computers

[dakegra]

Came upstairs tonight to fined EB and his mates sat watching stuff on YouTube. Not really a problem, but made me wonder what sort of stuff they get up to online.

Maybe I should set him up a user account on XP? Microsoft do a parental control thing which I'm assumign I could put on *his* account but disable on mine...

thoughts? opinions? suggestions?

Comments

[caerleon.livejournal.com]

My opinion is that networked computers should only be in communal areas when children are involved.. nothing protects children from seeing the wrong thing like a parent appearing behind them..

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

He _ I was going to say trust him and bollock him if he gets caught.

But that seems like a plan to.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

yeah. Wonder what (if any) use his own account would be...

At least if he's got his own limited acc, his mates can't install crap on my PC. Sick of cleaning off new toolbars and weird cursors...

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

Kids should never have access to administrator privileges. Mind you, brother-in-law and I have removed my mum's admin privileges. Ha.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I've set it up now so we've all got our own accounts, but only K and myself have admin privileges. It'll be a pain having to install LB's games for her or do stuff for Ed, but worth it in the long run.

It should also save me from having to uninstall yet another bloody toolbar or set of 'amusing' cursors.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

You are brave, mine have always had their own log-ins, as Andy insisted to save this sort of thing. I've still been caught out tho. I was horrified a couple of years ago when the 3 of us had been watching Scooby Doo cartoons on you-tube on my account & I popped to the loo. 2 mins later & Kate had clicked on the next link down & it was home-made porn Scooby :(

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

well, it's in the spare room, along with the XBox, and we do generally keep an eye on what he's up to.

Might just have a flick through his internet history, just to be sure...

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

Pretty much that's how all the parents I know deal with it. No access to computer without an adult in the room, rather than blocking sites, and conversations about why.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

the room is too small for that, unfortunately. It's cramped enough with Ed and Will on the XBox and Xander on the PC. I will keep an eye on what they're up to more closely though - Xander is a bit older than Ed.

[erikaerin.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. We have one computer and it's in my studio, which is part of our open floor plan and can be seen from pretty much everywhere. Even still, we check in consistently.

[jugglebug.livejournal.com]

youtube is great for keeping my lad amused.
However folks do have a habit of turning kids tv shows into inappropriate nonsense and as such I do have to keep a close eye due to his random clickage

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

yeah, EB is nine, but he's friends with two brothers down the street, one of whom is 12 (I think) and one slightly younger (but only just).

The PC is in our spare room - I do pop in from time to time to see what they're up to, and the XBox is set up so that if they try to play a 15-rated game they have to input a code, so they're used to parental controls.

He's got his own logon to the PC now, which he's quite excited about, and means he can keep his own stuff separate from his sister! Hopefully having a 'limited' XP account means he can still surf the net and play his games.

Maybe I need to have a chat with him about internets.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Kate & Holly have that. You need to authorise each site he wants to use, but I v rarely have to do that nowadays, as all their favourites are set up.

[erikaerin.livejournal.com]

I highly support doing that.

[boliviafang.livejournal.com]

I'm in favor of parental controls. When I buy my mom a computer I'm going to want parental controls on that. Ha! No, seriously. There's a lot of stuff out there that doesn't need to be seen and the easier we can make it for our loved ones to not be subjected to that, the better. I've stumbled across some disturbing stuff that upset me for weeks.

...whoops.. wandered away and forgot I was in the middle of a comment. ..um.

Anyway, yes, be attentive and judicious. The internet is an amazing thing, but it's not a toy.


..no it isn't either. Now stop that.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I've also stumbled over some weird things - I'd hate for him to see some of that sort of stuff. That said, he seems quite happy watchin youtube vids of people skateboarding or doing mad things.

When I buy my mom a computer I'm going to want parental controls on that
HA! My mam won't go near computers, though her sisters all have them and use them all the time.

[boliviafang.livejournal.com]

(arg... hit Reply instead of Reply At Web Page... not sure what happened to first reply... somebody at LJ is probably reading it)

My mom is 65 and I seriously think one of the reasons she doesn't want to retire is that she will feel totally disconnected from the world. She's never been really gung-ho about having a personal computer, but when I cleverly said "we need to get you a computer so you and I can keep emailing all day after you retire" she was very interested. In fact, that's the first time I sensed that isolation might be one of the things she was worried about.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

hit Reply instead of Reply At Web Page

I've done that *so* many times.

My mam just doesn't seem remotely interested in having any sort of computer. She quite likes text messages, on the basis that she's more likely to get one of them from me more often than a phone call, but computers? No. The only thing which *might* tempt her would be to get access to the latest photos of The Beans, but an occasional packet of hard-copy photos every other month or so seems to keep her perfectly happy.

My dad, however, would have *adored* the internet and computers and stuff. He'd be on IM or Skype every night whilst we played something like Warcraft, or be teaching himself Ruby or java or something. Or be getting arrested for hacking into the Pentagon. I miss him.

[sugar-shrapnel.livejournal.com]

From a kid's perspective I've had said up front policy of 'use it when in this shared room or I am around' is more honest/easy to understand than the thought of a parent snooping and checking history (however innocent it is) for soemthing I or they might not be great at defining.

If the child clicks on something that shows Bad Thing when you're in the room, problem dealt with easily. If the snooping reveals Bad Thing was clicked it's an interrogation rather than a conversation and has that tang of snooping.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

if it was in an open-plan area, it'd be much easier to keep an eye on - him and his mates tend to disappear off upstairs to play XBox or on the PC, and 9 times out of 10 whenever I go in someone different is on there.

I think EB will be fine, he knows not to randomly install stuff, or click on links to competition banners, but I've found a couple of 'helpful' toolbars appearing on my PC and I suspect it's one of his friends doing stuff. At least if I keep it to his account, it's not going to gnarls up my system as much.

I took the 'family safety' thing off last night, as I didn't like the idea of it keeping track of what we were doing - whilst it said it wasn't monitoring *my* login, I don't trust it. Then realised that if I didn't trust it for me, I shouldn't trust it for anyone else.

I think you're right about the snooping too. BEtter to have a good chat with him about the pros and cons of Stuff Online first, I think.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I've never ever actually looked at the list of sites that Kate & Holly have looked at & they have no idea that I could do that. I don't see why it would bother them, as they're used to it from school anyway. All the staff are set up the same way too at my school, doesn't bother me as I only use the pcs to print photos for my classroom.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Does he have his own log-in? My 2 do & they can only view sites that I've authorised. I can also get a list of which sites they've visited.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

do you use that microsoft family safety thing?

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Yes, never had any problems with it & Kate & Holly know to shout me or Andy to authorise any new sites they're trying to access.