Canadian Kids Net Savvy At 7 – Where Do Your Kids Stand?

Ipsos Canada, one of the survey-based marketing research firms, in their recent survey found that75% of children in Canada are skillful with the internet at the age of seven. While kids in my neighbourhood are still not done with Cartoon Network and Filmy gupshup. No doubt, a recent survey conducted in India, to see how much do the gooey TV shows influence kids now-a-days.

According to the survey, 19 per cent of kids rated Shahrukh Khan as their favourite actor followed by 13 per cent naming Hrithik Roshan as their favourite and 10 per cent considering Salman Khan as their cinematic icon. Katrina Kaif was rated the favourite actress by the maximum number of 33 per cent kids, followed by Kareena Kapoor who got eight per cent votes and Aishwarya Rai with six per cent votes. Parents today have a lot to be concerned about. To add to this list is the worry of what their children are doing on the Internet.

Telus, another Canadian company that provides full range of communication products and services for Canadian Homes also conducted a brief survey to measure the internet penetration among teens in Canada. They interviewed nearly 4,466 people and came to a conclusion that more than half of parents think that internet encourages independent learning among teens.

As a father/mother, how do you plan to shape-up your child’s life? Agreed, the internet has everything that you don’t want them to know, but keeping them away from the progressive world, is that any good? The TV is equally infective as anything else, so why not let him chase his dreams decisively?

At WATBlog we covered the introduction of sites for kids that are safe and unadulterated. Whereas the already existing Gaming sites have also found a way to catch hold of some young users without harming or contaminating their minds in a venomous world. But, if you think technology is made accessible only to the affluent section of the society, think again. Majority of Canadians believe that a core value of technology is its ability to strengthen relationships – 83 per cent of respondents say that the internet has improved their connection with family and friends.

Did you know?

There was a wide range of Social Networking Sites and gaming sites only for kids, did you know that? Check this out.

• BoomBang – Discover a New Virtual World
• Dofus – Multi player online role playing game
• Chamber of Chat – Interactive Adventure & Chat World
• Marapets – Virtual pet site with games and chat community
• Millsberry – Home building community
• Sanriotown – Hello Kitty games(errrr…), community, blogs and forums.

I’m sure everyone would agree that kids these days have become more tech savvy, and hence nothing safe can challenge their smartness. They are all aware of Orkut, Facebook , Zapak and their uses! For that matter, they have easy access to Google everywhere. The new search engine formed only for kids to search the safe and right things – KidRex.org looks good until obvious key words entered. I mean it looks cute and all, but when smart kids get on, they might as well try witty stuff to break the walls. Say for example ‘wtf’.. and look what I found! The fourth link says –WTF?! Learning How To Hump Early In Life! [Video]. If you watch the video, you’ll know what i mean.

So unless we have a site that reads a person’s mind before they enter the required keywords, we should let the kids take their own decisions. You teach them to recognise what is ‘bad’ and what is ‘good’, right? Here’s your final test.

Proper communication with your children on Internet safety issues will certainly help. As Net-savvy children may have more knowledge, but they may lack wisdom regarding the use of what they have learned. They may have more experience, but lack the maturity and discernment to make good decisions. So, parents continue to play an important role in their children’s upbringing.