My son Nicholas, age 5, recently discovered the internet.
Last week I got him an account at Club Penguin, a website for kids. Since then, he has spent hours at a time on Club Penguin.
He refuses to come to meals. He throws tantrums if forced to stop. Even when enticed with activities he used to find enjoyable, like terrorizing the cat, he remains fixated on the computer screen.
I was shocked yesterday when he asked me to cancel his Club Penguin account.
“Why?” I asked. “Are you tired of it already?”
“No, I love it,” he replied. “It is just that once I start, I can’t get off of it.”
Taken from clubpenguin.com.
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A significant key to parenting is discovering what “currency” your child deals in. Once you know this you can pretty much get them to do anything, using the currency as a reward. My 6 year old will do all her chores and more for 10 minutes on CP.
Is your kid really 5 years old? Or is he preparing for GRE so he can get into UofC to start his PhD in Economics?
Looks like your son could take less Draconian measures by having you create a parent account and limit the time it allows him on:
“As a parent, it’s your call as to how much time is spent on the computer and Club Penguin. To make it easier, we’ve created a Club Penguin Timer. You’ll need a Parent Password to access it, so if you don’t have a parent account yet, go to the Create a Parent Account page to create one. Using the Timer, with a few simple clicks, you can:
Set Play Hours – set times for your child to play between
Limit the Daily Total – limit the amount of total time your child plays”
As a child in the 60′s, I dreamed of having a computer like the one on the starship Enterprise, with instant access to a vast array of knowledge. Today’s kids have that.
As a kid, I would engross myself in reading and tune out everything else. Is it so much different with the internet? Today, I do far less reading and spend far more time on the internet exploring not only items to read, but interacting with others online.
If you are a person who is an introvert by nature, you may actually get more social stimulation online than you would seek out face to face.
I have to admit that your child is astoundingly astute. My 6 year old discovered pbskids.org and would spend every waking moment on it. I wish mine had the awareness of how it affects him.
Augustine said that perfect abstinence is easier than perfect moderation
HAHAHA! When I read this it reminded me of my experiences with a game known as Halo. After entering a mental addiction I threw it off and gave it to my mother to hide, if not I would have suffered grievously. This shows that the opportunity cost of the kid keeping the Pinguin account is not worth the time or effort, since he knows he will be harmed by it later. Wow. Impressive kid.
My parents can’t me off of the Freaknomics blog. Fortunately, I’m old enough to live by myself now, so the joke is on them.