Shelley Bridgeman: Keeping technology from kids

At what age do you think it's suitable to expose children to technology? Photo / Thinkstock

The tragic death of Charlotte Dawson has sparked chat about the dangers of the internet. Shelley Bridgeman writes about trying to protect her daughter.

When my daughter was in Year Five iPads were recommended items for this cohort of students. (These devices were being phased in over time at the school so my daughter's year was, I think, the last one before such items were compulsory.)

I'd always known that laptops were required in Year Seven and this seemed fine to me but furnishing primary-school-aged children with iPads was a new proposition. I've always thought that iPads fill quite a strange niche in the world of technological devices. In my mind, they're not serious or robust enough to take the place of a laptop or desktop computer for working purposes and they don't have the nimbleness or compactness of an iPhone.

However, they are ideally suited to people like my mother who by the age of 70 had not once touched a computer and had an "I don't type" attitude towards keyboards. Her newly acquired iPad allows her to see digital photos of her grandchildren that she had previously been missing out on. And, best of all, no "typing" is required. The iPad is the perfect solution for the reluctant "digital immigrant".

But an iPad for a tech-savvy nine-year-old struck me as quite a different notion. As a parent I wanted to keep my child off computers at home for as long as possible. It doesn't take an overly active imagination to wonder if people of her generation will all have RSI before they're forty as a result of their early and lifelong attachment to the screen and keyboard.

For such a young child I considered an iPad to be little more than an expensive toy. A presentation by some consultant to the school, which mainly involved him telling us about all the "cool apps" available, didn't allay my fears. I knew precisely how "cool" and seductive iPhones (and their ilk) were. I'm onto my third or fourth model and I love it beyond belief. Sometimes I can hardly prise myself away from its wily charms - and that's exactly why I don't want my child anywhere near one. If I can barely control myself around this newfangled technology, then what hope has a little girl?

Additionally, I thought that procuring an expensive device on a suggestion, which seemed at the time to come almost out of the blue, sent all the wrong signals. To spend $800 (or whatever the price was) on some fancy, newly released gadget for a child to take to school for a year or two seemed frivolous. I also didn't like the fact that, as one of the first year groups to have these devices, we were the guinea pigs. It would have been comforting to know that classroom processes and protocols for use had already been established in previous years.

So in 2012 my daughter was the only student in her year group who didn't have an iPad. Well, that was the poor, deprived child's version of events. I checked with the deputy principal who advised me that, in fact, five out of 60 children didn't have access to a personal iPad. Weirdly, despite her mean mother, my daughter somehow became an expert on computers, serving as the unofficial IT advisor for many students and staff members. She would routinely be called on if anyone had technological issues so her deprivation seems to have had no lingering effects.

Now in Year Seven, she is the proud owner of a MacBook Pro. I've had six years' warning that this was required equipment so I can't really complain. I did have mild anxiety that she might spend too much time outside of school doing goodness knows what on it - until I realised that not having WiFi at home meant she was unable to connect to the internet in her spare time. During the day she accesses the school's WiFi and I understand I can set up some hotspot through my iPhone if she ever needs to work online at home - not that I've figured out how to do that yet.

She'll turn 11 soon and I imagine that one day I'll lose control of how she uses her computer at home. In the meantime I'm enjoying knowing that, for now at least, she's safe from becoming a victim of online predators and cyber-bullies.

Does your child have an iPad or computer? What age is appropriate for children to have access to this technology? How do you keep your child safe online?