OT Kids and internet

[DevilDuckie]

Thank you everyone for the different perspectives! It's helpful to see a range of different methods when deciding something like this.

For now our boy is 10 and very rule-abiding. We are going to allow him to access specific sites in his room- Nick, CartoonNetwork, etc. Door open, parent sticking their head in periodically. Anything not on his zpproved list requires an adult physically in the room with him- google search is a "with a grownup" activity for now.

We have also laid down early our policy on internet privacy- specifically that he doesn't have any. He gets no email account that we don't check, he makes no "friends" that we don't know and his computer is subject to search and/or seizure at any time.

Random surfing of the web is allowed at school where they have strong filters (I know, I sat in the school library for an hour typing in as many inappropriate things as I could think of, including code words.) At home it needs to be supervised directly. Hopefully we will strike the right balance between safety and exploration.

 

[~Jen~]

(Note: Some of you know what prompted this post. There is no need to get into that specific mess.)


Do your kids get internet access?
How carefully do you monitor them?
How old are they?
Do you use filters, censors or "whitelists"?



Curious about what sorts of limits people set- my kid is 10 and we're starting to need to make these sorts of decisions.

My DD9 uses my laptop and desktop on a regular basis, for webkinz, toontown, nickjr., disney radio, she uses IM and chats with her friends. etc. She also has her own email address.

I check her email, she doesn't have very many people that she emails. She uses the same password for everything, so while I'm on the computer I go through her accounts and check her history. She's never been on anything inappropriate.

We don't have any filters or anything on our computers.