to think children under 10. should not have tablets?

[Hattie11]

Am I missing something here?

It seems everyone I know are buying tablets for their children asvyoung as 4!

To me that is giving children far easier access to the internet, chatrooms, and ghastly things that can come up during an innocent Google search.
I'm all for children learning to use technology in a supervised situation, but do they really need something so portable that they could easily be flicking through inappropriate content, without being noticed.

I'm not suggesting this deliberately done, but I know my own dd has found shocked by accidental finds on Google. Hence me tightening the supervision when she uses our home pc now.

Pleas persuade me otherwise......

I think parents generally do not know what their kids could find on the net with these things and yup, a decent toy might be better for a small child, with a supervised share of mums technology as a real sharing activity not a " it keeps her quiet" type thing.

But am clearly a Luddite/cotton wool mother here as my 19/16/13 yr olds are finally getting tablets at Xmas (7 inch galaxy ones) . I will set up the 13yr olds with some parental control eg on the TV apps and browser. I will give the 16yr old a " bit of a chat" too about what he shouldn't be doing late at night LOL .

The price of technology is also coming down. We've just paid less for the 3DS XL than we did for the DS Lite, although admittedly we left shopping late that year and ended up paying over the odds for the DS Lite.

Keeping up with technology doesn't necessarily mean spending more and more with each gadget. We wait until the price of things drops, as they inevitably do, when the next latest thing comes out.

And yy to what Jenai just posted. Last year dd1 only wanted a remote control helicopter. This year the 3DS, next year she might just want books or vouchers.

My DS is only 15months but he certainly won't be getting a laptop/tablet for xmas before he's at high school

ha ha ha .Oh sorry you are being serious!

Nora I think some people are naive. They think they're setting their parental controls at router level for example, but actually they've only set them up on the main home machine, so anything connecting via WiFi completely bypasses them.

Not all AV/parental control software makes that clear imo.

I have a nexus 7, can now get for £159 and I think it would be an amazing present for any child age 2+. Could loads only with educational apps, and disable web searching if you were worried.

Frankly I don't see why so different from a leappad tablet, other than that there are so many free games and even the ones you pay for are only 69p - £1.50 rather than £15 for leapster games.

D0oinmecleaning - gonna be flamed here but hey ho!

Please rethink the BB playbook, esp for a child. How about the Kindle Fire? Or even one of the android running ones?

I'm an Apple fan, but I certainly don't think you NEED to spend apple prices. Not meaning to butt in or be rude in any way, so hope it's not taken like that.

Theas I've given my 9 year olds these talks re their ipod touches.They follow boundaries same as anything else.Dp is a coder so hot on security.

I think there is room for both.Op did say under 10.I perhaps wouldn't bother under 3 or 4 as you could get some fab Playmobil for the same money.However if you were loaded,could afford both and were assertive parents who could control screen time I think they're a good extra.

My kids had DSis at 6 which we are strict on.They still only have screen time 2 or 3 times a week.All are avid readers etc.

How robust are things like Nexus 7s? I don't think I'd bother with a leap pad tbh but I do wonder how much wear and tear a proper tablet can take.

Having said that £159 isn't insane I suppose; assuming it makes it past Boxing Day!

Technology as with anything can have its place. I have a housefull of gadgets, aside from the teens mobiles none of it has ever been bougght for the children. I have boughgt because I wanted it. They of course use it, just in the same way they will pull out the monopoly board and play. even with electronic games, including tablets, there can be social interaction. It just depends how as a parent you monitor the situation.
You dont have to have the tablets connected to the net. You can give them trust and let them on the net, and you can instal parental software just like the laptop etc.
As for Moshi, we have looked at several - samsung, google, windows and generic you cannot play the game. Yes they have flash, but for some reason moshi will not play. Just spent the past hour instore playing with various tablets trying to play moshi lol

I'd waaay rather my dc had an Ipad and real books than that Leapfrog shite-utter waste of money.

I'm looking into Android tablets, we haven't decided yet what we are getting. The Playbook was the first thing we looked at because it was in the sale.

Is there a particular issue with it that I am unaware of apart from the price of apps? BBM will not be activated, if that's the issue, nor will any other kind of messenger service (bar Skype set up to dial straight to her cousins or aunt) and the icons will be deleted off of the homescreen.

Wow! Lots to take in here thanks for all responses. Will read in detail and respond properly this evening.

But just wanted to add I am not talking about porn I'm talking about images I don't want young children to see, which come up even on dds school pc's e.g recently she was disturbed by anorexic and awful pics taken of obese people - not informative pics I mean naked take the piss out of people with eating disorders. I've seen them because she was so haunted by them she wanted to show me at home. These cannot be filtered out by parental controls.
Yes I agree technology is part of this world now, but this doesn't mean innocent minds need to be exposed to graphic images frequently.
I am very open with my children about sex, drugs, wars, etc but pics u can easily find on Google can be graphic and frightening and unnecessary.
Must go now, but will be back later

hmm, that's odd ihearsounds, because I can get it up on my Samsung Note (dd2 will not be getting a Samsung Note) it's slower than on a PC/laptop but it's playable, even on 3G.

YANBU, although I don't think the reasons you have stated have to be a problem at all.

For me, it's more about need vs want and yeah, the present inflation thing. I know there's more technology coming out all the time but often it's only an upgrade, not something totally different. I don't want to be buying my 5 year old a tablet only to buy her another tablet in 3 years and another in 6 years when she won't really 'need' one for 6 years (if then!) Total waste of money imo.

But then I am slightly dinosaur-like (or just mean!) in that I have a 'no expensive presents until secondary school age' rule. My daughters (5 and almost 10) have no digital games or toys (bar DVDs) and have never had a present that cost more than £25. I just think that I'll be spending enough maoney when they get to the 11/12 age and are old enough to care about what everyone else has. I'm not anti tablet, I just think they're too expensive for children to have.

My children aren't technologically ignorant though - they can use my laptop and they have access to tablets and comptuers at school.

Op what was your dd looking for.

Because we have never had that on our pc, laptop or tablet.

Not has she had it at school.

The playbook never took off at all which is why it was reduced so soon after launch. It had teething problems on first release which have since been sorted (all manufacturers have teething troubles so that's not an issue really)
RIM (who make BB) are in dire straits and are having one last stab at the commercial market with their next phone handset and if this doesn't work are heading back to the business market only which would inevitably mean the apps they create in future would be business oriented only.

Honestly, I'm a gadget geek -I love anything technology related - but if someone were to hand me a playbook free, I'd quite honestly hand it back and politely tell them 'thanks but no thanks'.

The others - nexus, kindle fire, windows and of course iPad are far superior in many ways and you can pick up some of them for not much more than the BB.

Since ds was in year 4 the major it of his homework has included internet research - so he has his own laptop which he uses in the front room. Dh has it locked down and safety settings on it.

I think it's far more important young children don't have access to phones with internet access tbh.

plutocap

yes it blocks ANY thing youyou want. so browers. its called pro lite/ theres a trail you can down load to test it. really easy to set up. you need a seperate pasword to get into it. it will say 8888 tobegin with but you cange it. basically it list EVERYTHING thats on your tablet and you tick what you want to be password protected.

The Nexus is also an option. DH found the Playbook but we're sitting down to look further into it tomorrow evening. The little darling blindsided us with it to be honest, having been telling us that she wants an easel and paints (bought and paid for weeks ago) and then when it comes to writing her Christmas list she wrote "Deer Santer, All I want for crismas is a laptop or foan wiv moshee monstis onit and evreefing and a soh" of course this is now what she is going to be asking him for when she sees him.

I got them for two of my kids. They have an inbuilt Mummy mode and safe internet connection - the kid cannot go to any site not pre-approved.

have to add aswell there are good tablets out there. such as the nexus and galaxy tab.

we got the galalxy tab 2. purely becasue the nexus didnt have an sd card slot and and a back camara like the galaxy. but they are both really good tablets. ipad.. imo you are just paying for the name.

Lol, I love that letter!! Don't wish to cause alarm but it sounds like my letters as a kid - always wanted gadgets :-)

The nexus is a good one, generally scoring higher than the fire in tecs specs (better processor/screen etc) though for a child it's unlikely to make much difference. Brilliant prices too, both starting at 160. That's the downside of apple - even the mini is 100 quid more and spec wise no better (if anything, worse)

One thing you could consider - nexus has proven history which ay go in favour. The fire is amazons first outing in the tablet market (aside from e book only tab) so only time will tell if it survives.

Oh another thing to consider, have a look online at cases/covers available for whatever you choose. I wouldn't let this make my decision in full but, just as an example, you can buy cases for the iPad which stop it breaking if it is dropped (believe me, we need these in the school I work at)

14mo DS will be getting the fireman tablet for xmas, really just so he stops stealing my real one as I fear he will break it and it can't be replaced.

I too have a problem with such young children being bought tablets. My 2 have our old laptops. Ds1(8) learnt to touch type at school last year, which I thought was cool. They are doing powerpoint presentations this year. They do not have ipads or tablets at school. He has announced he wants an iPad. Join the queue mate. Me too!! Dh informed him he could save all his money from Xmas and birthday and we'll review it ( we have huge family with 8 sil's etc, plus 2 grandma's etc).
Ds2(4) has been taught by nursery how to save a picture into his named file !!!
But I see no reason why he can't survive with my old laptop and I never considered buying him that leapfrog nonsense.
I did look at the nexus as a possibility for ds1. But we don't normally spend that much on presents. I do think £150 on a tablet for a young child, say under 5 , is just Ott.

I agree with some of the concerns raised here about internet security particularly, I was worried I wouldn't be able to 'lock down' enough access, so I got a Nabi 2 which is a better spec than the galaxy 2 tab for example (slightly lower res camera, but faster processor), but it's designed for kids with a mode that basically locks down everything other than what I specifically say that she can access (inclusing obviously websites etc).

If I then wanted to use it I can get out of that mode with my password and can use it as 'proper' tablet with everything available...i.e. I can have my own apps etc she will not have access to - she can't even see anything I don't specify.

Basically it's foolproof because it was designed for children, down to the big bumper around the edge, but is not an underpowered piece of crud, so I can still use it. Win win! It is £150 , but it will be basically the only thing she gets except stocking fillers. Also, my ex and I go halves on everything so it will come from both of us, but only cost me £75...

I did um and ah, but technology isn't going away, and it will be controlled screen time just like tv is... (and controlled content, much like she can watch cbeebies, but not the news!)