View Full Version : A good balance?
orangebird
01-09-2004, 09:23
Just a question really, after seeing another post in another thread..
What are people opinions on the amount of time young children (up to 11 years, say) spend in front of a computer? Do you encourage it? Do you also encourage outside activities?
LemonyBrainAid (Daniel) is 12 and IMO spends toooooo much time in front of the PC. However, he is trying to learn a few things and is not just playing inane games all the time. He does have some outside interests, and is restricted in the time that he has during school terms.
It's hard these days to encourage outside activities, both from the parents point of view and that of the child.
Robert (no CF nickname as yet :D ) gets about 10 minutes on the cbeebies website, usually before bed, and occasionally another few minutes during the day. He is two next week and we're quite proud of the fact that he already understands the concept of hitting the space bar or clicking the mouse to make something happen on the screen, which is relatively abstract compared with most of the toys designed for his age group.
We have no intention of allowing him to while away his life in front of a monitor as he gets older, so I'm very glad that our new house will force us to keep the computer in the lounge, where we can see it, and is in the countryside, where hopefully there will be an endless supply of safe, exciting, outdoor things to do.
Here's a suggestion:
Hook up a timer to an exercise bike. For every minute they spend riding on the bike they can have one minute on the PC ;)
EDIT: Or, even better, connect it to a dynamo and have the bike power the PC so if they stop pedalling it switches off :D
<Coughs> Erm...my two daughters (12 and 9) have unlimited access to their own intenet connected PCs in their own rooms 24/7 !! :erm:
The eldest spends hours chatting to friends worldwide (esp USA) and research for homework (true).
The youngest goes for car racing games but soon gets fed up. Her reading and spelling have been transformed though. :)
Both regularly listen to online music stations (esp Capital Disney) whilst playing or reading.
I trust them both and rarely find virii or trojans etc. from 'odd' sites. ;) Unfortunately where we live they don't have any friends locally.
I think its good to get children into IT as long as they dont make the computer their only objective in life.
When I have a family and have children I will let my children use the family PC for homework and also games and stuff, but I do think you have to limit the use for young children.
When they are older, then they can go where they want on it, but when you are young, I think there is definately a lot of stuff that needs a careful watch on, especially no the net.
Plus I think I'd want to encourage my children to do sports and other activities like music that get them out the house than sitting at a PC all day.
SMHarman
01-09-2004, 13:08
Robert (no CF nickname as yet :D ) gets about 10 minutes on the cbeebies website, usually before bed, and occasionally another few minutes during the day. He is two next week and we're quite proud of the fact that he already understands the concept of hitting the space bar or clicking the mouse to make something happen on the screen, which is relatively abstract compared with most of the toys designed for his age group.
<snip>
Alexander (2 in October) is sometimes allowed to play on the Sesame St site. If the laptop is accidentally left in the TV room he will sometimes spot it an stand pointing at it saying "elmo, elmo". Bless.
There are some very good games on that site, like the peekaboo one he loves.
Our two (Alex 4.5 yo & Sam 3.5 you) can quite happily spend a couple of hours on the Jay Jay/Cbeebies/ Kwaala & Boowaa/ NickJnr sites. Alex can turn on the laptop and navigate to the sites himself :disturbd:
We feel it's better than telly (but sometimes only just) they balance the tv/pc time with lots of outdoors play, colouring, learning to read etc.....but we do feel that they are looking at screens a bit too much.
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 13:34
Heh. Too much time on the pc? Never! I spend my time on the computer mostly learning, About different things (mostly to do with the internet/computers), as nemmy says, I dont spend all my time on games. I enjoy my time on the computer, thats why i'm on it so much. I mostly browse forums, create images or speak to my friends on msn when I'm on the computer. I think the computer is more productive than school, nearly! I mean, you learn as much a day on a computer as you do at school. Apart from that, where are you going to use algebra if you want to become a music teacher? Anyway, thats my two cents.
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 13:37
I feel I'm going to learn more life skills by listening and watching forums like this than at school.
Heh. Too much time on the pc? Never! I spend my time on the computer mostly learning, About different things (mostly to do with the internet/computers), as nemmy says, I dont spend all my time on games. I enjoy my time on the computer, thats why i'm on it so much. I mostly browse forums, create images or speak to my friends on msn when I'm on the computer. I think the computer is more productive than school, nearly! I mean, you learn as much a day on a computer as you do at school. Apart from that, where are you going to use algebra if you want to become a music teacher? Anyway, thats my two cents.
Now now LBA, maybe you should pay attention at school more :jk: All these sites that you're looking at are warping your mind - we use pence here, not cents ;)
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 13:43
Hehehe. >_< Okay, My 2 pence :)
orangebird
01-09-2004, 13:47
I feel I'm going to learn more life skills by listening and watching forums like this than at school.
What about life skills you can aquire by switching your pc off, and getting out and about?
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 13:52
What about life skills you can aquire by switching your pc off, and getting out and about?
Getting out and about? Doing what? Going around town with my mates? Playing football? Playing other games? What life skills will that teach me? :confused:
Getting out and about? Doing what? Going around town with my mates? Playing football? Playing other games? What life skills will that teach me? :confused:
LBA has a point here.......we spend more time trying to think of what my two can do than actually doing it !! :(
Anyone any suggestions for cheap entertainment for a 12 and 9 year old girls ? :confused:
Bit late now as school re-start is imminent :rolleyes:
dilli-theclaw
01-09-2004, 14:05
At the moment my boy (3.5) gets to spend 20 mins a day on cbeebies....
When he's older he'll have his own computer in his room.
He spends a lot of time doing physical/outdoor stuff too.
LBA has a point here.......we spend more time trying to think of what my two can do than actually doing it !! :(
Anyone any suggestions for cheap entertainment for a 12 and 9 year old girls ? :confused:
Bit late now as school re-start is imminent :rolleyes:
I think that's the problem nowadays, kids are so protected they don't know the freedom of going out and being out all day and making their own entertainment. My parents never worried about where I was and what I was doing and I certainly never had to ask them "what can I do today". I had a bike, loads of friends and never spent any money in having a great day. Debs off to think back to a carefree, internet-free childhood :erm:
Alexander (2 in October) is sometimes allowed to play on the Sesame St site. If the laptop is accidentally left in the TV room he will sometimes spot it an stand pointing at it saying "elmo, elmo". Bless.
There are some very good games on that site, like the peekaboo one he loves.
Mrs T and I are almost paranoidally careful of introducing Americanisms to our wee man. I'd cringe if I heard him say 'tomayto' or 'brought to you by the letter zee!'. :D That'd put me off the Seasme Street site, although I admit I've not seen it myself.
Thankfully most electronic spelling toys these days seem to have the 'z' re-recorded for British use. However, we were in Toys'r'us looking for birthday presents at the weekend and came across some talking Bob the Builder stuff ... great, we thought, until we pressed the buttons and found the characters were talking with American accents!! :Yikes: Presumably the voices are re-dubbed for broadcast in the US, which is fair enough (Clifford the Big Red Dog is re-dubbed for the UK), but trying to sell the Yankee voices back here is just arrogant corporate laziness.
Macca371
01-09-2004, 14:16
I think the computer has done much more harm than good to me. I have lost all my social skills and I now get crippling social anxiety when I'm talking in a large group of my peers. I also get recurring depression.
I spend most of my day on a computer, have done since I was 11. My mum and dad always told me to get out but I didn't understand why. Now I do.
I think that the age period between 11 and 18 is about learning to interact with your peers so that you grow into an adult sucessfully. I think that the computer has definately done more harm than good. It is an addiction and even though nowadays I limit myself to 2 hours per day, it has done some permanent damage with my social skills, or at least, it will take many years to develop them again.
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 14:17
I think that's the problem nowadays, kids are so protected they don't know the freedom of going out and being out all day and making their own entertainment. My parents never worried about where I was and what I was doing and I certainly never had to ask them "what can I do today". I had a bike, loads of friends and never spent any money in having a great day. Debs off to think back to a carefree, internet-free childhood :erm:
But thats the thing nowadays..parents are, if you dont mind me saying so, more responsible in the way they let their kids do things...
orangebird
01-09-2004, 14:19
I think the computer has done much more harm than good to me. I have lost all my social skills and I now get crippling social anxiety when I'm talking in a large group of my peers. I also get recurring depression.
I spend most of my day on a computer, have done since I was 11. My mum and dad always told me to get out but I didn't understand why. Now I do.
I think that the age period between 11 and 18 is about learning to interact with your peers so that you grow into an adult sucessfully. I think that the computer has definately done more harm than good. It is an addiction and even though nowadays I limit myself to 2 hours per day, it has done some permanent damage with my social skills, or at least, it will take many years to develop them again.
That's my concern. :clap:
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 14:20
I think the computer has done much more harm than good to me. I have lost all my social skills and I now get crippling social anxiety when I'm talking in a large group of my peers. I also get recurring depression.
I spend most of my day on a computer, have done since I was 11. My mum and dad always told me to get out but I didn't understand why. Now I do.
I think that the age period between 11 and 18 is about learning to interact with your peers so that you grow into an adult sucessfully. I think that the computer has definately done more harm than good. It is an addiction and even though nowadays I limit myself to 2 hours per day, it has done some permanent damage with my social skills, or at least, it will take many years to develop them again.
I still have fun with my friends, and I understand that all my time shouldnt be spent on the computer, if anything, I enjoy talking to my mates, etc. more than the computer, its just I find the computer more interesting than going to town with my mates..
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 14:21
If that made sense o_O
orangebird
01-09-2004, 14:22
But thats the thing nowadays..parents are, if you dont mind me saying so, more responsible in the way they let their kids do things...
I did exactly the same stuff as Debs - I was lucky I supose, we loved in a nce area, with no apparent dangers to childrens safety when we were out playing (dens, bmxs, dog walking, football on the plains, et etc).
It's nothing to do with how responsible my or Densys' parents were...
PC as an academic education tool is fabulous - so much info at your fingertips - but what about the social skills, ie tam playing, consideration for others, appreciation of other people and their actions etc etc?
My kids rarely spend more than a 30 minutes a day on their pc, often much less.
In daylight hours they want to be out playing with their friends, not stuck inside on a pc ( even when it's raining :rolleyes: ). We usually have trouble getting them in, not getting them out. :D
I think the computer has done much more harm than good to me. I have lost all my social skills and I now get crippling social anxiety when I'm talking in a large group of my peers. I also get recurring depression.
I spend most of my day on a computer, have done since I was 11. My mum and dad always told me to get out but I didn't understand why. Now I do.
I think that the age period between 11 and 18 is about learning to interact with your peers so that you grow into an adult sucessfully. I think that the computer has definately done more harm than good. It is an addiction and even though nowadays I limit myself to 2 hours per day, it has done some permanent damage with my social skills, or at least, it will take many years to develop them again.
Brave of you to say so, and I think your parents are right. MSN gives you an unnatural level of control over your social interaction with other people. In the real world - which you have to face sooner or later, and frankly the sooner the better - you can't talk TXT, you can't paste smileys onto the end of your sentences, you can't control who is in your conversation and when, and you can't conduct half a dozen separate but parallel chats and have two or three web browsers open, while listening to a CD, all the while giving each person you're talking to the illusion that they have your full attention. Verbal conversation skills require face-to-face interaction.
In todays environment I couldn't see myself to allowing my 12 year old (let alone the 9 year old) daughter wander the streets looking for their friends (who could live up to 3 miles away). :shocked: What can I do ?? :erm:
Macca371
01-09-2004, 14:31
I still have fun with my friends, and I understand that all my time shouldnt be spent on the computer, if anything, I enjoy talking to my mates, etc. more than the computer, its just I find the computer more interesting than going to town with my mates..
Yeah, I'm fine with my friends because most of them have spent time on the computer like me, and my school friends are the ones I talk to online.
Nonetheless, they have limited themselves on the computer a lot more and have had a life on the side. I was never interested in sport or whatever, only technical stuff. I think the trouble was that I based the life around my computer instead of basing the computer around my life. I think it is possible to achieve a healthy balance because computers do have advantages to offer, but it can easily go wrong. If I ever have children it will be no more than half an hour per day that they are allowed to spend online.
In todays environment I couldn't see myself to allowing my 12 year old (let alone the 9 year old) daughter wander the streets looking for their friends (who could live up to 3 miles away). :shocked: What can I do ?? :erm:
Well, you could take comfort in the fact that 'today's environment' is largely a figment of tabloid hysteria. There were 68 successful abductions of children by strangers in 2002-2003 (Source (PDF) (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r225.pdf)). That's 68 too many, but a very small number of children overall. About 5,000 children under 16 are killed or injured in road accidents every year. (source (http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/v3/roadsafe/facts/)).
MSN gives you an unnatural level of control over your social interaction with other people. In the real world - which you have to face sooner or later, and frankly the sooner the better - you can't talk TXT, you can't paste smileys onto the end of your sentences, you can't control who is in your conversation and when. Verbal conversation skills require face-to-face interaction.
Exactly !!!
And I think we need to get out there and learn these skills for interaction and be able to speak face to face with people. Think about it when you end up getting a job...half of life revolves round communicating with other people.
With MSN, its too easy to use words and sentences that we wouldnt dare use in real life situations and it is basically just not the real you as you are hiding behind a PC. Meeting up with friends and seeing a smile on their face and laughing together is much more fun than spending an evening typing "LOL" on the PC.
OK, MSN is good for keeping in contact with penpals and I use it to organise meet ups with friends so we know what we are doing the following day, but theres just something about internet conversations that make them hard to interpret sometimes. On occasions people will write things that you may think mean more than something else, or they dont realise what impact a certain phrase that can be quickly typed can have at that second it appears.
Macca371
01-09-2004, 14:54
Yep, people can easily get the wrong end of the stick because there are no stresses in pronunciation to help carry the message.
There is an art to face-to-face conversation making, and this can easily be lost.
There is an art to face-to-face conversation making, and this can easily be lost.
Welcome to the future ....
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 15:01
Welcome to the future ....
I dont see the robots anywhere :confused:
dilli-theclaw
01-09-2004, 15:08
I dont see the robots anywhere :confused:
Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there;):D
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 15:12
Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there;):D
Youre scaring me now..Anyway, :notopic:
Back on topic, if you balance the time you have on your hands between socializing and computer-izing, you should be fine.
Electrolyte01
01-09-2004, 15:16
I'm on my computer + internet all day, my parents don't care because it's my career, which using a computer for so long (learning new things, helping other people, chatting with mates etc) makes you learn more, that's why I do it :p:
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 15:19
:shocked: Is it me, or is this guy a total replica of me when I'm a little older. If only my parents didnt care..
Electrolyte01
01-09-2004, 15:20
:shocked: Is it me, or is this guy a total replica of me when I'm a little older. If only my parents didnt care..
You wish :erm:
:shocked: Is it me, or is this guy a total replica of me when I'm a little older. If only my parents didnt care..
You wanna come and say that to my face ??????????????????
/interlude/
Ahh thats better :D
Electrolyte01
01-09-2004, 15:24
You wanna come and say that to my face ??????????????????
/interlude/
Ahh thats better :D
:rofl:
I have to get out of the house atleast once in the day. If only to go to the shops, see a friend or whatever, I am 100% sure that we are in need of fresh air and staying in all day will just make you ill.
Electrolyte01
01-09-2004, 15:25
I have to get out of the house atleast once in the day. If only to go to the shops, see a friend or whatever, I am 100% sure that we are in need of fresh air and staying in all day will just make you ill.
Ill? I've been like this for about 1 year 3/4 and I'm fine, I hardly go outside to do anything :erm:
dilli-theclaw
01-09-2004, 15:25
I'd much rather the school told me if my boy was spending too much time on the computer.
I had my first computer when I was 3, but I don't feel like Ive used them too much, I don't NEED a computer.
Honest.
Macca371
01-09-2004, 15:30
The first thing I got was an amstrad when I was 7. That was the start of my decline, I preferred to write supermarket programs in BASIC than to go out on my bike :rolleyes: For most children, punishment is being grounded but for me it is to be sent outside :D
I'd much rather the school told me if my boy was spending too much time on the computer.
I had my first computer when I was 3, but I don't feel like Ive used them too much, I don't NEED a computer.
Honest.
I got my Beeb when I was 10, but before that it was me and a friend who used to show the teachers at school how to use the one they had there ... usually the complaint was 'it's broken' and the solution was 'plug the monitor in'. :D
My mum used to complain I was on it too much, but I don't think I used it as much as kids with PCs do now because there was a lot less you could do with it - no internet or networking of any kind, except at school when I was a bit older and it became fun to enslave other machines on the Econet or hack the school teletext system :angel:
I did once spend an entire evening on Elite, following a strategy printed in a magazine (Micro User, I think). I managed to get up to deadly and had military lasers on all sides. But that was unusual, even I had a headache after that. Football Manager was the other game me and my Beeb-friend used to play for hours at a time.
Macca371
01-09-2004, 15:41
when I was a bit older and it became fun to enslave other machines on the Econet or hack the school teletext system :angel:
The whole of my Year 11 was spent messing around with the administrative program which we got our hands on. Oh the fun! :D Then we got that took of us and our account temporarily deleted. When we got our account back we were sending messages to the whole domain via the 'NET SEND' command on the Win 2000 command line. Then we got the command line took off us but I found a way around it. I typed the NET SEND command in notepad and copied and pasted it 5 times and saved the file as .BAT, making it a batch file, and executable. It worked and the whole domain got 5 messages instantly.
Someone copied and pasted it 100 times, silly boy, and I got the blame for it :rolleyes:.
I bet the IT department were glad to see the back of me and a few other 'silly boys' in that corner :rolleyes: :D
I know it was very stupid, looking back :( but it was fun nonetheless, we didn't really hinder anyones education except in the last few weeks :(. I was a very silly boy. Geez, I think I've matured in a matter of 8 weeks
Electrolyte01
01-09-2004, 15:42
I remember some one totally messing up our school network this year, every system got the BSOD from it :erm:
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 15:44
If anyone knows any hacks for the RM school security system, feel free to pm me now, ;)
The whole of my Year 11 <snip>
I think the worldwide virus/trojan/exploit problem would be a whole lot less acute if teenagers like you applied that kind of ingeneuity to making the world a better place instead of holding virtual p1ssing contests in the school IT lab. ;) :D
LemonyBrainAid
01-09-2004, 15:47
I think the worldwide virus/trojan/exploit problem would be a whole lot less acute if teenagers like you applied that kind of ingeneuity to making the world a better place instead of holding virtual p1ssing contests in the school IT lab. ;) :D
Heheh. But thats the fun of being in school! :angel:
Macca371
01-09-2004, 15:50
I think the worldwide virus/trojan/exploit problem would be a whole lot less acute if teenagers like you applied that kind of ingeneuity to making the world a better place instead of holding virtual p1ssing contests in the school IT lab. ;) :D
The school IT technician actually applauded me for my method after giving me a b0ll0cking :D
zoombini
01-09-2004, 16:49
My kids spend hours on the computers & Xbox between them.
Yes it worries me how much time they are spending on them, however the alternative is what?
Go outside & play, go & have some external activities etc.
What activities? there are none that do not cost huge amounts of money each week. I.E. a few hours skateboarding at local skate park = £5.
Play outside?
As parent we are constantly worried about our kids when doing this, not because we think they are going to get abducted or run over, but because they are likely to get bullied or assaulted by other kids or yobs in the area.
And this does happen, and there is history of it. My eldest once plucked up the courage to nip to the local shop 500 yards away & got beaten up on his return & his glasses smashed for doing it.
As for abductions & being run over, well drivers zoom up & down constantly despite road humps, so yes it is a worry no matter what any stat's say.
The same goes for abductions etc.
I'd rather my kids played too much IT than became a statistic thankyou.
Getting out and about? Doing what? Going around town with my mates? Playing football? Playing other games? What life skills will that teach me? :confused:Social and physical interaction with people and the world , physical coordination and fitness.............
SMHarman
01-09-2004, 17:40
Mrs T and I are almost paranoidally careful of introducing Americanisms to our wee man. I'd cringe if I heard him say 'tomayto' or 'brought to you by the letter zee!'. :D That'd put me off the Seasme Street site, although I admit I've not seen it myself.
Mrs H is American as such it is inevitable that he will get introduced to them He's already flown over 40,000 miles before his 2nd birthday!
Thankfully most electronic spelling toys these days seem to have the 'z' re-recorded for British use. However, we were in Toys'r'us looking for birthday presents at the weekend and came across some talking Bob the Builder stuff ... great, we thought, until we pressed the buttons and found the characters were talking with American accents!! :Yikes:
I do find it funny on some of the toys we have (the leapfrog Drum (http://www.leapfrog.com/do/findproduct?ageGroupID=ages_infant&id=learningdrum) springs to mind) where they have clearly just dubbed the z not the rest of the alphabet and it is said so differently that it it clear it is someone else. I also find the Alphabet Pal® Caterpillar (http://www.leapfrog.com/do/findproduct?ageGroupID=ages_infant&id=alphapal) funny, it has a phonetic option, but if you try to get it to phonetically say rude words it giggles instead.
However, we were in Toys'r'us looking for birthday presents at the weekend and came across some talking Bob the Builder stuff ... great, we thought, until we pressed the buttons and found the characters were talking with American accents!! :Yikes: Presumably the voices are re-dubbed for broadcast in the US, which is fair enough (Clifford the Big Red Dog is re-dubbed for the UK), but trying to sell the Yankee voices back here is just arrogant corporate laziness.
Arrogant corporate buying power IMHO, ToysRUs probably found it cheaper to buy the toy in the US and import it themselves, leading to the import of the US voices.
Anyone else remember speak and spell not being able to spell colour.
When my 3 were very young (20, 18 and 14 now) I knew exactly how long I was going to let them watch TV every day. PCs never entered into the equasion. But children tend to want to be these independent little things!
4 years ago I had to stop my daughter (now 18) from chatting all evening, for 2 years, because her grades were dropping.
But she has, through using her PC and the interntet, learned to touch-type, hosts fan site listings and programs her own website.
She organised a week-long trip to a Lord of the Rings convention for 14 young people she 'met' on the internet of which none had ever met in real life and from various parts of England, Wales, Germany and The US. She regularly stay and holidays with these friends, and they often stay with us. I have to say that some of them are a heck of a lot more pleasant than some of her local friends! She sailed through college studies in business admin and now is ready to start a degree in business management. She has just started to promo work for one of her favourite bands.
I doubt that any of this would have happened without her PC and 'chatting'.
But I had to be vigilant on her behalf for years and her PC also had to be in the lounge. I also had to trust her judgement and character.
If anyone knows any hacks for the RM school security system, feel free to pm me now, ;)
Cant remember exactly what we did now, but that RM machines log on was too funny.
We used to give ourselves extra print credits and send a million messages using Net send.
We'd also track down all those little games hidden in excel and other software. Easter eggs or whatever they were called. Really rubbish but it passed time by.
i didn't actually get a pc that was online until i was about 18. and even then i had to teach my folks how to use it :LOL:
before and after we got the pc, most of my out of school hours were spent with friends.
although i do think even i spent too much time on the pc when i was out of work/on sick leave and i found i started dreaming conversations in MSN format lol
i think if you socialise your kids well from an early age, to understand how a pc works and that it can be fun, but that "real" life is more important they grow up with a balanced idea. lemonybrainaid seems to have a fairly mature attitude to pcs.... although learning more than at school.... hmmm depends what your trying to learn i guess ;)
my nephew (whose five) is always on at me to let him play games on my pc. i do let him every other day for about half an hour, then he is sent off to play with his toys or we read a book together. so he is getting a balanced experience. he also loves talking to my friends on MSN...
We have had a PC since '97.it was in the lounge in full view of everyone.With two teenagers and me time had to be rationed so that everyone got a turn without interfering with homework,sleep and a social life.Therefore I got the lions share of the time :D .
We got connected in '99 and I had to be even firmer about timesharing.
However as the only real alternatives for my two was to hang around street corners(they hated the youth club and rebelled against Guides and Scouts) or spend a small fortune going to the nearest town to just hang around on street corners as they pulled our cinema down,the ice rink/swimming pool were very inaccessible(two bus journeys) and we had no where else for two underage teenagers with no physical interests to go apart from the local playground I guess staying at home to read/listen to music/play PC games/watch tv/go online were much better and safer at the time.
About a week or so ago I posted a thread titled Use Timer - a project. The idea was for piece of code that could be activated by a parent from a screen icon and which would then start a timer - and shutdown the machine at the end of the timer run.
Escapee very kindly pointed me in the direction of the program AutoIT and provided some code intended to do the job I wanted. After a bit of fiddling with the code it WORKS A TREAT.
LOTS of big thanks to Escapee :tu: :tu: :tu:
Junior has to ask me to log him onto the machine ('cos I will not give him the XP password) and at the same time I activate the timer for whaterver time seems appropriate for the prevailing circumstances eg proximity of meal times, bed time, homework starting etc.
One day he will be bright enough to work out WHY his machine seems to randomly shut down. Actually, I would dealy like him to acquire sufficient IT skills to work it out. For someone doing A level IT he shows a remarkable ineptitude and lack of understanding.
If anyone is interested I will update the previous thread with the AutoIT code that I am using
About a week or so ago I posted a thread titled Use Timer - a project. The idea was for piece of code that could be activated by a parent from a screen icon and which would then start a timer - and shutdown the machine at the end of the timer run.I wish I'd known about that a few years ago!
I've also heard of a keystroke recorder but it wasn't around when I needed it, I don't think.
But children will still have to be trusted some day.
The hard work is letting them have enough knowledge of what they shouldn't be wrapped up in until they are able to censor for themselves. And think: "Mum'll kill me if she knows I clicked on that!"
And realise "This is not a good idea!".
And take the rap for downloading every piece of devious rubbish that appealed to them. :erm:
I'm making my youngest and his friends use a 'guest' account at the moment. It's a kind of half-way house.
Also bear in mind that you're not the only parent with a PC ...
Your kid will be in other people's houses.
Am I being too gloomy? Too cautious?
im actually glad i spend quite a bit of time on my PC its kept me away from some very socially inept people, im not saying i am socially one of the best far from it, but atleast im not trapped in a single minded mentality of finding promiscuous sex and drugs alcohol and such related influences 'in the street' to take over me.
although i still find them all around me when i am out atleast i have learned to stay away from those things, not because im being a goody goody but because its not me, and i know those things are wrong and such related instances.
i still dont like it if i am stuck inside all day, because a computer can never replace physical and social qualties, those are built with time and practice, although i can note that most people around me talk about the above listed things quite a bit alcohol being a main thing.
ofcourse that annoys me!!!!
I know that if my daughter spent more time with some of her local friends she'd be doing a lot more.
A lot more hanging around.
A lot more clubbing.
A lot more ... ?
I'm glad she was able to choose good friends from a wider circle of people than just from the limits of her physical locality.
orangebird
02-09-2004, 08:51
I know that if my daughter spent more time with some of her local friends she'd be doing a lot more.
A lot more hanging around.
A lot more clubbing.
A lot more ... ?
I'm glad she was able to choose good friends from a wider circle of people than just from the limits of her physical locality.
Nice of you to judge your daughter like that.....
Physical locality can have a lot to do with meeting friends from further afield - I have friends in America, and New Zealand (both of them native to the countries they live in) that I met through friends closer to home. So not only have I got some truly great frineds, but the opportunity to visit other countries etc - you can learn about other countries and cultures on the internet, but you can't experience it.......
i think if when i was in my early teens and i had internet and pc's like we do know i wouldnt of gone out as much :)
mind u i think they spend to much time watching screens it can only be bad for the eyes..
<snip>
i still dont like it if i am stuck inside all day, because a computer can never replace physical and social qualties, those are built with time and practice, although i can note that most people around me talk about the above listed things quite a bit alcohol being a main thing.
ofcourse that annoys me!!!!
All true.
As a teenager, I spent far too much time on computers. In one way, it was good (it's doubtful I would be in the career I am in if I hadn't spent that much time). In another way, it's bad. As Kronas says, you can only really learn how to interact with other people by actually going out and interacting with other people.
IMO, although I like being on forums, I don't think they are a good substitute for actually talking to people. For example, I think I learned a lot more about kronas, Bopdude, dellwear, colin, Ramrod, smeggs, stuart be & silver (however he spells it) in one day actually talking to them than in, in some cases, several years of "talking" on the forums. I knew kink already. It has been the same for all the other forum meets I have been to.
Also, I agree with Chris T. MSN messenger is a bit unnatural in the way you handle conversations.
Although I did spend a lot of time on computers in my teenage years, when I was younger, I was always going to friends' houses on my bike. Most summers I also spent a couple of weeks with my Aunt in Northampton, who actively encouraged us to do stuff like go for walks, and bike riding etc. OK, we did silly things ocassionally, got hurt regularly (the amount of times I fell off my bike doesn't bear thinking about), but we got over it.
Of course, we didn't have the tabloids trying to convince us that if we were let out, we would be killed or abducted. This was in the era of "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster".
To answer the original question.
I believe that a parent should try and encourage children to do both, but to encourage the children outside more.
And of course the best way to encourage your chidren to do anything is to lead by example. :)
Imo a lot of the "I spend all day and night on the PC" talk is because the parents are just sat watching tv or whatever themselves. :rolleyes:
I make a point of taking my little boy to the park to play football etc. at least 4-5 times a week. Hardly ever is there anyone else there, apart from the usual selection of goths skateboarding.
And we both benefit from the excercise. ;)
greencreeper
04-09-2004, 03:54
As a kid I spent more time outside than inside. I used to end up miles (probably about 5 or 6 - maybe more) from home, walking in the local countryside. Pretty dangerous really since no one knew where I was and it was very isolated with lots of dangers - water, power station lagoons, open cast mine, and so on. I think I got my first computer aged 8 but it wasn't permanently setup - I had to get it out the box and assemble it. Games consoles came later but they didn't hold much attraction. I think I got my first PC (486 DX50) when I started college at 17 but I wasn't online at that time. PC games did hold an attraction but not in a major way. When I left home I spent a fair few years moving around without access to a PC. When I settled down and started Uni my grandad bought me a new PC (the one I use now) and I went online for the first time.
My dad gave me a love of the outdoors, for which I'm grateful. If I had more money I'd spend more time in the wilds. If anything, these days I spend more time at the PC (12 hours a day on average I'd guess) than anything else. That's because there's nothing else for me to do, and my job hunting is all done online anyway.
Do kids spend too much time online these days? Yes, but as others have said, that's because their parents fear something will happen to their children if they let them out of sight, which isn't true - we have the media to thank for that. I also think parents use the PC very much like they use television - as a child minder. We have the fast-paced modern lifestyle and feminism to thank for that. I don't have problems with children being online just so long as they're supervised and there's a balance between online and offline activity.
I find that I can be myself online - in the "real world" my shyness inhibits me greatly. It's worth noting that for many young gay men and women the Internet is an essential means of finding and communicating with their peers, especially when they're in rural communities. And many disabled and elderly people have found a new life online, free from the physical limitations imposed by their bodies.
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