Another well meaning Net Nanny idea to control kids doomed to fail
I turned on the Today Tonight show yesterday (15 April) to find a story being run about Educateme, an application that aims to ‘give control of the computer back to parents’.
Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? A simple and not-so-cheap ($39.95) application that allows parents and carers to allocate the amount of time their children can have for so-called recreational activities on the computer – which are described by the EducateMe folk as ‘playing games or chatting on a social network like Facebook’.
But as with just about all these simplistic ’silver bullet’ technology solutions, this one completely misses the point about children, learning and computers. Education experts will tell you that learning happens largely through conversation, by children discussing their work, ideas and understanding with their peers. Also, that much of what children learn is informal and outside the classroom.. and these days increasingly online.
Not only this, but a child’s well-being is dependent on them establishing healthy and positive friendships both online as well as in the ‘real world’ (although kids themselves make no distinction between on- and off-line).
Yes of course its important to establish rules with your child about how much time they spend on different activities. But this can be more effectively done by agreeing to a balance. Some children may even benefit by having a written contract or ‘home policy’ which they help create with you, as parent. This can then be the reference point for all their activities.
Do you really need a piece of software to artificially and crudely limit the amount of time your child spends on the Internet? Or in chatting with friends on Facebook, SuperClubsPLUS or some other social learning network? Isn’t it preferable to establish an understanding in your child, to provide for a balance of activities? When does learning stop and ‘play’ start? Do you think that by playing games or talking with friends online, your child is wasting their time?
I’d be very interested to hear your views.
More on the original story here: http://au.todaytonight.yahoo.com/article/7067473/general/net-nanny
How is this Updated?
Always a tough subject, but I think your argument misses a key point. Parental control technology was never meant to replace conversation and education between parents and children, it is a tool to go along with education and conversation.
Net Nanny is much like a bike helmet. You don’t give your kids a bike helmet and say, “you’re free to ride, enjoy the busy streets and highways, you’re protected.” You educate your children, teach them safe riding practices and let them know the consequences of not following the rules. In the meantime, install Net Nanny (or a helmet), just in case.