DH and I are having a discussion about what age would be appropriate for a small netbook, with lots of parental controls in place of course.

We have a computer for family use in the family room, with a big enough screen that anyone in the room can see what's going on. Feels safer than a laptop to us.

(It has the side benefit that we use the internet instead of cable TV.)

DeeDee

Our son was just given a laptop from his grandfather who upgraded to a new one. We have a ton of controls on it, and keep a close eye on him ( plus the battery no longer works so he can't roam with it ). He is turning 8 next week. I believe as long as it is regulated and not overused, it is good to get practice with typing and other types of learning one can do online.

DS8 got his own computer this year, a desktop in the kitchen.

If you aren't averse to it, I would suggest a Mac of some sort because you don't even have to worry about virus protection that way -- Macs are far less likely to pick up a virus from the sorts of things that kids download.

We started with a Mac Mini that my work was upgrading from, but it had an unfortunate little-sister accident, so he's just got a regular PC now. I have no doubt that one too many Mario screensavers or Tetris demos will cause us to have to wipe it from time to time.

our boys have had their own computer since our ds 6 was 3.5. Our yds is 4.5 and they both do great. We have had issues with youtube videos,but other than that they have both done very well.

Recommended: download Mozilla firefox then download Kidzui. It's free! It has all of the web a child needs. It has access to commercial kidsites, so the kidsites that require paid subscription will still need a paid subscription. Warning! My kid took over my computer. I had to e-mail the tech support to install it, but haven't had problems with it since.

This doesn't really answer OP's question about "what age," but I did want to pass along some advice. I attended an internet safety seminar at dd's school and the material the police detective shared disturbed me deeply. I will spare you the details, but I do clearly remember him saying at the end, "If you take one thing away from this, please never ever let your children have a computer with Internet access in their room. Even with parental controls. It's like giving an 8 year old or a 13 year old access to the Las Vegas strip and asking them to use good judgement and not explore."

He also made the point that even when kids accidentally find themselves on some of these sites (spelling errors, typing .com instead of .org) the visuals can really impact them because kids are just beginning to understand things like sexuality.

It certainly made us rethink our views on computers for the kids. We plan to make do with the family desktop in a central location for as long as possible.

Of course, ymmv.

We got DS a netbook when he was about 4. Mostly so that we didn't have to fight over who was using "my" computer, or things being out of place on my desk after he had used it, etc. At that point he didn't really know enough to explore beyond his favorite websites I had bookmarked for him, so it wasn't much of an issue. Now he has learned to do web searches and sneaks onto my computer to create things in word and use the printer. I think DH is in need/want of an upgrade to his laptop soon and at that point we will purge the old machine and put all the kid safe stuff on it.

Thanks for the replies!


I actually have an iMac, and love it, and fear for it's life. . It's in our office, and ds can only use it when my dh is also in the office.


It's working out fine, but I thought it may be nice for him to have his own netbook, he could sit with me on the couch, or sit at the kitchen table while I'm cooking, etc. He definitely would not be able to have it in his room alone.


He turns 5 in the fall.

This is a great reminder, thank you!

Mr W (3y6m) got his first computer when he was 2.5 when he asked for one and was able to use my laptop independently.

I bought a $350 low end system at Fry's and loaded Ubuntu Linux on it. I got him a trackball because his fingers got tired with the touchpad/mouse.

He spends a lot of time on it using google and such. I set the search filter to the highest level and run the patches once a month.

He is mostly into computer games and starfall, but likes to search youtube for videos of stuff like cars, jets, and animals.

He is independently able to use DW's droid to make calls but still has some coordination issues when it comes to texting. He asked for a droid two weeks ago but we will get him a leappad instead.

DS got his own computer when he was 2. It is a desktop machine built by us parents a few years prior. At first he mostly used it for playing simulations like Zoo Tycoon. I have kept it off the network so far.

Now he is about to get his first netbook, a hand-me-down x100e. I am going to have to think carefully about whether I net-enable it. I may wind up only letting him use it on the web with supervision. Part of the reason for using the netbook is just to let him camp out on the couch or wherever we are with a computer, and part of it is that it has a good-sized keyboard for him built in (although he now has a very small keyboard for the desktop too, and a little mouse).

Irisheyes, that's why I keep recommending the kidzui. It's got like a google and lots of YouTube, but every site and video clip u can get to has been screened and ok'd for kids by a live human, teacher, or parent. Less chance of an oops.

Eta: I see everyone's kid's are older than mine. Mine's a preschooler and kidzui is fine.

Mine has had his own since 2.5. We didn't buy it, it was DH's old computer. For a family of 3, we now have 6 computers :-0.

People may disagree but he also has completely open internet. I spend a lot of time watching him, discussing ads and ad placement and how you can tell if it's an ad. We talk a lot about how to search on Google, what is an appropriate search and how to use operators to make sure you get what you want. He is not allowed on youtube without me looking over his shoulder. He knows I check his history and any transgression results in immediate loss of computer. His computer is in our home office so I can pretty much always see what he's doing.

Worst offense so far at age 8? Finding, then begging me to get him a Wizard 101 account :-)

OK, I feel a little better now CAMom.... I deleted my earlier post because all of a sudden I felt like a horrible mom for letting my 7yo have free access to the internet and YouTube! He is within hearing/viewing distance in a central location, and so still monitored. We have had discussions about bad language coming up in some of the Minecraft demos he watches. That's pretty much the worst thing that DS finds, and he does turn those off when he finds them and knows to not go back to the videos created by the worst offenders. Interestingly, DS has commented that the guys (teens) with the worst language have had the most boring videos anyway.

As for age of kids getting their own computer, depends on the kid and the family. I am not sure yet what age I'd let my kiddo be truly independent with a computer not monitored by his parents. If we did get DS a computer, it would still be centrally located at this point in his life.

I certainly hope I did not make you feel this way, St. Pauli. It was absolutely not my intention. And I have so often enjoyed reading your posts here over the years that I know you are a wonderful mom

Quite honestly, I wouldn't have thought twice about giving my dds access to a computer with internet in their rooms had I not seen this presentation. The detective talked a lot about internet predators and he said the victim is almost always a tween or teen with unlimited and unmonitored access to a computer. So the fact that you and all other parents who have replied are monitoring and "looking over the shoulder" does not put you in that category.

The things this detective showed us had nothing to do with bad language or stumbling on to some nakedness. There are some really awful things going on in cyberspace that I had never considered (and I used to work in a pretty gritty profession).

CAMom, I can't remember how old your son is. My dds are 7 and 5 and do not have any interest in going away from their mainstream sites. However, the Middle School parents who attended the same seminar had a much different story. So, like so many things, situations may change as the kids grow up.

Irisheyes - Oh no, it was not you at all! It was me. Actually typing out what I let my kid do kind of made it sound bad. And thank you ever so much for the kind words.

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Irisheyes- my son is 8 1/2. But I have worked in middle school many years as a teacher and administrator. I would absolutely agree that those that have unfettered internet access have bigger problems overall.

However, most of them have web-enabled cell phones. This is where they're getting into trouble, IMHO, not on internet in their rooms. Or at least, not as often.

St.Pauli- I'm glad coming out of my parenting closet made you feel better :-) I grew up in a house of computer programmers. I know that my kid is going to be able to break any sort of parental controls in under 5 minutes. It made a lot more sense to go proactive and start a dialogue early with him. He is a kid that responds well to clear rules and won't even click "ok" to run a Windows update without checking with me first.

Camom, that's why I'm pushing for the laptop instead of an iPod touch. I think it's easier to control the net. (can you even control it on an iPod touch or iPad?)

Hee hee. I'm just glad you make it all sound so reasonable! No computer programmers in our house (well, I did take BASIC in high school!), but my DS is nearly as technologically advanced as we are, so we had similar thoughts about his ability to get around any controls we had. We also had a few viral attacks on our PC in the last few years, so DS is also extremely careful to not click on anything that pops up (even though we now have a Mac to avoid some of our virus issues). I do like that we have had many discussions about what's appropriate on the internet. We had very interesting talks about why people would create viruses, etc.

Aiden and Nathan each have a PC to "use".

Aiden is 4 and this is his first one that is his to use. It's an old cracked laptop set up to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. He has Office installed, a bunch of kids games (timez attack, Jumpstart for various grades, Reader Rabbit for various grades etc). All his favourite websites are bookmarked, and his favourite learning sites (Kahn, Mathletics etc) are shortcut to the desktop. He can google and we have strict filters and kidsafe software on his PC. He knows that he needs to check with us what subjects he is googling first (I tell him its to make sure the spelling is correct). You tube is fun, but when they are on it (normally Aiden browses and nathan watches) I am always in earshot.

Nathan (2y9mo) works on our server - and has learnt not to delete, move or do anything without asking. Again, he has full internet on there, but only accesses his sites. (cbeebies.co.uk, topmarks, and disney junior being the main ones for him.) he also has reader rabbit and Jumpstart on there.

No PC's allowed in the rooms is already a family rule in place. so they know already that it will not ever happen.

They will both get their own proper PC's/laptops when they are older and using it for things that require more processing power than the fixer-uppers they currently enjoy.

They both still prefer working on my laptop though...