Giving a 10 year old his own laptop

[hungryjman]

Edit: the only chat things he uses are Club Penguin and Windows Live Messenger. His messenger account is set up with family settings, which means all new contacts have to be authorised by me before they appear in his list.

hehe sorry about it being 10months late. And club penguin is the equivalent to Habbo ? but targetted at younger generations. As far as i'm concerned my friend's little brother plays this and harrasses the desktop in his livingroom wanting to go on it half the time.

[Chloe01]

You need to give my mum a lesson in responsible IT parenting they've gone through 6 laptops in 3 years by not following any sensible advice on parental controls. I even sat there once whilst someone tried to groom my 12 year old sister (though they're not stupid mind you, they did just call him a poopoo head and blocked him but still)

Our friends have to rebuild their kids laptop once every 3 months. They gave up on the parental controls when the kids started moaning about being blocked from certain websites and being unable to install games.

My kids' laptops are locked down to the max and they haven't picked up and viruses, malware or spyware in 2 years.

[theoldgaffer]

I would say do all those things but still keep it in the family room for a year or two yet.

You can do all those things but there is no guarding from the fact that as soon as he figures out that typing "big tits" into google brings up more than the ornithological results, he will.

agreed. Im 19 and havent had my own computer since i came to uni... mainly because i didnt want to buy one, but at 10, when we got our first computer, it was kept in the main room, and has been ever since. Obviously my parents dont really watch what im doing now (and i know far more than they could possibly imagine) but they still wouldnt encourage me to have a pc(in my room) coz its antisocial in their eyes...

[Jayfunk]

Lots of Good information on this thread which is relevant to my needs.
I will be getting a new PC for my 13 year old for his room at Xmas and need to make sure all spyware but my own is blocked!

Apologies for not contributing more but would like to bookmark this for future reference.

Nice discussion OP.

[Betty_Swallocks]

Internet hours, your child is going to have a computer probably in their bedroom, you need to turn off the access at night time so they do not tire themselves out staying up all night. Likewise, when it gets to leaving for school time get it to switch off, so they don't procrastinate about leaving, likewise if they are sick they don't get to use the internet while not at school so they don't pull sickies. You could do this by putting a Wi-Fi access point on a cheap timer switch or by a logging proxy. If you still want access why not buy one special for the kids room, but do lock it away.

I agree with setting time limits but it's not necessary to buy an extra access point. Just set a static i.p. address on the laptop and set up an access schedule on the router. That's what I did with my lad when he was still at school. Gives you an extra level for grounding them if necessary as well. "Right m'laddo, no internet for a week!"

[jay19871229]

You can set a parental control account on the computer for your kid, install a anti-virus software such as Avast, and a parental control software like Any parental control .

[royi]

my rule is: all computers are in a central room in the house (with no door). you will get a laptop as a going away to college present.

[Clingy]

i am against it. get a desktop,in the living room .

+1

We all have different standards about how we raise our children, so please don't take offence. We never allowed kids to have a TV in their rooms...more a social thing that anything else...only one TV in the house. Also they were not allowed a laptop until they were ready to go to Uni and the desktops they had were in a "common" room, until they were 16. Of course we got the "I'm the only kid in school that isn't allowed.....", but 1) know that to be untrue, and 2) its good for them to realise that you don't have to follow the masses and to develop your own priniples and beliefs.

Just a word of caution. No matter how much of a techno wizard you think you are kids have the ability to circumvent any parental software control.

Having said that, I have no doubt if you are well balanced family things will be OK....at some point though they will hit the rebellious stage, and things may change! Oh the joys of parenthood

[Knoxville]

Just a word of caution. No matter how much of a techno wizard you think you are kids have the ability to circumvent any parental software control.

This.

I'm not a parent but I was on the other side of such software as a young 'un. Never under estimate a kids ability to find ways around such software. For parents it's something they set up once and walk away from, for a young person it's a constant challenge, I beat three parental control suites in less than a fortnight, granted they may have been less sophisticated then but then so was I compared to kids today.

[royi]

This.

I'm not a parent but I was on the other side of such software as a young 'un. Never under estimate a kids ability to find ways around such software. For parents it's something they set up once and walk away from, for a young person it's a constant challenge, I beat three parental control suites in less than a fortnight, granted they may have been less sophisticated then but then so was I compared to kids today.

The thing is, they are curious at nature. Even if they don't look for something bad necessarily, they tend to "look around".

[TheAnimus]

Everytime I see the title of this thread pop up I just start hearing:

"The internet is really really great, for ...."..............

[royi]

Everytime I see the title of this thread pop up I just start hearing:

"The internet is really really great, for ...."..............

Your talking about that Muppet song? (I know it's not THE Muppets, but i cant recall their name)

[Mblaster]

The rule for me was, you can get a PC in your room when you can buy one yourself, with turned out to be at about 13 years old.

[CarrierPigeon]

I think the rules are great. But still I think getting a laptop for a 10-year-old kid is a bit early. It seems to be working out well for you so that's a good thing.
And with all the other posts above, I strongly agree that kids will eventually find a way to beat the parental control software. Eventually they will think of this as overprotection and annoyance. But until that time comes, parental control software should be fine.

[peterb]

I guess the ladin question when the post was first opened must be 13 or 14 now

That said, this is a perrenial question that many parents must consider (giving their child his/her own computer, so it is still a valid topic.

[Bluecube]

My sprog is four now and is more into using the iPad than her laptop. As the iPad has dedicated apps for the likes of Youtube (for the Russian cartoons she likes) and icons for games, it's not really an issue of her coming across dodgy content. Having said that, there's no way I would leave her unsupervised on a laptop or tablet. It's the same as if she was watching TV in the morning. I wouldn't have her accidentally watching ITV for example...