a back-up done of my files and then they had to clean my hard drive. I was not a happy camper!

TC

 

[Kimickey]

I'm a bit old fashion. I'm 30 and a mom of two DD10 and DS5. No TV's or CPU's in their room. Not because I'm afraid of what they can get into while I'm not looking. It's the social interaction with the family. It's only the three of us in the house and no one needs to be locked in their room watching TV or on the Internet while others are walking around the house. Plus no one is allowed to walk around the house with earphones in their ears... Including myself.

So we all watch TV and surf the net in common places in the house. Once my kids are in the bed, I will go into my room watch TV and surf the net. I guess for me I have to lead by example.

 

[jsmith]

im an IT professional-software testing in the past-and goverment work with security and transport now. My children didnt have their own laptops til they graduate high school and went to college-we had one common computer in the family room-no tv in their rooms either-stereos. -they werent stifled trust me-and it was what worked for us-and it worked well.