Family and Media

Install the right software (in your children)

The most important thing parents need to understand about preparing their kids for the Internet world," writes Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times, "is that it requires not more whiz-bang, high-tech skills, but rather more old-fashioned fundamentals–reading, writing, and arithmetic, plus church and synagogue. . . . Unless parents are building kids with . . . the individual judgment, values, and knowledge skills to handle this technology on their own–Lord only knows what can happen. It can be like everyone letting his kids drive without a license, map, or sense of purpose."

Friedman offers a parental suggestion. "The faster he or she can get online, the stronger must be his or her own personal software. . . . Here is Friedman’s Law: Parents should add one hour per week of quality time with their children each time the speed of their kid’s modem doubles."

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