[Thermodyne]

Hmmm………………

With my kids, I though that the PC - TV issue was part of something bigger. Maturing and learning responsibility, adapting to living within the reasonable rules of society. And being trusted to mind these rules without totalitarian supervision.

TV time was directly coupled to grades, as were driving and dating later on. Penalties were spelled out and then set in stone. With the PC, they were given rules and its acceptable use was explained in great detail. Then they were put on the honor system. I used the logs to spot check their on time and check the content of their web browsing. Web access was a little different back then, and much safer for kids. We used Prodigy for a portal, and they had some content filtering tools. Back then, all I had was a little NT server and really didn’t have a lot of fine control. But today, with a little 2K or FreeBSD server, I could control what they saw, when they saw it and filter mail going in and out. I’ll never forget the weekend I put the first firewall up at home. My youngest came in and wanted to know why her chat client wouldn’t work. So I said I would fix it. I consoled into the fire wall then vnc’d into her system to see what port it was running over. When she saw her desktop come up she quickly decided that she really didn’t need the chat anymore.