My motto is never share a computer with a kid.

For the time, energy, and aggravation, I think them having their own, or a shared household machine, that that neither you or your spouse rely on (read you have your own macs) is a must.

A cheap refurb iMac, mini, or Macbook costs is less $$ than the time (time is money) and aggravation of "ungunking" your own machine.

anti-aggravation starts @ $429 on today's refurb site :-)

Cheers

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Or you could actually teach your kids what's off limits. But to each his own.

I'd recommend AlphaBaby (http://alphababy.sourceforge.net/). Keeps our 2-1/2 year old busy for a bit (and no 'ungunking' needed aftwerwards.).

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Writeroom is actually great for kids. My 2-year-old loves to type her name and direct me to change the colors. She complains when it's not in helvetica though.

http://hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom

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Hi Mike, thanks so much for the linky love!! (someone already contacted me!!! wowsers!) I would like to contribute to the PBwiki. I haven't yet had the opportunity to use one before so I'm stoked to try it out! Knock knock ;)

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So, kids & macs and this Christina Warren:

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/04/resolved-arguments-for-additional-rental-time-arent-realistic/

That's going to be interesting.

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My wife works in IT, and before the company adopted a policy of locking down company laptops and not supporting personal laptops, my wife was constantly cleaning up laptops that various sales reps and VPs allowed their children to use on a regular basis. Well, they blamed the kids, but truth is, when they finally locked the company laptops down, i don't know who howled louder, the sales reps or their children

I always try to be agnostic when talking to friends and family about "Which OS to choose." I say, pick the one that best suits your needs, so long as you give them all a fair look.

But partly because of my wife's IT stories, whenever anyone tells me that they want to buy a computer or a pet rabbit for their kids, I suggest a mac and a stuffed rabbit, because while there is no substitute for actual parenting when it comes to the internet, it's nice to at least not have to scan for spyware etc whenever they happen to surf unattended; and as for the rabbit, the truth is that most rabbits really don't like children, and prefer to stay close to the ground away from grabby hands and high-pitched voices, and can be high-maintenance.

Anyone who buys their children a Windows PC or a pet rabbit should be ready to accept the fact that they are the ones who are going to be doing the maintenance and clean-up.

btw, unwanted PCs and domestic pets should never be released into the woods. :)

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You still have to teach what's off limits regardless, if it's your own or a shared extra.

I just don't see the point in letting kids, or anybody for that matter, come near or close to jeopardizing mine, or anybody's, machine/data.

When your fixing or scratching your head when you lost something you can't get back... $400 bucks will seem worth it, not too mention all the other hassles of a shared machine.

"Hey Dad is my turn yet?"

"Hey mom I dropped your MBA and it shattered the screen"

Sounds silly, but kids will be kids, and things DO happen...my data and machine is too important to me.

The sending it in for repair and waiting for it to comeback would be too much of a PITA.

Cheers
-wsn

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As a parent, and recovering porn addict, I recommend a good content filtering software. The best two I have found is 1)content barrier from Intego and 2)K9 web protect from BlueCoat systems. Content barrier is around $70 but it does a good job at filtering without over filtering. There is a yearly subscription also of around $30. It is available from the Intego website and apple.com. K9 has been around for a long time on Windows but is still in beta for the Mac. It is free of charge form home users. It has a lot more filtering categories than ContentBarrier, but it needs some time to work out some performance issues on the Mac.

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My MacBook, or the "cooter" as my 3 year old calls it, is just back from getting a new screen. I don't know what he threw at it but the crack was.not.pretty. It stays up on the kitchen counter now, instead of living on the sofa as it used to. He quickly got over an addiction to watching The Wiggles on YouTube without his brain exploding.

We are already planning to give him my husband's retired G3 powerbook soon (or maybe the G4 if he gets a new one this year). No desktops since we don't have space for one in any of our living areas and I will not put computers (or tvs) in bedrooms.

Looking forward to the talkcast. Though TalkShoe is a local company, this is the only place I ever hear about them.

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Kids? no computer until they learn how to live in the real world. I'm doing my best to keep my kids off computers as long as possible. Go play, get dirty, read a book, build something. Computers are for adults. period.

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While I'm already completely set up in my house with it, please address parental controls and kids on the internet! There are way too many parents who stick a computer in their kid's room without any sort of monitoring. I'm all for a good balance of communication, monitoring and blocking... I'd NEVER allow any kid over 9 on the internet without all three!

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For cripes sake, make sure you cover how screwed up the parental controls are. We're at 10.5.2 and they still don't work right.

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