Should Minors Have Extremely Limited / No Access to the Internet? -

[Sidon's fleshlight]

I've had, and seen, this conversation within other threads on this website; but I'd like to colliquate the discussion of such a topic into this thread. The full argument presented is that, in the recent years, the Internet has become a place of controversial topics (politics, sexual, etc.) due to various background factors at play (e.g., more extreme political sides, lack of parenting, desensitization of extreme content, etc.). And thus, the Internet is becoming less of a space where a minor could interact safely within; and anyone on this website will know that exposing children to these adult topics could have a seriously negative impact on their mentality. Thus, various individuals, including myself, have proposed that minors should have extremely limited, or even no access, to the internet to prevent them
from accessing such content. Would this restriction improve their overall growth, or is the internet too necessary for them to have such limited access?

 

[Tim Buckley]

The first computer related thing I learned as a child was how to bypass parental control and expose myself to the most corruptable shit imaginable, I still remember the joy on my face when I exposed my classmates to ED's Offended page, protecting your kids will only turn them into faggots, just teach them about online predators and let them jerk off to furry tranny hentai while you cry yourself to sleep.

It is what it is.

 

[Lonely Grave]

Forbidding something from children is a sure-fire way to get them to access it clandestinely. That's a fact of life.

I believe the critical part lies in when they are very young. Sooner or later peer pressure will catch up to them and there is nothing a parent can do to stop a child's access to the internet. Education and wisdom at that point is key - supplemented by education in physical media like paper material (but not newspapers - newspapers are trash these days and the golden age of journalist worship is long gone).

 

[Exorbital Columnations]

The first computer related thing I learned as a child was how to bypass parental control

Sounds like you had normie parents.

 

[The Real SVP]

People should have no access to the internet. If it was up to me, all forms of remote communication would be reserved for licensed professionals and amateurs, who can prove a need to use, and basic competence in operating them.

 

[GeorgeFloyd]

It's too late. There's already an entire generation raised on insane fucked up Elsa Spiderman finger family baby shark indian videos.

 

[Zero Day Defense]

Make a user verify that they're an adult (e.g. with a credit card) in order to access pornographic websites.

That's really my only problem re: access.

 

[гape]

Spoiler: are ya winnin, son?

 

[Kane Lives]

Like all things children-related, the solution is NOT banning things. It's making parents do their job as parents. You can still fuck a kid up without internet if you raise him on iPads and Barney videos.

 

[make_it_so]

Like all things children-related, the solution is NOT banning things. It's making parents do their job as parents. You can still fuck a kid up without internet if you raise him on iPads and Barney videos.

Kids really should be encouraged to spend as much time as possible playing outside or reading, or doing some other kind of productive activity. Internet use should really be saved up until later years when they've matured a bit, for two reasons.
1. It helps protect them content that might be harmful, which leads to
2. Limiting children's access to the internet helps protect the rights and privileges of adults who use the internet, as it prevents to moral panic crowd from screaming "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" when crafting legislation or other schemes to infringe on those rights and privileges.

 

[verissimus]

I say yes to an extent and only at a personal up to at most a local level (i.e. not state or federal), and the older (essentially teenage) they get the more access they may have.

I can't see any reason for the very young ones to surf all over the net. At the least, it's a distraction. At worse they'll stumble into sick crap, possibly give away private information, or try actually meeting with someone they chatted with online who they shouldn't.

 

[Judgment Boy]

If you truly want to ban all children from the internet, then you would just have to outright ban the internet from every civilian in general.

It doesn't matter what precautions you take, what you block, or what you tell yourself for a peace of mind, if there is civilian access to a computer, a kid can and will find their way onto it. Even if you somehow manage to have god-tier parental blocks on your own household machine, there are just too many options. If not at home, then they could just go to a friend's house where their parents aren't strict, a laidback family member, could be at a library, could be at school, no limits anymore. And the less access a child has to something, the more coveted and 'cool' it is, so it's just going to make them try harder to get access to a computer or smart phone, and likely getting into more trouble than it's worth by doing so. Banning anything from anyone is just challenging them to get access to it, and children are particularly sneaky with more smarts than we like to credit them for.

Personally, I believe that parental controls are mostly unnecessary and about as affective as an "Explicit" warning on iTunes, and just an excuse for parents to be hands off while still feeling like they're doing the best they can. However, the best and most affective way to deal with most kids (but not all, as I know some kids require unique attention) and the internet is to be upfront and honest about what's out there, and teach them basic internet safety. Some may call it scare tactics, but fuck, if honesty is all it takes to scare them from being dipshits online, then it is what it is.

Spoiler: Parenting 101: "The Internet Problem"

Tell them that anything they post on the internet, every image, every word, every video, is there forever. Anyone in the world can view those things if they want to, and there are people out there who can take it a step further and find out exactly where you live if you put your phone number or real name anywhere online. Teach them that "secure" and "private" are just words, and with every maze there's always a mouse smart enough to get through to the cheese, but in this case, the cheese is you, your pictures, and your information. Some will just have this information and do nothing with it, but there are others out there who will use it to their advantage. Whether they use it to just watch over you or something worse, very rarely do they have good intentions. Emphasize the importance of not posting their real information, say that first name is fine, but never give out your last name, never tell anyone where you live, never give out your phone number no matter how harmless a website seems, don't post about the name of your school, absolutely never turn on the webcam for people, etc etc. And if anything slips through the cracks, as the craftier pests tend to, make sure your kid knows that no matter what, if someone they're speaking to online is making them uncomfortable or demanding "sexy pics", and them saying no isn't being respected, they should absolutely stop the conversation, maybe block the person, or at the very least come tell you about it.

When the dreaded time finally comes and your kid asks about making a social media account for themselves, make them show you the guidelines on age. If they're too young to have an account, either tell them, "No, you need to wait a couple more years", or you can say yes, but only if you have access to it to make sure they aren't being contacted by sex pests. If they're old enough, then yeah, why not? Just make sure to check in every once in a while about what sites they're on, and hopefully have enough trust built up between you two that they'll come to you if someone makes them uncomfortable. Maybe remind them that your ear's always open just incase, because sometimes they need the offer to be out there before opening up. Something about teenage pride or whatever.

Being vigilant and in the know of their activity is probably one of your best ways to "filter" their content. Let's say that you're just looking at your child's page to check up on them and what they post and you find something incredibly inappropriate, like a picture that's a bit too "sexually charged" or pretty much anything on TikTok, confront them and make them take it down. Either do the naggy parent thing and berate them for what they did wrong, or try to be calm and approach the topic gently. Either way, make sure you don't leave that room until they know exactly what predators online could do with that footage and why it shouldn't be posted. Always remind your kids that the people they're talking to online (not counting friends from their school) may not be who they say they are. Even if they send basic selcas of some stock image teen or something, they very well could be some 45+ year old creep in their basement looking for something more than just a friendship. Perhaps most importantly of all, always teach your kids to never ever meet up with someone they don't know and/or met online by themselves or in private.

Just teach your child to not necessarily be scared of everything, but to be wary and critical of the online world and the people they come into contact with through it. The internet is so deeply ingrained into our livelihoods that there's just no feasible way to raise a kid with an incredibly limited access to the internet, and parental controls just don't do shit anymore. Just have to parent with a modern outlook, and teaching the kids the dangers of the internet before they can even Tweet is an important way to do that. Of course, always encourage going outside, taking up an active hobby, and spending time away from the screen as much as you can. Maybe have a designated day or two where you guys all go on a walk around the block or something, knock out family time and exercise in one go.

[And if you don't think absolutely any of this will work on your special angsty teen or do anything to deter their curiosity, could just do what my parents did and tell me that the router kept a record of whatever websites I was going on, so if I went on one they didn't like, they would know.]

 

[Mage of Conquest]

Like all things children-related, the solution is NOT banning things. It's making parents do their job as parents. You can still fuck a kid up without internet if you raise him on iPads and Barney videos.

Your post is such a heaven-sent.

Seriously, I get that parents worry that their children will run into things they don't want them seeing, but schools have computers with internet; that is a sure fire way that kids will still have access to some crazy material without the parents knowing.

And let's say the parents have done a bang up job of watching over their kids, their internet usage, and what they check out. What if the child asks their dad and mom about a topic they shouldn't have touched? Them parents better be damn ready to have a good talk about those sort of subjects.

But let's not forget the most important thing: kids are kids. How the hell would they know what they did or what they saw was bad? They're curious by nature, and they won't rest until their curiosity is satisfied.

Overall, if you plan on banning your kid from the internet, you're going to have to either homeschool your child or find a school that won't give the child access to the internet. And good luck with the latter if that's your plan.

 

[Troonos]

My kids will have no phone and no tablet until they're old enough to get a job and buy it for themselves. We'll have a computer in a common area like the living room, and it will have every single piece of blocking and monitoring software I can find. We both want to homeschool.

I'm not raising a kid who spends their formative years addicted to social media, porn, and Fortnite. If they want to get into that garbage during adulthood, that's their choice.

 

[Rupert Bear]

Kids really should be encouraged to spend as much time as possible playing outside or reading, or doing some other kind of productive activity. Internet use should really be saved up until later years when they've matured a bit, for two reasons.
1. It helps protect them content that might be harmful, which leads to
2. Limiting children's access to the internet helps protect the rights and privileges of adults who use the internet, as it prevents to moral panic crowd from screaming "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!" when crafting legislation or other schemes to infringe on those rights and privileges.

Cute of everyone ITT to think that barring kids away from the internet means the return of children going outside and playing and socializing and being innocent and having adventures in the woods.
Most likely, these kids will still be forced by their paranoid, lazy, uninvolved boomer parents to remain locked inside their shitty rooms, now being unable to socialize out of school and having nothing to do beyond staring at blank walls. Or even worse, immerse into escapistic media like videogames and cartoons, and grow into NEET fodder afraid of reality and unable to proficiently do anything other than consume media. (Literally part of how OPL was raised)

I can agree that there's perhaps too many kids on the internet now, and that not all of them really can even comprehend how it works or should use it, but for some it really can be a godsend.

 

[Kingu Cinnamon]

I think that in an ideal (impossible) world you would lock them off from the internet until a reasonable age, say 16 and 18, and in the meantime, teach them how to use it.

I think the best way is to introduce the internet to children as something they should have a healthy respect for, like how you would introduce any potentially dangerous tool or environment. A respect that is not blindly posting embarrassing photos on Facebook but not cutting them off from any and all internet use.

Make it clear that anything they will post now will at best be soul-crushingly cringe-worthy in 10 years and at worst will render them unemployable. Let them know that the internet is filled with the greatest degenerates mankind has ever seen. Teach them the basic bitch stuff that we all take for granted like using different names for different websites, how to make throwaway emails etc. Equip them with all the knowledge they would need rather than let them wander in clueless.

If after all that they still filling in the location section of forum bios with their actual address then fuck 'em, they are retarded. Social Darwinism

 

[CivilianOfTheFandomWars]

On one hand, look how unlimited access to porno, social media, and general madness has messed up a bunch of young people. In that sense, I think it’s important for some degree of sheltering kids. Sheltering your kids isn’t all bad, they’re young, immature and impressionable and that’s why they need you to take care of them and give them the tools needed to become functional human beings.
In that sense, absolutely kids should not have unlimited access to the web.
On the other, there will come a day when no matter how smart you are, no matter how locked down the computer is, your kid will get the leg up on you in regards to tech just because that’s how life goes. Then it’s really up to them what they see, and hopefully you’ve instilled some values in them that would help them not fuck up horribly.
The Internet is insane, crazy, and disgusting, but it’s also full of more knowledge than anything we have ever had. It’s amazing, you can literally learn anything you set your mind to if you know what you’re doing on it. Just think of how many younger people have learned something they were never taught in school, something that’s useful or something they’re passionate about, just because of the Internet. We have a legion of people who grew up learning Java just because they wanted to fuck around with Minecraft, for example. Or are practically gourmet home chefs because they watched loads of cooking on Youtube. Or are fantastic musicians because they found free online lessons.
These things would have been next to impossible for most of them without the Internet, so there’s good and bad to it.

 

[Crazedking]

i dont think they should have no access at all but they should have limited access to internet. Literally just control what your kids has access to. If they are smart they will figure out how to bypass whatever shitty parental control and/or play the system with you for more internet time which are important skills to develop anyway. Check whats their habits and verify the content they consooommmmmm.

Just dont give them a tablet pr computer with literally 0 controls on what they watch just so they are entertained. Dont give them money (robux or fornite buck), have them play outside. GO OUTSIDE WITH YOUR KID ASWELL YOU FAT FUCKS.

 

[Xarpho]

As a kid I was permitted to 15 minute Internet intervals, but also because it tied up the phone line.

 

[JoshPlz]

Yes, extremely limited/selective/monitored access, so they don't get brainwashed by all the propaganda and degenerate bullshit.
I'd like my children to have a realistic chance of growing up to be healthy adults, not turn into self-mutilating troons who end up killing themselves.

But this should be enforced by parents, not the state or corporations.