My adventurous son asked me Wednesday whether he could look up his favorite Web site — Dino Farm — to spot some possible Christmas requests.
I said sure, hop on my computer while I’m grabbing dinner. Our computers sit at one side of our den/playroom/breakfast nook, and so are very accessible.
A few moments later, he calls his sister over and giggle ensues.
What’s so funny about dinosaur models, I wonder?
I glance over to see he’s found a video Web site (not Youtube) and it’s showing some guy in a bathtub. What?!
I stomp over and demand to know what they’re doing. Turns out the bathtub scene is some ad with Ben Stiller, and it isn’t even what they’re laughing about.
While typing “dino farm,” my son says, he clicked “dino fart.” (Hmm, “m” and “t” are how close on the keyboard?)
He then proceeded to view several videos about a pair of hapless dinosaurs who keep getting out-stunk by a pig. (So mammals rule, even when it comes to passing gas?)
Of course, the video was fairly harmless — it was all I could do not to laugh. He did also point out he hadn’t loaded a video entitled “Bad Ass Rapping Raptor.” (Which, by the way, is also hilarious.)
But hey, he’s 9. And fart jokes are the 9-year-old equivalent to naked women. And so the seeds of worry have been planted.
A quick consultation with my wife turns up this additional fact: While searching “ballerina” images to get ideas for a kindergarten project, my wife and 5-year-old got an eyeful of an undressed “dancer.”
Under ballerina? Sheesh!
Well, both kids now understand that while farting dinos may be funny, there’s much worse stuff on the Internet they should stay away from. Our next step, of course, is to start installing parental controls as a backup. I doubt, though, that they’ll be enough to catch every naked woman or farting T. rex.
I want my kids to enjoy the benefits of our computers, but not have to deal with all the horrible stuff lousing up the Internet.
What do you do? Do you monitor every moment, restrict access, or trust their judgment?
More posts by Dad-O-Sphere (William Diepenbrock):
- How green is this S.F. museum? Very. How cool? Very, very!
- How much Halloween candy will you let your kids eat tonight?
- Mom is already off, so why does Dad need to go to junior’s appointment?
- Our day at the museum - not Disneyland
- Why my life mimics bad axioms
Quick links:
Would you like to be featured here and on 
Ugh, I can really relate to this–it makes me so anxious. What really freaks me out is YouTube–I can show my four year old some animal clip and then he can click once or twice by accident and something really disturbing comes up.
Right now, I am basically staring at the screen whenever he’s near the computer, but that will not work for long, and I don’t have a clue what I’ll do when he’s older…