Kids and Technology.
 

My daughter got an ipod touch for Christmas and I happened to check her internet search history today :shocked:

Amongst the usual stuff I found she had been searching for "naked butts", "dinkles", "boobs", and "snogging". I can also assume, given the amount of searches she has done, thar she fancies Zayn from One Direction! :bored:

I've deleted Safari off her ipod and replaced it with a child safe search engine and I've set all her music, apps, film downloads to just her age group, so I feel a bit more relaxed about it all. However, I can't make all mums do the same and it worries me what they may see when looking for stuff like this.. I'm pretty sure that a search for "naked butts" could come up with some explicit stuff.

The internet is a wonderful place, but man, its a worry for us parents! What's the best thing to download for my laptop to atom them seeing anything untoward?

:shocked: What age is your daughter, if you don't mind me asking?

I introduced my niece to the internet before she could read really and I taught her to only go on websites she knows are safe and about not clicking ads etc, she is 9 now and is a wiz but she knows that she should look at anything inappropriate or search for something dodgy, even when she was like 6 years old she would play Club Penguin and report anyone she saw saying something against the rules. :joker: She wasn't even taught how to do that though.

I think the best way to prevent your kids from dodgy internet stuff is just to educate them and maybe say that the search history gets sent to the ISP or something and that you'll get a report at the end of each month about what sites they were on. :joker:

haha, that's a good idea :laugh:

:joker::joker:

dinkles :laugh3:

well i just googled dinkles and all the results are shoes

wait no there is a strange looking turtle that slightly resembles a penis

burn the ipod

What does that even mean? :shocked:

This :joker::joker::joker:

It rhymes with venus

She's 8 (almost 9) ... and yeah, I didn't want her to know I'd been snooping so I told her her Dad had received an email saying she had been looking up rude words. :)

I wouldn't admiring it to her, but I was chuckling!

that's a relief.. what about "winkies"? That was there too

How old is she can I ask?

I've seen my younger brothers' internet history on the iPad and it's all the same stuff I searched when I was their age, it's just part of growing up. Like it or loathe it everyone's going to come across this stuff at some point or another, and it never did me any harm. Thankfully I don't think anyone knew...well, my dad did when I never had my own laptop/phone and had to use the main computer but yeah.

I'm not saying that it's particularly right that kids are able to see dodgy stuff online at increasingly earlier ages but that's just life. I remember I first stumbled across a porn video aged 9 and was disgusted/wondered what the hell it was but it didn't change me as a person and it's had no lasting effects. I'm more than aware of the hyper-reality that is porn and that, on the whole, is the most important thing that any child who has or does watch it at a young age understands. If you can separate that from reality then it's not really that damaging, and so I guess that comes down to the one awkward conversation you have to have with them, or, as someone else suggested, just dropping hints.

It's all about discovering yourself and learning about the world around you, and I'll be alone in this - but I'd say in some ways it's probably a safer way of finding things out, as counter-intuitive as that sounds. Sex ed in schools isn't as good as it should be or else I wouldn't say most of this stuff, that's part of the problem, and most kids find that stuff embarrassing, in the comfort and privacy of your own home finding stuff out like that online it isn't as bad. Like I said, the only issue is ensuring they understand the difference between the murky depths of the internet and reality.

Hm, okay, scrap most of what I said.

The Poor Girl has now had her privacy violated on an internet forum, she will never forgive you for this

oh shoot

:laugh: Thanks for your comment anyway Jack! I do agree that its virtually impossible to keep them protected from stuff forever, but I would like to prolong her innocence for as long as possible. :)

"dinkles"

:joker:

turns out, they're shoes!

Yeah and Naked Butts are.............hats?

:laugh3:

She'll never know!
...omg! What if she were to join here when she's old enough? She'd be mortified! Especially if I was still around! That's like going to a nightclub and your mum being there!

Yep!

Lee :bored: completely taking away any sense of style your daughter wants to achieve.. terrible mother :bored:

I would perma ban her for you xox

:laugh2:

Well i am going to print screen this and then in 10 years time i will inform her what awful tricks her Mother pulled on her when she was younger, Unless off course you send me a £500 cheque right now