Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What age for their own computer?

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.