For instance, YouTube is a hard one for me. I agree that it's important social currency these days, but I kind of hate it because it's so easy to end up somewhere sketchy. At the same time, I so don't want to sit there and co-view...yawn. I'm less bothered for DD, who is showing herself to be smart about things that are creepy, but DS is still very young.
Agree on all points. I'm certainly not interested in co-viewing on a constant basis, but some occasional co-viewing, in which my DD shares with me just like she'd share with her friends, turns adult supervision into a parent-child bonding session at the same time. Some of the stuff she shows me, I find entertaining. We even have sessions where we take turns, so I'll show her some music or some comedy that I like, and see what resonates with her.
I don't worry so much about her clicking on inappropriate materials (and her interest in fail videos is an easy gateway to that) ever since I observed her, without her knowledge, controlling the computer with a room full of friends, and immediately clicking off of something inappropriate the moment the inappropriate nature of the video became apparent. Of course, she's only 10, so this will require continued future monitoring.
