Reflections 5: Internet and the Kid

Illustration by Heymans Tho

Let’s face it, sooner or later we have to deal with this – getting a PC (Personal Computer) for the kid and allow her to surf the web. I mean they are already learning Touch Typing!?! Look, daddy is still keying looking at the keyboard! And like she reasoned, ‘I want to practice’.

Okay, getting the PC cuts both ways. No doubt it is an indispensable tool, it also has its dark side and as parent, we instinctively want to shield our kids from that, at whatever cost. Let me tell you, FORGET IT! In the words of Louis Armstrong – I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know…

Within the week of the PC arrival, she accessed Yahoo! and typed www.winxclub.com and entered the site! How did she manage that? She got it from the back cover of her Winx Club pictorial book we bought her. The following week, she’s into YouTube and excitedly asked me to watch one lumpy, bare-bodied, prancing middle-aged Korean man.

He was pretending to play a base guitar, just action minus the guitar, to the tune of riotous rock music. It’s quite funny. But how she got there?!? To be sure she does not venture into any sleazy sites, you never know what can pop up when you do a search, I told her, if there is a video or picture on sexy mamas, let daddy know!

YouTube, I haven’t gone into YouTube myself!?! So, I did just that! This is after reading an article on how raunchy Sun Ho (Ho Yeow Sun) looks in her new single China Wine, a collaboration with Wyclef Jean. Strictly from an artistic view, it is a brave and praiseworthy music video. C’mon support local talent! You can catch it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKbQhZusptA

Erm, I think I digressed. Just yesterday, I saw my little one almost register herself in some game website. STOP! Immediately I have to lay down 4 ground rules if she wants to register online:

1) NEVER give your ACTUAL name
– call yourself BiuBiu if you have too. By the way, that is her pet hamster’s name.
2) NEVER give your HOME address
3) NEVER give your PHONE number
4) NEVER give your SCHOOL NAME

And we have her agree to a condition, before we say yes to the PC, every time she uses the PC, her PC time is only half an hour. This is for the health of her eyes, and the last thing you want, is a PC addicted child! So far, she has kept to her side of the bargain.

Learning must be fun and you do not want to stifle the child’s exploring curiosity. The PC provides all that. I also stand firm that you can’t protect your child forever. Censorship is out of the question, that is, until the trust is betrayed. Then we have every reason to impose more limitations.

Once we decide to let the little one have access to the world of the internet, it is not without effort, you got to be there for your kid too!

Rule of the Day: Children should not be brought up like bonsais – it is beautiful but the growth is stunted.

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