Virgin Eyes
My eight-year-old loves going online. He usually goes to SI for Kids.com, cartoon networks' site, ro PBSKids. On all those sites thwey have games and other content he is interested in.
We have two rules for him to go online. He needs permission and supervision. Since we have two computers next to each other, I can work on my mac while he goes online on the computer next to me, or my wife can work on her PC while he goes online on my Mac. It doesn't happen all that often, but he can usually get online at least once a week.
Last night he wanted to try something new. He typed in Kitten Cannon or Cannon Kitten or soemthing like that and hit enter. I was supervising, but not very closely. He clicked on a link that came up, but it was not the game he was looking for. I didn't look too closely at the screen, but there was a banner that was advertising something sexy.
I know some of you have eight year olds. What do you do protect your kids from seeing things they shouldn't when they go online?
We have two rules for him to go online. He needs permission and supervision. Since we have two computers next to each other, I can work on my mac while he goes online on the computer next to me, or my wife can work on her PC while he goes online on my Mac. It doesn't happen all that often, but he can usually get online at least once a week.
Last night he wanted to try something new. He typed in Kitten Cannon or Cannon Kitten or soemthing like that and hit enter. I was supervising, but not very closely. He clicked on a link that came up, but it was not the game he was looking for. I didn't look too closely at the screen, but there was a banner that was advertising something sexy.
I know some of you have eight year olds. What do you do protect your kids from seeing things they shouldn't when they go online?
posted by Air Time at 11:35 AM
11 Comments:
Tiger has broad based funcitonality that limits web browsing to a finite number of sites that you can choose. I don't know whay to say for your PC, though.
Our rules are exactly the same as yours. But in addition, my 8-y.o. and 7-y.o. are only allowed to go on the sites that I have pre-approved. We also have the computers in my house set up so that no one can log on without a password. We have a separate computer without access for their games. But I did once forget to log off, and came home to find my son IMing my husband at work in my name. OrthoDad thought it was me, and was annoyed that I was giving him such a hard time about working late. :) These kids are smarter than we think.
my wife just mentioned to me that last week, when she was looking for pictures of little old ladies for a project, she googled 'pictures of old ladies' and one of the first results was a bunch of photos of enormously fat woman wearing bikinis.
Although we're very strict and limit usage to two or three sites, I'm nervous because I realize how simple it is for the kids to wander into the dark side. The current Safari for os x does a poor job of limiting browsing and I don't have Tiger yet.
We have a kids computer without internet access, that they usually play games on.
And we thought my wife's computer only allowed her profile to go online, but we have discovered that is not the case.
Still my oldest doesn't go online (yet) without permission. Do you have a program that only allows them to go to preapproved sites?
We had a school project where my 8-y-o had to research wheat. He wondered what would happen if you bounced a ball on a wheat field, and typed in bouncing balls on wheat.
That time I caught him before he completed the search.
My kids' computer does not have internet access, only games. So for now I don't have to worry about them. On the other hand, I had some young teenagers over one weekend and let them use my PC for internet access (naive of me, I know). Needless to say, I had to do some cleaning up on my PC after that.
My kids' computer does not have internet access, only games. So for now I don't have to worry about them. On the other hand, I had some young teenagers over one weekend and let them use my PC for internet access (naive of me, I know). Needless to say, I had to do some cleaning up on my PC after that.
AT, I don't have kids yet, but it seems you have a very good system in place. Yet, there are cracks some-times. There are programs out there that you can control to limit what your kids can access on the internet, so even if a dirty sight comes up from a seemingly innocent search, he won't be able to get access to it if he clicks on it by accident. Definitely worth checking out and asking around.
I feel I should apologize for showing the boy the game..The site it's on is a clean site, and I'm amazed that he knew the name of it../.Also when I played it, I supervised
I knew it was your fault, Shu!!
He's 8???? OMG
Post a Comment
<< Home