Homes with teens may be familiar with the “internet” routine: the teen gets home from school, and immediately gets on the computer, proceeding to stay on it or check it well into the night.
This is the case at our house, where my 14-year-old step-daughter can’t go very long without her laptop. If she’s not on the computer, she is checking and sending text messages on her phone.
A new study by the MacArthur Foundation shows that teen internet use is not as bad as some parents fear, and may actually be helping teenagers develop socializing and technology skills. You can read the full article here.
Computers and cell phones appear to be here to stay, and are very much a part of most teens’ lives. The study tries to reassure parents that the risk of teens being solicited by predators is quite low. Most kids online are talking with friends or people they know.
As a parent, I have to say there should still be some limits. I still think it’s healthy to try and limit how long a teen spends doing just one thing. If our teen has been on the computer for hours, and hasn’t done chores, or read a book, or gotten outside in a while, then we step in.
I also know there are also fears about cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking out there. Any other thoughts on this?
Honestly, I don’t care how low the risk of predators online is. I don’t think any kid – or adult, for that matter – should be spending hours on end every single day doing nothing productive but enhancing their social life or catching up on the latest high school/middle school drama. Read a book (something I’m starting to doubt today’s kids even know how to do). Go for a walk. Learn a new language. Make some cookies. I think if teens – and any age kids, actually – are encouraged (or perhaps, if you’d like to put it this way, forced) by their parents from a young age to participate in active things and be an active part of the family, they will be. There’s nothing difficult about implementing a time limit on the computer. I had one when I was a teenager. 30 minutes. Then I was done. True, I hated it when the timer went off, and yes, I whined, but rules are rules. I found something else to do. Why can’t today’s kids find something else to do? And why can’t it involve real people instead of avitars and video game characters?