Computers at Home

While many of your child's interactions with educational technology are going to take place at school and will, for the most part, be determined by his or her school's policies, home computing is one area where you are entirely in charge.

This section of "How Can I Help My Child?" is designed to help you answer some of the questions that you may have about home computing and your child. Here are just a few of the questions that usually come up:

1. Should I buy a computer for my child?
   
2. My child wants a laptop computer. Is this really a good idea?
3. How can I make good decisions about purchasing educational software?
4. Should I install Internet filtering software, and just how well does filtering software actually work?
5. How can I keep my child safe on the Internet?
6. Should there be household rules governing computer use?
7. Should I place time limits on my child's computer use?

Just click on the above questions for tips and suggestions on how you might want to go about answering each of them. As you will see, there are some definite "dos" and "don'ts"—especially when it comes to Web safety—but there is still a lot of room for parents to set their own policies.

Rules

In addition to basic safety precautions, you may want to establish general rules governing the use of the home computer. Here are a few questions to get you started thinking about this topic.

What kinds of games, if any, will you allow to be played on the computer?
In addition to so-called "office software" (word processors, spreadsheet programs, etc.) and educational software, there are a wide variety of games available for play on computers. Many of these games are very violent and intended for adult gamers, not kids. Check the game's box for minimum age recommendations before you buy. You may even consider restricting use of the home computer to Internet surfing and school work only.

Who gets to use it and when do they get to use it?
Consider setting up a schedule that gives each household member a turn at the computer. Having assigned times is an especially good idea for large families where arguments and fighting over the computer are likely to occur. Internet games and gaming software are often the cause of fighting over computer access.

Will you allow exceptions to these rules?
If one of your children needs to do Internet-based research for a school report during another child's allotted computer time, who gets priority?

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