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When should a young child first use a computer?

Mark Glaser

by Mark Glaser, March 8, 2006

It seems like kids are getting soaked by media at earlier ages with each passing generation. Is that a good thing? When my son Julian was 18 months old, one mother of a teenager warned me: "Avoid screens for as long as possible -- TV, videogames, and computers -- because once kids get used to them, you can't get them off." I thought that was good advice, even though I have been immersed in screens for as long as I can remember. Now my son is 3 and 1/2 years old and he loves typing email messages to his grandparents, and is obsessed with trying a kids' paint program on the computer.

Is the time right for him to use a computer? What age is best, and why? How early should kids go online and experience the Internet? What about videogames? How do you limit your kids with their screen time? Use the comments below to tell me, and I'll quote the best ones in the Your Take Roundup.

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