Father Cautions Unsupervised Internet Usage

I know that most of you parents are aware of the risks of letting your child surf the Internet unsupervised. We certainly were.

Yet, we allowed it. Let our experience be a warning for you all.

Wanting some time for ourselves

Children with autism require more attention than other kids. 

We don’t get a break like other parents do when their kids play with friends.  For one thing, Kai does not really have friends. He hardly plays with other children at all. Social interactions are still a challenge for him, and especially so when they involve children. 

When we do set up play dates for him, we cannot just leave him alone to play with the other child. We always have to be there with him to help facilitate the interactions. So, teaching him to play becomes more work for us. 

But besides that, Kai is a kid who wants company. All the time. He gets anxious when he is alone. Being an only child, Mom and Dad have become his go-to companions. 

Now some of you may say that we should have tried harder to get him to play by himself; that we made him overly dependent on us by not forcing him to be alone at times.  

I understand that perspective.

But ever since Kai was diagnosed with autism, one of our primary goals was to get him to engage with people. Some kids with autism are content to spend the entire day by themselves, not interacting with anyone. We didn’t want that for our son. So, we worked to get him out of his own little world. To do that, we engaged and interacted with him every chance we could. Sending him off to play by himself was not going to get the job done.

We were successful at drawing Kai out of his shell, but perhaps at the cost of him wanting to be with us every waking second.

Oh sure, it is endearing, in a way. And if Kai ever develops into a typical teenager who wants to avoid his parents like the plague, we might look back on this fondly.

But for now, we treasure any time when he can be by himself and not require our attention. That's why it was such a relief when he started to use the computer by himself. 

It started innocently enough

Kai first started going online when he became interested in the periodic table and I went online to show him different websites about chemistry and elements. It wasn’t long before he knew how to Google things on his own. 

He soon became very proficient at surfing the Internet. 

He discovered that YouTube was a source of great entertainment for him. He found dozens of music videos about the periodic table, as well as those showing scientists demonstrating different elements. Who knew that the periodic table would be such a popular topic?

We loved that this was something he enjoyed doing by himself. Finally, it was a chance for us to have a bit of our own time. We relished the break we had when he was on the computer. 

So, we turned the other way. 

And then it happened!

One day, I noticed that Kai was unusually quiet while he was on the computer.  It wasn’t at all like how he normally is when you can hear him laughing all the way on the other side of the house as he excitedly watches a video of his favorite element song. 

I went to check out what was going on. 

As I peeked around the corner, I could see that he was staring intently at the computer screen. 

And then I saw it. 

I was shocked. He was watching…

Pi

Yes, that’s right.  He was watching a YouTube video about the mathematical symbol (π).

Then, even worse than just watching, he started copying down all the numbers.  Knowing my son, he will be obsessed with it. He won’t be able to stop. He may even memorize it to hundreds of digits.

All because I did not monitor his Internet activities.

Be vigilant, everyone!  Don’t let this happen to your children!  Don’t let them go on the Internet unsupervised, or they too may discover Internet pi. 

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Tomorrow, March 14, is Pi Day.  3-14.  Kai would want you all to know.

Happy Pi Day, everyone!