Family and Child Online Safety Blog - SafetyClicks

The Internet is a source of many great things. Great educational opportunities, great organizing and time saving things, but also a great waste of time.

A recent study by the Pew Institute suggests that no matter how much time is wasted on Social Networks, even more time is being spent watching videos.

I am as guilty as the next person of wasting time on Social Networks (don't tell my boss). I check my Facebook page almost every morning. I catch up on Twitter from time to time. But I have never spent much time on videos. That is, until today.

As luck would have it, while researching for this post, a friend sent me a video from You Tube. It was a Las Vegas commercial, talking about celebrating Chinchilli Day. Then I got it. The Internet has taken the way to kill time from before (the television), made the shows a minute or so long and put it online (the current time-suck). There are even many sites that post entire TV shows online.

While I don't think Social Networking is going away any time soon, you can rest assured that kids are getting all the TV and videos they need online. Maybe this is another great reason to have the computer in a family room instead of a bedroom. What a better place to share the videos found (and know they are on when homework is scheduled).

To help, many parental control products have online timers (blocking or allowing usage at specified times set up by the parent) and filter content that isn't appropriate for your child.

What do you think about this phenomenon? Do you like watching videos or TV shows online? Do you think it is appropriate for kids to do so?