I was just reading a thread on this board that I had contributed to. I came to the part where I had made my post and re-read it. I had a sudden realization- I’m not dealing with an adult here, I’m dealing with a little kid. Uh-Oh.
Not being a parent myself, I don’t have to think about these things, unless I run into something like I mentioned above.
After thinking about it a while, I couldn’t safely say I know an appropriate age for this stuff.
So, I turn to the minions with kids.
What age is appropriate to let your kids read this? Why or why not?
I’m not an adult, but I can tell you how my parents handled it. I was reading our compilations of “The Straight Dope” since I was about 8. One day, my mom picked it up, when I was reading it, and said, “Do you like this?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “Ok, but avoid some of the icky stuff. People ask some weird things.” “Okay.”
Since the iffy content was all gathered in one place in the books, it was easy for me to listen to her for two years. Then, of course, curiosity kicked in, and boy, that was interesting. I don’t think straight dope books are appropiate at all for kids, unless you can prevent them from reading the “bad” chapter.
It’s a hard call IMO. FWIW I don’t think we have any posters under the age of 12 or 13 so I don’t think we have any ‘little kids’ posting.
There are some threads I would unhesitatingly let my 7 yo read and others, well, no way! But that’s part of being a responsible parent IMO. Our computer which is connected to the net is easily supervised and I know what he is doing when he is surfing. There’s far worse stuff out there than the SDMB.
I don’t know what age I would let him have free access to the SDMB. The Pit is not somewhere he is gonna hang out any time soon. He would have to be able to construct a coherent polite debate or be interesting before he was allowed to post ;). I guess it is difficult because there are some science threads I would let him read now but threads like the circumcision thread, I wouldn’t let him near.
Offhand I would say that twelve and under would qualify as a kid, thirteen to eighteen would be a young adult, and anyone over that an adult.
With that clarified, it still leaves the main issue unresolved. Certain kids can handle material that others their same age cannot. It is really a judgement call, and a tough one at that.
I have no clue about the poster in question. For all I know he/she could be damn near any-age. It struck me that I had not thought of this before. It made me step back think about how I might address this with my own kids some day.
I resolved this by weaseling out of the question by mumbling something about the joys of being single and childless and hoping others could offer some personal insight.
I’m not sure what parents think but I believe it all depends upon the kid. I started reading this on the AOL Straight Dope when I was in 6th or 7th grade I was about 11 or 12 back then and I’d learned most of that at school already. Nothing I read was all that surpising or traumatizing. But that’s just me.
I’m sixteen and I have been reading the columns for awhile. I think since thirteen I think…I only registered at the Message Board this summer.
I say it really depends. I was pretty young (by certain standards) when I read some of the sex questions, but really it was quite informative. (It did boost my self esteem for me to be a young teen and know what S&M was!:))
So I guess 12 or 13, that’s a good age…really depends on the person.
ive been reading since i was about 11, im 15 now. none of the stuff here ever shocked me. some of it, umm, interested me, but i was never taken aback. maybe that just says something about me…
Granted I’m new to the SDMB, but I haven’t seen anything I would hesitate to let a child read. Most of the stuff that is questionable seems to be couched so that it wouldn’t be understandable unless the subject matter is already part of their social vocabularies.
It is never too early to let children know that there are all kinds of people out there and that sometimes crazy people have the answers.
My kids are 13. They have unrestricted library cards. We have cable that they can watch unsupervised. They are smart my kids. They will come to me when they don’t understand something and talk to me. . . constantly. I can’t get them to shut up sometimes!
They both read the board, but leave it up to me to pick threads that they would find interesting. They don’t have any need to sneak and read things that I might not want them to read because, well, they don’t have to sneak.
It’s funny, since they don’t feel restricted, they don’t have any real interest in the purient.
I was 7 or 8 when I started reading the Straight Dope books (the first three). While I think reading the columns about sex was good for me (I needed to learn about stuff like this, and I do think that our culture is way too prudish about a natural thing), some of the columns REALLLY upset me.
I still have unnatural fears of stigmata, spontaneous human combustion and alien hand syndrome. I used to stay up all night crying because of them. I was a sensitive child, but I do think the Straight Dope does target itself to more mature readers.
Though I’m new here, I’ve seen very little that I would be upset about my kids viewing. I’ve looked at a couple links that “I” wish I hadn’t pursued, but hey, curiosity got the best of me.
My kids are between eight and 19. If there is something they aren’t aware of yet, leave it up to one of the elder brothers to bring it to their attention. I was a curious little shit, “still am”.
Even my 15 year old will still turn his head when he sees kissing on the TV.
My opinion, tell them what is right and what is wrong and leave it to their judgement. Bet you’ll be pleasantly suprised at how they reflect your values.
Well, it was a long time ago since I was a kid and I do not have kids of my own but reading the posted answers I am beginning to think maybe the OP asked the wrong question and it should have been “when are you too old to read some threads here?” because, man, I have seen stuff that I found truly unappetizing. I am a normal adult who enjoys creative sex (or, make that, would enjoy given the opportunity) and would not be disgusted by other things I might not find attractive, but… I’m telling ya, some threads about flchng and things like that … I think I’d rather not read them.
I’m with sailor on this one. I don’t know if I’m ready for some of the stuff I run across here.
I have to say I’m a bit surprised by the resonse so far. Most seem to leave it up to the kids to decide. Now, I’m in agreement that kids tend to be smarter than adults give them credit for, but isn’t there a line that you have to draw at some point?
I’d have to say 17 years of age. I’d really hate to read the paper one morning and on the National section, a headline would read, “TEENAGER ASSASSINATES PRESIDENT - BLAMES SDMB BBQ PIT”.
I draw a firm line, Chris. There is definitely stuff on this board that there is NO freaking way my kids are going to be reading with my permission. And they would have difficulty reading wihtout my permission because my computer is password protected.
I don’t know at what age I would allow free access to the boards. I sincerely doubt I would be thrilled with either of the kids reading crap like Jackass Tyler while they were still virgins ;). The boards are so mixed that it is hard to say what age I personally would be comfortable. As I said, there is stuff he can read now and stuff I won’t let him read. It’s not so much the language as the ideas and other people’s views of the world… now I sound like a censoring bitch but I like to think that I am just careful.
I also think it will depend hugely on the maturity of the kid. I think the boards are an adult environment and I certainly won’t change how I respond or how I post because there might be children reading it. If a child posts and gets flamed, well, I don’t think the child should be posting YK? 13 or 14 is probably the very youngest I would consider it for my kids.
The SDMB doesn’t say it is a family friendly environment and IMO is not a particularly savoury place for kids under the age of about 12.