Kids and the Internet

CEBU, Philippines - People often ask, "At what age should a child be allowed go online and how much time should he or she be permitted to spend there?"

I think that any time a child can do something in the real world, as opposed to doing it on the Web, they really ought to. I would hate to see a kid visiting a Web site that had a simulation of kite flying on it when it was a lovely windy day outside and the child has the resources to go and build a real kite and fly it. It's important that kids interact with other children and with the physical world. I don't think that it's a good idea for kids to have virtual experiences to the exclusion of physical ones.

That said, some kids are more introspective, more self-directed as learners, and for them the Web could be a very powerful tool from a fairly young age. Generally, if toddlers know about the Web it's because one or both of their parents are engaged in using it. There are some wonderful places that kids can go and develop some of the skills in navigating and clicking around on the Web.

So where is the crossover point? I think you need to take the question on a case-by-case basis. When I was a kid in high school, we didn't have the Web, but the boys had cars. A lot of my friends spent every spare minute working on their cars, and that meant to the exclusion of having a social life, to the exclusion of dating, to the exclusion of hanging out.

Parents are always concerned when we see our kids get sucked up in something that we may not have as deep a grasp of as we'd like. We want to be sure that our kids are having an experience that's going to be beneficial to their overall life, not just as a student or as somebody who's interested in technology, but as balanced human being.

Are there things that little kids could be doing on the Web that are good for them? Yes, probably so. I would say that the technology with children increases with the age of the child. Certainly by the time you get to middle school and high school the educational resources available are so compelling that kids really need to have access to this tool, and they need to know how to use it effectively.

-from Fast Forward By Alfred C. Sikes with Ellen Pearlman (Morrow) (FREEMAN)