Is it good for kids to have their own computers?

Should Kids Have Their Own Computers? Or are we living in a spoiled society?


  • Total voters
    77
if they are under 13 i think they should just have them use a shared family computer and monitor what they do or at least only let them use it when you are around.
 
blonde_seashell said:
Sorry, maybe I'm being dim, but what do you mean about a phone??

I was talking to 4W4K3 about talking to companys.

Why don't you just use a public computer? Most librarys have them.

I have a question for you though, If your never going to do ANYTHING wrong on it, why do you care if there is something blocked you from doing what you shouldn't be doing
 
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flame1117 said:
Thats what a phone is for.

Because calling all around the world is free right? It would cost LOADS more than internet monthly, for me to call Russia and the UK probably just once a day.

I can't PayPal over the phone either, or run a website over the phone. I'm not talking to company's, i'm talking to clients and friends that i work with...home phone numbers most of the time if i had to call them. But i never have had to yet.
 
4W4K3 said:
Because calling all around the world is free right? It would cost LOADS more than internet monthly, for me to call Russia and the UK probably just once a day.

I can't PayPal over the phone either, or run a website over the phone. I'm not talking to company's, i'm talking to clients and friends that i work with...home phone numbers most of the time if i had to call them. But i never have had to yet.


Well the internet isn't turned off 24/7 and and you can always deign websites offline, then upload online. I assume you were in chatrooms with them then, have them e-mail you can say you are having conection problems, so if you go out of the chatroom e-mail and you will get back to them ASAP.

I design and host websites and i could live with 1.5 hours of ONLINE time.

Just open all e-mails, and then incase you get cut-off line by your dad, you can be typing to respond to them all and just wait untill you can go back on to "send" them.
 
kof2000 said:
if they are under 13 i think they should just have them use a shared family computer and monitor what they do or at least only let them use it when you are around.

lol i dunno if i agree there. 13 and younger i wouldn't worry too much about my kids doing dirty thigns on the internet. once you hit puberty and start high school...thats when i would wnat to monitor my kid. when i was younger i couldnt even begin to think about doing illegal download online or pr0n or anything. the older i got, the more i wanted to do it. i had my stage, and now i jsut see how retarted it is.
 
flame1117 said:
Well the internet isn't turned off 24/7 and and you can always deign websites offline, then upload online. I assume you were in chatrooms with them then, have them e-mail you can say you are having conection problems, so if you go out of the chatroom e-mail and you will get back to them ASAP.

I design and host websites and i could live with 1.5 hours of ONLINE time.

Just open all e-mails, and then incase you get cut-off line by your dad, you can be typing to respond to them all and just wait untill you can go back on to "send" them.

how can i e-mail them when the internet shuts off? i never know ahead of time when i will get dis-connected, it jsut happens. we usually talk through MSN, i don't personally do chat rooms. just my preference.

i'm online almost 24/7, i dunno how you can live with 1.5hrs of online time personally. many a night i stay up till 4AM trying to get problems sorted out or jsut trying to set up new features that wont work. if i dont help out, and the problem is fixed without me, then i am viewed as expendable, they didn't need me to get the job done.

it's a hassle for someone to be talking to me working on something, and then i leave. so they have to e-mail me with a probem and WAIT for a response. on top of that, many thigns have time limits. if a site goes down, you lose customers and money. i dont deal with that too often, but it could happen.

im not sayinbg your idea is wrong, thats he last resort for most situations honestly. but it's a hassle and often leaves people frustrated when you cant be there hwen they need you and they have to use alternate measueres jsut to contact you.

EDIT: sry double post. i cnat seem to delete it :(
 
Well if you are trying to add new things to the website you dont have to be ONLINe for it, well at least i dont i work will notepad, but you can have all the webpages on your computer and in the same directorys as they would be on the internet and you can test them without being online, but on the PC.

I have only have my websites go down once, and that was when the servers were being upgraded.

What I was saying about e-mails, if you have many of them you can look at them ALL, and keep them open, and then incase you internet gets shut-off then you can still type what you are going to say, then send it when you can use it again, but this way it will be all typed out.

It will be almost impossible to find any kind of buisness that will give you support 24/7 and work on your problems with websites anyways. when I MAKE a website I always say an extra day incase something needs sorting out, and then is you are just MANTAINING it, nothing should relaly go wrong, and if it does just upload a back-up.

Anywas im going to stop talking now, because I'm getting off-topic and wouild prefer not to be banned :)
 
But my kid always plays useless games on his computer instead of doing his homework, reading a book, or doing anything useful.
(cough) belt (cough) :D


Anywas im going to stop talking now, because I'm getting off-topic and wouild prefer not to be banned
Heh good observation ;)
 
what makes the computer games useless? They teach literacy, not in the same way reading a book does but it's still a form of it. 'Useless' games can teach kids quite a bit.
 
even though i liked having my own computer, i think its a good idea for kids NOT to ahve their own computer until they are around 16. Before last christmas, our family shared a computer, and it worked out pretty well since i was the only one who used it much. And i dont have my own computer right now either, im typing this from my family computer.

But if you let kids have there own computers, then they would only want to sit in there room and use it, they wouldnt want to go outside and hang out with friends as much. Altrhough there are times when its useful for kids to have there own computers, one being for research papers when you need to use the internet, or so you can fool around with it since the family wouldnt want you diong it with there computers.

I remember when i was in elementary school, i didnt even have a computer until 5th or 6th grade, and i think that was good, because we always went outside, got excercise, hung out with friends, now, i see the elementary schoolers and alot more of them are overweight, and all they seem to do is IM each other.
 
there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with kids having their own computers, most kids today have their own games console, there isnt much difference, except in my opinion computers are soooooooo much better! (for games + they do more :P)
 
sure give them a computer just moniter what they're doing on it. Set up a gateway/proxy and record all the sites they go on. Set up restricted policies for them stopping them installing stuff.
If the kids get good enough to bypass all the security that you set up then you know that they are not just wasting time on there, but are actually getting quite good.

Oh maybe only install linux. Learning linux is a great skill that will harbour a desire to learn much more.
 
Cromewell said:
what makes the computer games useless?
Ok, show me one single useful computer game. Don't trick me with checkers or similar mind-challenging games, those are useful, but existed (and still exist) without computers too.
 
geoff5093 said:
even though i liked having my own computer, i think its a good idea for kids NOT to ahve their own computer until they are around 16. Before last christmas, our family shared a computer, and it worked out pretty well since i was the only one who used it much. And i dont have my own computer right now either, im typing this from my family computer.

But if you let kids have there own computers, then they would only want to sit in there room and use it, they wouldnt want to go outside and hang out with friends as much. Altrhough there are times when its useful for kids to have there own computers, one being for research papers when you need to use the internet, or so you can fool around with it since the family wouldnt want you diong it with there computers.

I remember when i was in elementary school, i didnt even have a computer until 5th or 6th grade, and i think that was good, because we always went outside, got excercise, hung out with friends, now, i see the elementary schoolers and alot more of them are overweight, and all they seem to do is IM each other.

Agree with you, even though I voted undecied. It seems all the young people think we shouldn't have PC's odd.(yeah i know we are older then we are talking about, but ussaly we would favor it because we are closer to the age)

The only thing different about what you said and all, is i had a Pc since I was like 4, even those it had DOS and the Windows 3.1 on in... It still played some sweet games like keen that used to be in my sig, and I relized im gettign off topic again, I have a problem with this, anyways you guys know what i'm getting at.
 
Lorand said:
Ok, show me one single useful computer game. Don't trick me with checkers or similar mind-challenging games, those are useful, but existed (and still exist) without computers too.

I learned alot from games for example fallout taught me that as long as you powerful it ok to kill anyone you want. Anouther thing I learned from game is the best way to get more powerful is to kill things. Acturally murder pretty much the answer to everything in life.
 
mgoldb2 said:
I learned alot from games for example fallout taught me that as long as you powerful it ok to kill anyone you want. Anouther thing I learned from game is the best way to get more powerful is to kill things. Acturally murder pretty much the answer to everything in life.
LMAO :D :D
...that's what I'm talking about!
 
Alot of games teach teamwork, computer skills, communications skills, and coordination skills.

Many kids who want to get into the computer industry will be turned away if they have to sit and read computer books and read online tutorials 24/7. But if you implement games and other fun computer activities while they also learn the essentials, they are more than likely going to WANT to learn, as long as they can still have fun.

The key is to balance the 2, which is basically the topic isn't it?
 
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