The two girls passed their checkups with flying colors. Amy didn’t get her nap in because of the appointment so I expect a cranky evening with lots of “NO!” Tommy played on the D&D websites the entire time I was gone. Since the history quit working on my computer I can’t double check his activities, but ever since he got caught surfing porn he is extra careful not to do that on our computers. I’m sure he uses the school computers for that sort of thing. Since I kicked him off so I could blog he has gone to hide in the tent which is set-up in the lower lot. When it gets a few degrees warmer I’m renaming the tent “Tommy’s Sweat Lodge”. Noah is at a friend’s but tomorrow he goes to his first funeral. I can take the adults crying, but when Noah’s fatherless friend cries I’m going to lose it. I don’t have much more time on the computer because Sarah has scheduled a “chat” with several of her friends. If this keeps up we’re going to need more computers over here (and phone lines, bathrooms and space).
3000 new adult sites pop up every night (I’ll double check that but I’m pretty sure that’s the correct number). The blocking software can’t keep up. When I worked at The Learning Company they owned 80% of the blocking market with a product called Cyber Patrol (I think that was the name) and the list of sites that were blocked were automated and done by hand. It would end up letting adult sites through and blocking libraries and candy stores. Besides, the kids usually figure out how to defeat it. The best defense is simple education and talking to the kids.
If I am not mistaken, schools computers have blocks to prevent such things as porn surfing.
My folks raised me right and trying to keep me from evil. There was no Internet and the only pictures that the 300 and 1200 buad modems could download were made of ASCII art (albeit some of that was down right detailed–particularly if you squinted) but I still got the bulk of my sex education from Hustler magazine between the ages of 11 and 13.
These materials abound in club houses in the woods, friend’s father’s closets, purchases from store clerks that didn’t care your age, HBO, Showtime, National Geographic, medical journals, Sears and JC Penney ads, and every teenage boys unofficial subscription-the monthly delivery of the Victoria Secrets catalog!
My parents somehow survived having 2 teenagers in the same house with one bathroom. Needless to say, there was a coat of hairspray on the furniture in my bedroom 🙂
Of course, every American boy’s heart stopped that famed day when “In 1987 Playtex premiered the first US TV commercials with real lingerie models displaying their bras and underwear on national television.” It was like having porn that you could watch with your parents but you had to be sneaky about getting a tape of the commercial. Basically the VCR had to run all day without the folks realizing what you were doing.
The children all use the one computer in the kitchen. Unless it’s the middle of the night, they are monitored (even when they don’t realize it).
The internet scares me when it comes to my kids! They all have their own computers, but no internet access. They aren’t allowed online unless I am sitting with them, and then only for school stuff (research). It seems I am the ONLY parent in the known universe to have that rule…
We have four computers at our house and I fear it isn’t enough!
We monitor our kids pretty closely. I check the logs on the router. We check the histories (that work) and other footprints. It’s the chats that are most enticing to the children, the most dangerous, and the hardest to monitor. However, I contend that educating the kids is the best route as they will have to deal with these issues on their own in the future. Global community, chats, instant messages and public access will rapidly become more and more integrated into the children’s lives and they must know how to handle it. That knowledge will come from our teachings.