image from here
Our laptop stays on the kitchen bench. Using the computer is a collaborative activity in our family. The ipad is similar. Even still, we're conscious that we need to think much more carefully about internet safety as our family grows rapidly around us. Please share anything useful!
This confronting article was circulating a while back. It is well worth the read. It is easy to underestimate the dehumanising effects of pornography and its impact on person-hood and relationships. Protecting the vulnerable is getting harder as we walk and eat and breathe and sleep in the digital cloud.
I am seeing the need, in our family, to feed non-screen interests. Sitting down with the internet is not a healthy way to deal with boredom. Idle, purposeless roaming is a habit us grown ups need to master every so often. Wouldn't it be better to help our kids master that habit early?
Research by the Oxford University neuroscientist and former director of the Royal Institution, psychologist Susan Greenfield, has found that intense internet use alters brain chemistry, encouraging instant gratification and making young people more self-centred.(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2135203/Jamie-13-kissed-girl-But-hes-Sex-Offender-Register-online-porn-warped-mind-.html)If this is true, then parents are going to have to be tougher and more stubborn than their child's habit. And if this research is reliable, then the greater the intensity of internet use, the harder it will be to change. Acting in love is going to mean some conflict and our kids won't like us all the time. But we love them more than we need them to like us, right?
This became a live issue at our house last week, after my miss 8 had an inappropriate (unsupervised) internet experience at a friend's house as a result of a totally innocent google search. We, too, have the laptop in the kitchen and it's a collaborative activity. And, up to now our kids don't use it much for lazy surfing. We're getting our first tablet this week. So I would LOVE to hear how other people handle this. For a while we had Norton Family on our computer, but it was too generic: blocked everything with little discernment. So. Wisdom welcome here!
ReplyDeleteHello dlH friends!
DeleteI reckon that being in other people's spaces is even more tricky-while the kids are in the early years. I sigh with you. The kids are going to stumble across stuff at some stage, I guess it is setting up the dominant environment (and appetites) so that it cannot become habitual- which is what we are both working on. Coupled with an attitude to marital intimacy which is positive (delight-full) to show a good, but real picture. And growing a household culture where parents are a source of information, without awkwardness...I reckon we will have really great advice for ourselves retrospectively one day! xc