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WEBSITES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

I enjoyed reading your article about Tiny Techies in Mendo-Lake Family Life magazine. It led me to your website which is one of the best I've seen for parents of Elementary age children. I will be referring parents you your site often!

One of my favorite sites for teaching younger children is www.uptoten.com I use their Up To Ten at School program with our K-2 students. Many of the older kids like the puzzles and creative games for their free choice time in Computer Lab.

Thanks for your kind words. I included uptoten.com in a recent column called "Websites Worthy of a Summer Afternoon."

TEEN ETHICS

We are writing to let you know about our new website www.TeenEthicsAP.com which includes a running dialogue, column, and resources between "Prof" and "Anna" aimed at fostering intergenerational dialogue. We also include resources that, we hope, will help teens with the ethical dilemmas they face. The website isn't "preachy" - rather, it's intended to be fun, edgy, secular. We hope it will stimulate ideas, conversations, and ultimately, more ethical teens.

I am a huge fan of anything that helps teens and, for that matter, adults think more clearly and systematically about ethics. Recently I got my Masters degree in practical philosophy (aka ethics) because I think there's a real need for more thinking about how we should promote human well-being, especially online.

CREATIVING TOOLS FOR KIDS

I was just reading your column in Kids Pages Family Magazine out of Denver and I wanted to tell you a little bit about Kerpoof.com, a suite of free children’s creativity activities and they’re all free. Some have called Kerpoof “KidPix on steroids." Children can create a picture, a story or a movie using a library of backgrounds and objects. Some scenes are just plain silly like Cartoonland. Others are more realistic, like Northwest Trek or the traditional Haudenosaunee village. All activities build computer fluency, foster creativity, and encourage thinking and reasoning.

I have fond memories of Kidpix because it was my son's favorite program when he was little. Your website seems to be everything your promise--fun that encourages kids to think!

PARENTS IN DENIAL

Touche! I found your website in the “Parent Internet Safety Area” on the Atlantic City BOE website. Very well done. Wouldn’t it be nice if the people who actually needed to read this site were the ones who read it?

So many parents are in denial these days regarding their kids and the internet. Personally, my son and I deleted his myspace account 2 years ago when he was 13 pretending to be 18; he had no problem deleting as he didn’t use it much. I am computer savvy, so I am very aware what the local teens are up to with their myspace accounts but theirparents are not.

Even if you’ve reached a handful of parents with your articles, you may have saved the life of a few teens. Maybe just maybe, a little word of mouth might help others read your articles and send people to this area on the schools website.

In my experience, most parents want to know what their kids are doing online but they don't have the time to keep up with every new development. I started Growing Up Online to give parents concise information and clear advice so they can talk to their kids and give them the guidance they so desparately need as they grow up online.

FREE SECURITY

I work for a company that has recently launched two new products in child internet security. The products are Free! No strings attached... FREE! As a parent, I encourage everyone to test them out. http://www.doyoupowwow.com and http://www.kazipster.com

These are interesting products. I've always been a believer in monitoring software that tells parents exactly what kids are doing. This isn't a question of spying but of supervision. It isn't easy to make good decisions about online activities, and kids need lots of support from parents. For more information, see my column on The Case for Surveillance Software.

RE/USES

I've got a copy of your great book Re Uses. I'm wondering if you plan to do an update? Things have changed a bit since '82! I've been reading this book for years, and it's getting a bit worn.

You're right! A lot has changed since I wrote Re/Uses though the philosophy--use less, reuse more--is, if anything, more urgently important today. I may figure out how to find the time to revise Re/USES someday but for now it's all I can do to keep up with my column, Growing Up Online.

LIMITS FOR COMPUTER TIME

What are reasonable amounts of time for children to be online at 4 years? 8 years? 12 years? Should parents set a daily limit as some do for TV? A weekly limit?

The answer to this question depends both on the child and what they are doing online. With that in mind, here are very general guidelines. Children under four shouldn't be online without a parent's direct supervision. Their attention spans are often short, so after thirty minutes they should be encouraged to take a break and find something else to do. For elementary age children, an hour a day is enough unless they are doing something that is creative or has educational value. By middle school, it is much harder to set time limits especially for kids who have Internet access on their cellphones. With my own kids, I found it most effective to declare media free times--during dinner, before bed, while studying--rather than trying to enforce specific time limits.

FREE SCAN FROM PANDA SECURITY

In your article "Is Your Family's Computer a Zombie" that you put on this website and in the Carolina Parent magazine, you stated "If you suspect that your family computer may already be a zombie, you can confirm your suspicions with a free online scan like the one available from Panda Software. (Go to panda.com and look for the “free scan” button on the left side of the screen.)" I went to this website and it does NOT have a scan to check if your computer is a zombie?????????

Hi, Keep up good work. ramlo202@yahoo.fr

The URL should have read pandasecurity.com. If you go to that site, you will see the free scan on the left hand side of the page. Sorry for the mistake.

CELLPHONES IN SCHOOL

why should kids bring cellphones in school? P.S. please answer my question!

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. Most schools now seem to have policies that require students to leave cellphones in their lockers. This makes sense. Not only are cellphones disruptive but kids have been known to use them to cheat on tests. Of course, after school is a different matter. Then kids carry cellphones both to talk to their friends and so that they can reach (and be reached by) their parents.

GREAT WEB SITE

Very clear. 2 questions: 1. When I click on one of your article headers like "Becoming an Internet Savvy Family," it takes me to a brief description, but no article. How do I access the article? 2. In the second paragraph on your home page, it seems like the word "HOW" is missing. Thanks! Your moderately Republican neighbor who is more concerned about Bish than you can imagine.

Thanks for the feedback. I do need a proofreader!! Some of the columns are on the site in their entirety. Others are just teasers for editors who may want to use the complete column. Right now, I have limits on the number of pages in the site, so I can't post everything.

HEADPHONES AND HEARING

tell me where you can find out about loud music reffering to headphoner/earphones.

The problem of hearing loss caused by loud music has been in the news a lot lately. In addition to my column on the subject, read helpful information on the subject is available at this website from the National Institutes on Deafness: (http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/wiseears.asp)

SPOILED KIDS

personaly i think kids should be spoiled rotten and given anything they think they need so give em a cell phone if they want on and make sure its nice so it doesnt break on em.

Thanks for the input. I think if you read my columns carefully, you'll find I believe parents should be very cautious about giving kids cell phones, not just because of the cost, but also because it's hard to supervise their use.

BE A PARENT

if a parent did that, the child would be greedy, manipulative, and whiny. They would have no sense of what hard work is, or the value of a dollar. you would hurt the child, rather than help them. Be a mature adult/parent. not just their "Friend"...

I agree that parents need to have the courage to set limits about what kids can buy and what they can do online as well as off.