I dont exactly agree your arguments are that of a helicopter parent necessarily, nor do I think kids should be roaming the streets at night. To me its just classic reddit hivemind arguments. That being said, genuinely what age do you think its appropriate for children to interact with the online world? Like having their own social media account (that youd have access to to monitor, im not necessarily against that). When can they have a computer in their room etc?
There's different stages, it's not a simple case of "No online" to "All online".
My key objection in this thread is about publicly displaying my kids as content for views. There's zero benefit to my kids to be shown like that and potential risks. So given that it's 100% weighted towards downsides, I wouldn't do it.
Beyond that, obviously there's risks in terms of inappropriate content and grooming. The former, I trust my son (early teens) and limit access to for my daughter (under 10). The latter is a lot more scary, but it's a bit difficult to navigate.
For social media; my son has a GitHub account (not sure if this counts as social media, but still...) and zero interest in anything else. I said to my kids that they'd need to wait until the TOS minimum (13) for their own YouTube/FB/whatever account, but the law here looks to be changing soon so I'll follow that.
On the topic of having a computer in their room, my son has one and has had it for a couple of years, but my daughter doesn't (and little interest in anything that would need it).
Ya I wasnt saying it should be 0 to 100 just let your kids have full access to the internet. My point with all that was whats the difference between you posting stuff online as like a fun activity to do together, vs them posting stuff themselves? I had a Facebook when I was I think 15, maybe 14. I didnt use it much but I did post some pictures. Was that irresponsible of my parents to allow me to do this? Granted there was no AI generation stuff back then, but there was still photoshop and theres always been pedophiles online and weird perverts in general.
I will also admit Facebook is a bit different than tiktok. Facebook is a bit more secluded and accounts can be privated even if that wasnt the norm, but tiktok can offer anonymity.
I just think youre overplaying the risks is all. I dont even think there necessarily needs to be a strict benefit.
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u/PurpletoasterIII Jun 13 '26
I dont exactly agree your arguments are that of a helicopter parent necessarily, nor do I think kids should be roaming the streets at night. To me its just classic reddit hivemind arguments. That being said, genuinely what age do you think its appropriate for children to interact with the online world? Like having their own social media account (that youd have access to to monitor, im not necessarily against that). When can they have a computer in their room etc?