I have a question - HELP

[wenwilder]

What age should or do children become interested in the internet? And when should they actually be allowed to surf the internet unsupervised?

[gobuy]

What age should or do children become interested in the internet? And when should they actually be allowed to surf the internet unsupervised?

Hi, I have a three year old surfing right now on my other computer, he does need to be supervised. My nine year old is a little better as she asks me first. The problem is that the think that the internet is a place were they can find everything that they are looking for, like if the enter football.com there will be info on football this is good for some domain names but not all some have bad things like boys.com it's a xxx web site so you need to tell them to ask before entering any domain name in the browser.
also I look at the new http://www.kids.usis a directory of kids web sites in the .kids.us zone and there is no links out to other sites that are not .kids.us.
Henry
http://www.WallStreet.us

[wenwilder]

A three year old surfing the net? That is GREAT! I never would have thought that was possible, guess I'm showing my age. :)

I guess I should have been a bit more specific in my questioning.

If you would set up a group setting of computers and have one set for children - not connected to the internet but consisting of age specific games, what age would you start and end at?

If you had another set of computers for an older group of kids, connected to the internet and filtered, what age would you set for those computers?

I'm thinking one set for ages up to ten and the other set up to age 17. I'm not sure if the ages I'm thinking are 'reasonable', if that makes sense?

Sorry for being so vague to begin with, hazards of being in a hurry and not thinking through my post. Thank you for your answer though, I found your information amazing! ;)

[gobuy]

A three year old surfing the net? That is GREAT! I never would have thought that was possible, guess I'm showing my age. :)

I guess I should have been a bit more specific in my questioning.

If you would set up a group setting of computers and have one set for children - not connected to the internet but consisting of age specific games, what age would you start and end at?

If you had another set of computers for an older group of kids, connected to the internet and filtered, what age would you set for those computers?

I'm thinking one set for ages up to ten and the other set up to age 17. I'm not sure if the ages I'm thinking are 'reasonable', if that makes sense?

Sorry for being so vague to begin with, hazards of being in a hurry and not thinking through my post. Thank you for your answer though, I found your information amazing! ;)

On the computers that are not connected to the internet, with learning games start as 1 to 2 years old all the way to 10 to 11 I think.
The computers that are connected have them in the same room that you are so you can see what they are browsing and even the little ones can go to the connected computers as long as you are there. I think that the .kids.us will have more and more kids web sites by the end of the year 2004 and all are information and learning web sites.
Henry
http://www.WallStreet.us

[matauri]

Wen I would recommend:
3 - 7 yrs (very basic end of literacy)
8 - 12yrs (scope of learning broadens)
13+ (students are now researching & IT language being taught)

We have a lot of those programs here Wen, schools, community groups, etc are quite well funded for the IT era. Usually by 13yrs they are being taught designing in Front Page & Powerpoint, and are conversant with Word.

But I suppose it would depend on the level of in school education they are recieving in the area.


Cindy

[wenwilder]

Honestly, this bit of research is for the possible creation of an Internet Cafe in my area. Something we don't have, but need.

The input you are giving me is great, I appreciate it! Please don't stop! :)

[matauri]

I've only ever seen one Internet Cafe cater to different age groups, and that was under 18 & over 18, and the under 18 had all the guardian monitoring levels set.

Expensive exercise I hear regarding initial operating costs. Returns dont start coming in for a while.

Good luck ! :-)


Cindy

[sonnie]

Hi Wen. I would be quite cautious if you are considering an Internet Cafe allowing minors. I have seen a few, some are Coffee Houses, book stores, etc., but all of them required the customers to be 18+ or have parental supervision. There could be some liability issues here. Anyway, just a thought.