[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by Mary in GA on 21:15 Sep 15
In Reply to: How much internet access do you allow your teens? posted by Cheri in MI
Ds is very involved with computer programming and modifying certain video games. He can go to the "developer" sites for those interests and post messages. He also has an online programming class.
I don't let him IM for practical and social reasons. IM is a major virus highway. If you want a really good practical excuse not to IM just look at the placement of some of the click-on advertising. Some items are very easy to click on unintentionally. I know people who have gotten horrendous computer viruses because their kids inadvertently clicked on an ad. These are computers that were protected by any reasonable standard by antivirus and firewall software. On the social side is the potential for misrepresentation and all kinds of inappropriate chat. He can talk to his friend via plenty of media besides IM.
We don't do my space or anything like that either. We discuss at length the stories in the news that have stemmed from behavior on my space. For many it's a way to be what you want to be and not what you are.
I monitor ds's emails since he has an address in the public domain because of his hobbies. He has a website where he hosts a small forum in which people post regarding these video game mods that he writes. I monitor that too. He realizes he would not have computer priviledges without strict parental oversight. He is very forthcoming about anything suspect.
Internet is inextricably linked with communication. I have friends who have never seen their coworkers. Ds will never see his online classmates. People he has never met work with him on his programming. It's a very different world from when I quit working in computer programming 12 years ago. Sometimes it really freaks me out.
The internet is not a substitute for human contact and the potential for misrepresentaion is enormous. Yet I have had friends who were cancer patients whose greatest sources of solace and understanding were online support groups where they physically knew no one. What are we doing here on this message board? --Only we're adults.
Mary