Internet daily allowances

[david k]

Do people find they spend too much time on the internet?

I found my son on his PS in the early hours one morning over Xmas and decided to do something about it, hes not the only one who spends too much time on line.

Iv'e purchased a programmable socket timer and set the times throughout the weekdays and weekends so it goes off for an hour at tea time and then at 9.30pm weeknights and 11.00pm weekends, coming back on at 7.30am. Im going to plug it into the power for the modem.

I'd possibly be harsher but the kids watch most of their TV online now

 

[ScotiaLass]

My son (14) uses the Mac in the front room, programmed to 2 hours per day, and one hour for homework research (a different account)
He has an iPad which is connected 4pm - 9pm daily.
His phone isn't on the internet.

 

[stephec]

When we were on BT internet I set up the router so that my lad's Xbox was blocked between certain hours, this isn't available on all types of router though, as I found out when we were on Plusnet.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I spend all my time on the internet all my tv's, set top boxes, game consoles. computers, tablets, phones are all connected online, I watch more TV via the internet than any other way.

I also have a NAS drive with all my music and films on it which is accessible from all the devices in or outside the house.

 

[John the Monkey]

This always seems a bit like worrying that people are reading too much paper.

It's a medium - you can view the equivalent of endless crappy reality shows using it, or read the equivalent of an encyclopaedia, or Koestler's Darkness at Noon.

If you're an awkward teen that doesn't like the stuff your physically proximate peers like ("celebrities", cars, football, shitty music) it can also be an important connection into communities that share your interests, and can help lessen feelings of isolation and loneliness.

 

[drummerbod]

As mentioned - you can get routers that allow internet access at particular times.

Microsoft provide a tool - Family Safety (?) - you can set it to log the computer on\off at certain times of the day. Not used it in years but it was very good.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/set-up-family-safety#set-up-family-safety=windows-7

 

[david k]

As mentioned - you can get routers that allow internet access at particular times.

Microsoft provide a tool - Family Safety (?) - you can set it to log the computer on\off at certain times of the day. Not used it in years but it was very good.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/set-up-family-safety#set-up-family-safety=windows-7

Looks good, didnt realise this could be done. Ive already bought and set up the programmer now so will try that to begin with. Im with virgin and already have the child filter on which seems good so not worried about inappropriate content as such, just him/us using the net/xbox late into the night and then missing out on other things

 

[BrynCP]

This always seems a bit like worrying that people are reading too much paper.

It's a medium - you can view the equivalent of endless crappy reality shows using it, or read the equivalent of an encyclopaedia, or Koestler's Darkness at Noon.

If you're an awkward teen that doesn't like the stuff your physically proximate peers like ("celebrities", cars, football, shitty music) it can also be an important connection into communities that share your interests, and can help lessen feelings of isolation and loneliness.

I agree with this; it depends on what it is being used for.

As a teen, which was only 15 years ago, I was limited to 1-2 hours during the school week and that included doing my work. Even when I was older we had one internet enabled computer for the family so naturally you were limited.

My router, a tp link w8970, has some parental controls for time of day. Never looked into it or used it because I am addicted to the internet an adult.

 

[david k]

This always seems a bit like worrying that people are reading too much paper.

It's a medium - you can view the equivalent of endless crappy reality shows using it, or read the equivalent of an encyclopaedia, or Koestler's Darkness at Noon.

If you're an awkward teen that doesn't like the stuff your physically proximate peers like ("celebrities", cars, football, shitty music) it can also be an important connection into communities that share your interests, and can help lessen feelings of isolation and loneliness.

agree the internet is fantastic but its one one tool that contributes to development/enjoyment of life. It depends on age etc. of course but im just looking to limit not remove the access

 

[ufkacbln]

Wasn't there someone who linked the play system to an exercise bike?

The kids had to pedal to power the unit.

 

[John the Monkey]

There is another evil arising from a too early attention to Novels. They fix attention so deeply, and afford so lively a pleasure, that the mind, once accustomed to them, cannot submit to the painful task of serious study. Authentic history becomes insipid. The reserved graces of the chaste matron Truth pass unobserved admist the gaudy and painted decorations of fiction. The boy who can procure a variety of books like Gil Blas, and the Devil upon Two Sticks, will no longer think his Livy, his Sallust, his Homer, or his Virgil pleasing. He will not study old Lilly, while he can read Pamela and Tom Jones, and a thousand inferior and more dangerous novels. (http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/knox.html)

Do not such histories as "Tom Jones," and even the celebrated Richardson's "Pamela," tend to sap the foundation on which delicacy of mind, modesty of deportment, or even virtue is built[.] This foundation undermined and destroyed, what safeguard from gross vice, has the youth, whose mind is not yet imbued with the principles of that religion, which requires purity of heart? Surely no one, who knows the strength of man's natural depravity, and who is a friend of man, can wish to add such fuel to the flame already raging in his breast. (ON NOVEL READING (from The Guardian; or Youth's Religious Instructor, 1820, pp. 46-49) http://www.merrycoz.org/books/NOVELS01.HTM

 

[jayonabike]

Why would you want to limit access to one of the most powerful tools of the modern age?
As soon as I'm up I'm looking at the sky news app on my phone. During the day I use Twitter for other news feeds, global and local. I use my iPad to R ead whisky blogs for reviews and recommendations, cycling blogs for the same. Browsing the web, shopping sites, this place. I use my smart phone a lot at work, Twitter again, for alerts of traffic problems before heading out on the road (I'm a lorry driver) and can link it to my TomTom for live traffic reports on the move
The Mrs does the online food shop every week, Keeps up to date with her work emails, linking the iPad up to her work pc.
My son has his X Box linked up and plays his mates online. He Skypes his friends on his laptop, streams his music, uploads his homework to the school website and uses YouTube a lot.
The Sky Box is linked as well, for downloading movies on demand and t.v series as well as the different channels versions of iPlayer.

 

[summerdays]

My youngest spends far too long connected to some device (any device but preferably the PC, and X-box second). We used to be able to use the router to control the access but that doesn't seem to work, possibly because we are on plusnet. We don't have TV or XBox in any of their bedrooms, so they do have to emerge from their bedrooms

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Do people find they spend too much time on the internet?

I found my son on his PS in the early hours one morning over Xmas and decided to do something about it, hes not the only one who spends too much time on line.

Iv'e purchased a programmable socket timer and set the times throughout the weekdays and weekends so it goes off for an hour at tea time and then at 9.30pm weeknights and 11.00pm weekends, coming back on at 7.30am. Im going to plug it into the power for the modem.

I'd possibly be harsher but the kids watch most of their TV online now

I would be loathe to be doing that, lines are monitored & if the equipment sees frequent line drops it will lower the speed to try to compensate.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Its

I would be loathe to be doing that, lines are monitored & if the equipment sees frequent line drops it will lower the speed to try to compensate.

ISPs can tell between poor / line drops and switched off routers. A betters way is to control access via MAC which some of the later routers have.