DadTalk

Virtual Parenting

"The first rule is not to fall for the line 'My friends have all got computers in their bedrooms', They haven't. Which is why it's essential to keep lines of communication open with the parents of your children's friends."

 Fifty years ago, parents worried that their children would rot their teeth with gobstoppers and sherbet lemons. Today we worry that they'll rot their minds with computers.

And with good reason, if a television documentary is to be believed. According to a survey of 100 people, carried out for the BBC programme The Virtual Revolution, young people are increasingly unable to focus on one webpage at a time. Instead, because of habitual computer use, they constantly flit between webpages.

Not only that, but some experts claim that excessive web use will lead increasing numbers of young people to seek treatment for mental disturbance over the next three years.

"The first rule is not to fall for the line 'My friends have all got computers in their bedrooms'," says parenting expert Julie Johnson. "They haven't. Which is why it's essential to keep lines of communication open with the parents of your children's friends."

Indeed, while cast-iron commandments are hard to come by in the ever-shifting field of parental digi-policing, one thing most people seem to agree on is that any computers used by young children should be in a communal, public part of the house and not tucked away in a bedroom.

For more on this story, including a list of ‘pros & cons’ for limiting computer use, go to the Telegraph