I allow all my children (5, 7, 9 yr olds) online, but most of it is for educational purposes and it is NEVER unsupervised. They do play a few games, but I am always right there! That is my job as a parent. (They have 1 computer that they share, it is located in a cabinet with the monitor mounted on the wall in full view of any spot in the living room, i.e. no way to hide contents...though that is not a concern now, but as they grow older, they will be used to this being the spot for the computer and I have squelched that issue before it begins!) For example, my 5 year old uses starfall.com quite often. This is an educational site for learning letter sounds and reading. I think it is very important (speaking as a mother who left a career in the IT field to stay home with her kids, lol) for children to learn computer skills once they become "school age." For one, they are growing up in an age where life is going to revolve around computer usage. I am willing to bet that even the most menial of jobs will rely on some computer usage in their future. Heck, even current school work is going to employ the use of computers! I want my children to know how to navigate safely, how to find useful information, how to figure out software apps, etc. People forget, the online world is not just there to play games and pass the time! It is FULL of valuable information and I want my children to know how to obtain, check for validity, and USE that info to their advantage! I certainly do not think that it should be used as a baby sitter or that they should have unlimited access or time on it (and I happen to feel the same about the TV), but I do believe it is a benificial skill that they will use throughout life. Yes, by the time they are adults the "computers" we know will be obsolete and they will most certianly be using something very very different than what we know today. However, a good way to understand how something works is to know the history behind it, how it used to work, how it has changed and why it has changed. (What better way than to be a part of it first hand to watch and see how it morphs over the years??? Immersion! Its a great tool.) A person who understands the history, how, and why etc. generally has a much easier time using the current technology WITHOUT assistance...and is usually good at extracting the information they want efficiently and with accuracy. So for these reasons, I think once they are old enough to go off to school, that is an appropriate age to begin learning this valuable skill. After all, they will use it for life.

i started going online when i was 7

My kids are 6, 9, and 12. If they want to visit a site I go to it and add it to the favorites. They are only allowed to visit the sites on this list.

I do not think children should ever be allowed to search on the computer unsupervised. Even children that listen to there parents can wind up on a porn site by accident. It's happened to me.

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I could play on sites like PBS kids when I was about 4, and when i was 6 i could go on any site that my parents approved, when i was 9 I was allowed to browse.

I got my first computer at 5 cause my dad worked for a big computer company but any age is alright as long as you restrict sites. My dad didn't do that so I was also on porn sites at 5. My brother that was 7 at the time tole me to go to a site to see funny jokes. And me being a dumb kid thought that skin.com was a joke site. So because their was no site protection I was already knowing more about sex at the age of 5 than kids knew at the age of 15.

I pretty much started going on the Internet as soon as I learned how. Which was pretty early. I don't think my parents had filters on there. I don't really remember.

my sister maria , 9 plays on every site

My sons are 3 & 5 and are not allowed to use a computer except at the library and then only CD-ROM games supervised by me.

Occasionally we'll go online together - watch Muppets videos on YouTube, check out John Deere's site with their videos. We went once to PBS Kids but it's all games and not something we can all do together.

I see absolutely no reason for a 5, 6 or even 7 year old to be online. And once I do permit my kids to go online, it will be to specific sites only. We have macs that have built in parental permissions, so I can control sites, see history, control applications, etc. and that will be the case for a long time.

i was 3 i played games on noggin and nick jr cartoon network nick and disney channel.comjust this year my parents gave me permisson to go on club penguin i have discoverd nicktropis on my on and my friend told me about homestar runner and it is the funnesit thing ever i did not know any shows on disneuy then i just liked the games i do play games and watch videos at homestar runner . com i would sujest the game for wii and pc it is on my birthday list strongbads cool game for attractive people

I started when I was 7. It's when I started looking at game cheats. Then to Online games. I like MMORPG Games,

I've only started to allow my 4 yr old daughter online to play games on Noggin within the last couple of months. I started out sitting with her everytime until I felt comfortable she mastered the mouse plus some important instructions--call me whenever you are stuck (do not keep clicking anywhere just to see what happens), click on the red X (to close the page) whenever you land somewhere you don't want to be. I also drop by the computer room to check on her every 15 minutes or so. I keep her computer time limited to about an hour max. She is usually done by then too. She doesn't get more than 1 time on the computer a week.

We haven't installed any blockers yet, but I can see that its a good idea because she once inadvertently purchased something online (thankfully it was inexpensive). We also gave her a seperate account just for her.

I'd say as soon as they read
also, GIVE THEM THE FULL INTERNET, no filters or Kidzui stuff, spyware to keep track of them is fine

if the child has an older brother/sister who is responsible or a parent watching over her/him it would be safe.

4-5 is about a good age. Just put blockers on the real obscene sites untill they are a lil older. Dont go over board though, and block every site with the tiniest bit of a swear.

my parents set it up so i could only go on a few sites but i went online as early as i could control the mouse

I usually just lurk here, but I wanted to tell about something I found…. It’s a thing called kidthing… it’s an application that you download (kind of like iTunes for kids), and then they have content that you can buy (they have some free stuff too). kids are on the computer, but not really on the internet. Take a look at their website at www.kidthing.com... It’s got instructions for downloading and you can see what kind of stuff they have.
My son loves it… is learning stuff without realizing it!
hope this helps you!

I would love to hear when others let their kids go online. My son is only 4 but is very interested in the internet whenever he sees me or my husband on the computer. Should we let him explore a few sites -- with our guidance of course, or do you really think its best not to go there until he is older? How do you handle?