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Children playing online - to block or not?
November 7th, 2007 by Bee
I don’t worry unduly about my kids when their online, usually because they first have to wrest the laptop top from my hands and then put up with me lurking to reclaim it. So surfing has become a communal activity at the welikeplay HQ; we’re looking up their latest question (last week it was, how many people are there in the world?) then talking about all the stuff they come across as it happens. May I recommend this as a set up from a young age as the best possible way of staying safe. None of this computers in your bedroom stuff, the internet was set up as a corporate rather than a solitary medium and is best used as such.
Last month we even got past browsing and journeyed together into Second Life (if you’ve come across Eco Dynamo, I do apologise for seeming to have a hive-mind, there’s three of us on the keyboard at once), though I did a reccie the night before to check out the calibre of the neighbourhoods we would visit. A very good way of passing an hour or so during the holidays.
I’ve talked with the boys about icky or frightening stuff they might find online; and until their hormones kick in they’re not too interested, though funnily enough they seemed more worried about stumbling upon it by accident. To that end I’ve just deleted their IE shortcuts and installed FoxFilter for Firefox. This scans the page for dodgy words and phrases and blocks. OK it blocked a post here which had the word adult and the word free (and will now block this post too) until I added welikeplay.org to the exclude list. Now a determined child could circumnavigate FoxFilter, but that’s not the point. I’ve not stuck it in to thwart them, but to stop any mis-clicks that would lead to “Daddy, what are they doing?”… “What, upside-down?”
And that, for now, will do.
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November 7th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I totally agree with you on the no computers in the bedroom thing. My daughter is only two and her interest in the computer is limited to whatever Elmo DVD I can play on it, but I know there will come an time when she’ll want to explore what’s out there on the internet. You’re doing exactly what I hope to do when that time comes; explore with her but explain that there’s some really bad stuff out there.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Thanks for the info about the web blocker. Assuming that it makes you feel comfortable enough to let the kids access the web from their rooms, what do you do about chat rooms, instant messaging, etc? THAT seems to be the primary problme when you have young teenage daughters.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
@Heather
Thanks for the vote of confidence; two was the age when my No1 started online (No2 was a little earlier) they started out at the beautiful CBeebies. May I highly recommend the ‘In The Night Garden’ game for co-exploring together.
@Muddleman
I don’t think anything could convince me to approve of ‘in room’ web access. IMing is a great tool for kids to get their hands on. It can build and strengthen family and friendships bonds. My 6yr old already uses IM to talk to my Dad; and it won’t be long before his mates pick it up too. But it’ll all be done from the kitchen/living room as part of wider family communication, because my kids (seem to & I hope) know that the internet is not something to go and do, but is part of how we live.
As a child of the early 80s it took me a while to twig that computers are no longer an activity, like going to play with a toy or read a book. For the next generation they’re more like woolly jumpers. Always there ready to put on and taken off as need be; and as parents we might sometimes need to remind them to wrap up warm.
Bee