Do you limit your kids access to the internet?

[66FBCharger]

If you limit access, what are your rules? How much time per day?
My wife allowed my 15 y.o. daughter to buy an IPOD touch. Now she is on it from the second she gets up until she goes to bed. She is getting on through the WI FI. I am tired of seeing her do nothing all day everyday and wasting time. I am planning on getting a WI FI router (with parental controls) to limit her access. The big question is going to be how much time is reasonable to allow her access?

[polywideblock]

good question ,  only my 2 youngest had this problem and were limited to 3 hours a day . I let them pick when so they still had some "control"   but no school hours 

[TruckDriver]

All my friends that have kids with computers and any electronic device, have the same problems. My youngest son is like that also on his xbox.  Unless you take all electronic devices away, that is the problem you are going to have. I never let my oldest own a computer, and same goes for my youngest.

[hawkeye]

My children are both grown now (in their late twenties) but not only did they not have internet but they didn't have "live TV".  They only could watch tapes or DVD's.  It didn't kill them.

[ODZKing]

Mine spends the day looking at this forum when he is not sleeping

[Old Moparz]

My daughter is also 15 & she's online a lot. I know when she's home it's at least 4 to 5 hours each day which is more than I'd prefer. Weekends it's longer if we aren't going somewhere or doing something. I've talked it over with my wife, & even though we'd like it if she wasn't online as much, the way we see it, is that it really depends on the individual.

She is in honors classes, keeps her grades up in the 90's, doesn't get into trouble & plays piano, trumpet & the bass as her hobby. I'm not listing her achievements to brag, even though I am proud of her, I listed it as a way to show how we gauge whether her being online is an issue for her or not. One of my wife's friends has a kid who is constantly getting poor grades & gets into trouble. I think she has finally cut his internet time way back & now I believe he is making some improvements.

We live in an area where there aren't any kids her age within walking distance so it's difficult to tell her she can't be online as much as she is. She doesn't like TV too much either. If her teachers told us she was giving us problems or that her grades were dropping, her online activity would be cut way back until she made changes. Not all of her online time is socializing. She plays a few games, does some school work on it, & streams 2 or 3 TV shows.

The other thing that prevents us from a lot of needless worry is that as a family we are open & honest about things. She was told years ago that she would never get into trouble for telling us the truth, or things her friends say or do. If she lies though, she knows that trust is gone & there will be repercussions. This seems to be working because she's told us things that I don't think her friends would say to their parents without getting into trouble.

There is no firm guideline, it's a judgement call on each kid.

[Lord Warlock]

If you plan on controlling their access, now is the time to do it, or i'll guarantee you that it will eventually get out of hand.  To some girls it becomes the end all and be all of their existence, at least until you give them a phone, and then they'll use that to get around whatever restrictions you put on home internet access.  My daughter started rebelling at 15 and facebook/twitter became constant compulsions to her, to the point where her behavior toward both of her parents degraded to a low point where it was abusive to us. 

Some kids who are busy with other activities may be able to control themselves.  But many others do not understand limitations as they listen to their friends at school more than they listen to the parents.  I would recommend installing a router at the house, and putting parental controls on it, such as setting time limits where the internet will only work for her devices between 6pm to 10pm.  Otherwise don't be surprised to find her facebooking or tweeting at all times of the day, bringing it to the kitchen table, or even using it in the car...which i am strongly against...to the point where if she's caught texting in the car, she loses the keys.  Taking the ipod or cell away only works if you can control their ability to buy replacements, we'd take our 2nd daughter's phone away, only to find out 2 days later she'd got a pay as you go phone behind our back and her texting/facebook time continued unabated.  Her friends were enablers, giving her an old phone and all she had to buy was time cards.  Be careful, be watchful, and keep track of where she goes online and how much she does it.  tracking internet use by teens can be a full time job (more than most of us want to spend).  But I do believe enabling a firewall through the router, and restricting computer/cell/ipod use is a good idea, as you can at least limit the volume of time she's using it in your own house.  Just set each PC you use to have an IP address on the home network, and allow access to the internet thru those, and put limitations on other devices.  And keep the passwords private...our daughter found the wife's password book and broke security several times till I changed it myself and didn't let the wife put it in her book.

[Mopar Nut]

If you limit access, what are your rules? How much time per day?
My wife allowed my 15 y.o. daughter to buy an IPOD touch. Now she is on it from the second she gets up until she goes to bed. She is getting on through the WI FI. I am tired of seeing her do nothing all day everyday and wasting time. I am planning on getting a WI FI router (with parental controls) to limit her access. The big question is going to be how much time is reasonable to allow her access?

Turn off the power to the Wi Fi, works every time.