Help! laptop boundaries for 15 year old girl

[Bishopstonmum]

We are giving my daughter a laptop for her 15th birthday but want to set boundaries around it. What is reasonable? Her phone has a 'bedtime' out of her room at 8.30. She wants to keep the laptop in her bedroom and us to trust her not to use it past this time. I want to be allowed at least in theory to access what she is looking at. She is quite screen focussed (she has Aspergers) and I don't want to make homework issues any worse than they already are!

Sorry, my DD is nowhere near 15 yet, so you might want to take my input with a pinch of salt. But I can speak about myself... when I was 15, I had no self control and I would stay on the computer till the early hours of the morning whenever I could. (I filled my head with all sorts of nonsense and yawned my way through school the next day.. it was a miracle I got through my GCSEs and A levels.)

As a parent, I would never allow my teenager to have a private laptop in her room. There are so many reasons: lack of self control, sleep hygiene, bullying and other negative content online. I know this may come across as strict, but I'd always want to be able to check what she's viewing online - "at least in theory", like you say.

I think you set a good precedent with her phone, and the laptop should follow the same rules.

What time does she go to bed?
Maybe tell her that it must be out of her room by 10pm?

I had a strict ' no telly in the bedroom ' idea, but wasn't ahead of the curve enough to realise that she'd simply watch Netflix on her laptop 'til quite late at night.....on the other hand, the independence is teaching her to figure out how much sleep she needs and shut everything off accordingly so shoe is not a zombie the next day.