By Chang-Shanmei
Many parents, including me, have wondered: At what age should a child have a phone, tablet, or computer? How much time should children spend online each day? How can we keep them from encountering inappropriate content? What if a child dreams of becoming an influencer and loses interest in school?
Here is my conclusion first: children should have access to adequate digital hardware and software. The ability to learn independently is a crucial form of competitiveness, and computers and the internet are fundamental platforms for self-directed learning. Parents, meanwhile, are their children’s most important role models for using the internet.
When the Boundary Between Learning and Leisure Becomes Blurred
During the summer after fourth grade, in 2016, my daughter started her own Facebook fan page, with the account and password managed through her parents. At first, I simply photographed the things she had made. It preserved memories and, from a mother’s perspective, helped keep our home from filling up with craft materials and finished pieces. My Facebook friends became her first followers.
Initially, I posted only after asking for her permission. Later, she developed her own ideas and began learning how to take photographs, publish posts, make videos, edit footage, and add captions. Once friends learned about her interest in crafts, they gave us a second-hand sewing machine, old sewing magazines, and other valuable tools. Some even invited her to join them at a market stall.
With more tools and opportunities, she wanted to try more things. She searched YouTube to learn how to repair a sewing machine, use different materials, and find supplies. When you know what you are looking for, the internet can provide answers, resources, and materials. Text and video can also be translated almost instantly, allowing learners to cross language barriers.
Is Going Online Play, Learning, Leisure, or Work?
One day, someone left a message asking to buy something she had made. She was delighted. We began calculating costs with her, discussing prices, the value of her time, shipping, and practical concerns. These were new questions for us as parents too, so we searched, discussed, and learned together. What impressed me most was that she began seriously reading books about pricing inexpensive and premium products. Because the knowledge felt useful, she was willing to invest time in understanding it.
Later, she created an Instagram page and found it easier to manage. She developed a new platform and new projects in her own way, while I became one of her followers.
This is an era in which the boundary between leisure and work is disappearing and learning can happen everywhere. After the COVID-19 outbreak, a Taiwanese Ministry of Education survey found that 12 percent of elementary and junior-high students had no mobile device at home, while 10 percent lacked internet access, despite Taiwan’s reputation as a technology hub.
Economic barriers matter, but I also believe some parents delay or restrict access because they fear internet overuse. After the pandemic, the most consequential gap may not simply be between urban and rural students. It may widen between those who can learn independently and those who depend entirely on others to direct their learning.
Online and Offline Spaces Are Both Real
Although I study problematic internet use and online gaming among adolescents, I strongly support giving children access to digital devices from an early age. The key questions are no longer merely whether to provide a device or how many minutes to allow. We should ask how adults will accompany children, and how we can prevent distraction and protect their vision.
Many parents are digital immigrants, while their children are digital natives. For them, networked technology has always existed, much like water, electricity, and other basic infrastructure.
Parents worry that young children lack judgment and may encounter cyberbullying, deception, or other dangers, especially girls. Yet after becoming a mother, I have worried about my child’s safety in both physical and online environments. Discussing problems with children while they are still willing to let us accompany them is safer than trying to prevent every encounter. Learning how to respond and how to find resources is the deeper solution.
Every child has different interests, and interests naturally change as understanding grows. That does not necessarily mean a lack of perseverance. When children are willing to begin, experiment, and keep improving, they deserve encouragement. Attempts and mistakes are valuable parts of learning. The internet allows people of every age to begin something new at any time. With the right tools, children may even learn faster and better than we do, becoming our teachers and peers.
Recently, Annie received her first sponsored collaboration. This article records a new milestone and commemorates the four years we have learned together.
© Chang-Shanmei. All rights reserved.