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MySpace for the Sandlot Set

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-every-eight-year-old-needs-a-myspace-page dept.

conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on social networking sites for kids." From the article: "Parents are paying more heed to the kiddie sites because they know their children will learn, work, and live online. Computer skills such as social networking are becoming as much a part of the success-in-life portfolio as addition and subtraction, says Herbert S. Lin, senior scientist at the National Research Council. Parents' support of these sites stems in part from the idea that it's better for their kids to get their online introductions in a controlled environment -- as many of these sites promise -- than venture into the cyberjungle alone."

4 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Best way to teach about the net... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is to be there with them.
    Show them whats out there, explain things, guide them and most of all - don't let them out on their own.
    You wouldn't consider letting your youngster go playing on the streets on a saturday night, so do the same with online stuff.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Best way to teach about the net... by HoosierPeschke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree, it's the same as with TV and video games. I work and maintain a moderate lifestyle so my wife can stay home with my son. I'm not fond of those sites because they're mostly hideous and tend to be the new babysitter for kids.

      I feel sorry for my son though, he'll probably be one of the few that actually knows what it's like to play outside, go camping, and not know what myspace is all about (thank you gentoo+iptables+squid).

      --
      Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
  2. great by macadamia_harold · · Score: 3, Funny

    MySpace for the Sandlot Set

    Yeah, just what we need. A website where five-year-olds can post drunk pictures of themselves. But now that you mention it, Pete Townshend might be into that.

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
  3. Computer skill..? by mangobrain · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Since when was "social networking" a computer skill? Kids have been going to friend's houses, going to youth clubs, going to music/dance/martial arts etc. classes after school, going to each other's birthday parties, and just generally hanging out for a very, very long time. They've also been making pen friends. I once met someone on IRC from the other side of the world, and although that initial meeting was online, almost all of our correspondence from then until losing touch years later was by letter (the real, pen and paper kind).

    To my mind, a "computer skill" is a skill related to the intrinsics of computers themselves, be it hardware or software, or the ability to do something you actually or effectively cannot do without computers. Simply knowing how to use computers is "computer literacy"; for me, at least, the distinction is the very reason we have two separate terms.