Taking Your Kids Online: How and When to Introduce Children to the Internet

Brenda Reed is a public services librarian in the Education Library at
Queen’s University.

Taking Your Kids Online is directed at parents and educators who do not
have much experience with computers. In their introduction, the authors
write that their “aim is to provide a strategic blueprint that will
illustrate how the Internet can fit in with what you are already doing
with your children, [and] how it can fit into your family’s life and
schedule, to best meet the developmental needs of your children at any
particular time in their lives.”

The authors are eminently qualified to address their chosen topic.
Lefebvre, a child psychiatrist at the Hospital for Sick Children in
Toronto and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of
Toronto, brings to the book a longstanding interest in using technology
to meet children’s educational and needs. Hillis was the co-founder,
along with Dr. Lefebvre, of the Ability Online Support Network, a
program that allowed hospitalized children to communicate with friends
and family outside the hospital.

The book is divided into four parts: “Parent Preparation,” “Web
Guide: By Ages and Stages,” “On Special Demand,” and “Web Road
Maps and Destinations.” Part 1 addresses parents’ concerns about
their children’s need to be informed about the Internet from an early
age. A practical introduction to the Internet for noncomputer-literate
parents is included. Part 2, the heart of the book, covers “Picking
the Best of the Web for Your Preschooler,” “Tough Choices in the
Teenage Years,” and everything in between. Part 3 deals with Internet
safety, while Part 4 features a glossary and an annotated list of Web
sites intended for parents and for children of different ages.

This attractive and user-friendly book is highly recommended for its
intended audience.