aimInfo

I'm 21, but I started on the Internet when I was 7.  My mother never monitored what I was doing on the internet, ever.  She knew that the key to preventing me from doing something stupid (e.g., meeting up with someone I didn't know), was to help me realize the dangers beforehand-- not try to Big Brother me into compliance.  The key to parents preventing their kids from doing bad things is not to tell them they can't do them, but help them make the decision not to do it on their own.  Instead of "filtering" and "blocking" things, they should instead be educating their child as to what's actually on the internet.  Put it out on the table and show them what's going on and why it can be dangerous.  Of course, parents don't have the time of day-- the TV is the great educator nowadays.

Though, their fears over cyber-evil and such aren't completely unfounded, but they _are_ highly exacerbated through media fearmongering.  What better to get people to watch than "Your child could be talking to a psychopath RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE."

Basically, the point is this: I was raised without any internet restrictions from a very early age, as long as it didn't affect my school work, and now I'm a grade A web backend developer who works at a high level for an multi-national corporation, and I've been doing it since I was 16 (I'm 21 now, and graduate next year).  I have a good social group and am well-adjusted.  Perhaps I'm just the exception to the rule-- who knows. *shrug*