A guide. And it's to electronics, BTW.

You don't know your kid's capabilities when it comes to the Internet and electronics. Some basic understanding to your kids and the age of technology:

1. Kids will forever get around any restrictions you set up. They know how to do this.
       A. Let's say you own a Mac. You set up parental restrictions on the internet so your child can't look at any thing in appropriate. Unfortunately for the child, the control unintentionally blocks him/her from visiting OK websites. Your child quickly realizes they cannot look up the word "cat" on Google, because in the results, there is one little inappropriate word.

The Solution: The child will continuously annoy you to change it. Or they will learn your password to change the unfair restriction. There many ways to do this, but I will not list them, for fear of teaching innocent children bad things.

"Grrrr... Mwahahahaha!"

       B. Your child has been emailing friends you don't approve of, so you put parental controls on the email. Your child can now only email certain people.Your child can't email their friends, even if it's for homework.

The Solution: Your child will use other devices behind your back. Most families have more than one electronic. They will use their Wii, their Apple" iWhatevers", the old computers, anything that will allow them to communicate with their buds.

       C. You are sick of you child using the computer so much, so you put a password on their computer so they can only use it when you allow them to. This annoys him/her. He/she becomes fed up.

The Solution: The simplest way to get around this is to videotape the parent typing in the password. In secret, of course.

2. You will never be as electronic savvy as your child. They grew up with it, and you didn't.

       A. You are sick of your child playing Fruit Ninja on his/her iPhone all the time. You delete it. Your child is upset; Fruit Ninja is AWESOME!

The Solution: The kid's friend has the Fruit Ninja app. They transfer purchases off the friend's iPod, then sync their iPhone to the computer. They continue to play Fruit Ninja.

       B. You are tired of your child using iTunes to buy "bad" songs. You delete the songs. The child knows this is not a problem.

The Simple Solution: The child goes into the trash on their computer and pulls them out again. They then hide them. The un-savvy parent forgot to "take out the trash." :D

       C. You notice a YouTube app on your child's iPad that you do not like. You dispose of the app.

The Solution: The kid buys a similar, but slightly different app. Or looks at videos through the Safari app.

       D. You want to own all the passwords on your child's computer, so you force them to give them up.

 

The Very Simple Solution: The child changes the passwords.

As it is now very clear, you need some catching up to do electronically. Maybe you should ask your child to teach you...

- Amelia

PS: Yah right.