In a recent entry in his Real Time column in the Wall Street Journal, Jason Fry shared his feelings about having his young son digitally connected versus just being a kid. It was followed up on The Juggle blog, which posed the question “When should kids be introduced to computers?”
Admittedly, it’s a challenge. When do we begin to introduce the next generation to all that the digital world has to offer them versus allowing them to ride their bikes, run around outside, and make tents out of blankets and sofa cushions in the family room? On the one hand, they’ll have their whole lives to live in the digital world; on the other, some of their peers may already be getting a head start on them.
Some sites to get you started
One of the major concerns to any parent of wired children is the wide availability of questionable material. This has been addressed by plenty of software blocking programs, but there’s a service called Kidzui that calls itself “The Internet for Kids” that’s worth checking out. It’s age-appropriate for children 3-12, with content that is reviewed by teachers and parents. If a child is searching for a particular video on YouTube, Kidzui ensures that the search results are filtered so they’re not getting anything inappropriate.
The creators of the parenting site Babble have developed a social network for young families called Babble Playground, based on the Ning platform. It’s basically a discussion group 2.0, where you can connect with other families with young children and exchange ideas, share experiences and get to know them a little better.
And once the kids are older and involved with every variety of sports, you can sign them (and yourself) up for weplay. They bill themselves as a social network for youth athletes and their parents and coaches, aiming for the younger tweens as well as a larger community (you can sign up as a ‘Fan’). One feature that’s bound to get noticed is the comprehensive forum, where parents can manage car pools, find out about equipment, get scheduling information and communicate with other athletes’ families. And coaches can communicate directly with the entire team. Forget the old phone trees!
Admittedly, you could use killer app Utterz for most of same activities in weplay. Plus, you can use it for your non-sports-oriented kids. It may take a little more time to set up, but it’s completely flexible and allows you to communicate with video, audio, text and photos. Just think – you can take photos, video and record audio so it automatically updates to your family blog. I’ll be even grandma can follow along.
Two personal examples of preparing my children
One of the things that I’ve done for both of my young sons is bought their domain names. I have no doubt that by the time they’re in school and looking to land a job, much of their life will be documented on a blog, lifestream or other such aggregator, and it would serve them well to control the domain.
Also, when each was born I opened GMail accounts for them. I periodically go in and clear out the spam, but more importantly, I regularly write to them, as I would in a journal, so that some day they’ll be able to read what their dad was thinking as they grew up. What they choose to do with those emails is their business, but I hope that they’ll cherish them for what they are – a father’s love, expressed in bits and bytes. While I may not be a Hemingway or a Edison, I hope that my writing will teach them that we can find ways to remain a close family through technology.
Scott, loved the idea of sending your boys emails in advance that they can read someday. But what a chore to go in and delete the spam! For me, I think I will stick to good old pen and paper.
I love the idea of Gmailing your kids! I think I’ll steal that idea for my nieces and nephews!
WOW. Gmailing your children – literally just got me teary eyed. As a mother to be…that’s a great idea. Wow!
- Kate from Brick Marketing
My daughter is three months old now. I’d thought about purchasing a domain name for her – although I’m a bit conflicted about how to handle the possibly changing last name bit, I’ll probably leave it off. I love the Gmail idea and might have to adopt it.
Nice post, Scott.
A few thoughts from my own experience:
Kids don’t dig aggregators- they’ll find their own sites based on interests. They’ll use adult sites (youtube, espn.com, etc.) or visit sites associated with toys/shows they like (Nickelodeon and Disney have excellent offerings that are well-designed so that preschoolers can use them independently) And then there’s Webkinz and Club Penguin.
Weplay.com is still finding its legs. As someone who is in the midst of youth sports and web, I only just found out about it and it remains to be seen if it will take off. Kids were excited about ability to befriend sports stars but found set-up a bit frustrating and not overly intuitive
Thanks, Toad.
Good point on the aggregators vs. little minds. Kids are innately curious, and the Web is designed to cater to the curious mind (sometimes too much so!). I like that there are some great social networks & virtual worlds that are safe for kids. I’ve heard some disturbing stories of kids trying out Second Life – we all know the, ahem, diverse characters that are there.
Whatever solution(s) families find, you can be that the winners are going to be intuitive and user-friendly – mostly because the parents are going to be the ones who set it up.
My boy has just turned one so we face this in the future. I believe the web amplifies life for us all – exposes the good and bad. One way or another kids will see so much we were shielded from when we grew up – from porn to violence. Maybe it’s healthy – if its managed right. I do fear the predator-factor in kid-focussed sights though.
Scott – As always – spot on.
What a wonderful and thoughtful post. For each of my 3 children I have introduced them to the digital world as they showed and interest. When my youngest was 2 yrs old, I saw him walk into the study, open the desk drawer, pull out a cd, insert it in the PC and proceed to play a game. Clearly he was ready and had learned from watching his older siblings. I have frequent talks with all of them about the benefits and dangers in the online world. In our school system they begin using computers in Kindergarten and by 3rd grade they are doing their own PowerPoint presentations! BTW I also love your idea for the gmail journals.