[WikiEN-l] Re: On parents banning their children from Wikipedia

Sun Jul 10 18:13:19 UTC 2005

Tony Sidaway a écrit:
> Someone identifying himself as thagudearbh at yahoo.co.uk  writes:
> 
> 
> 
>>I can see many parents banning their children from using it - to the
>>detriment of us all.
> 
> 
> I never understand this argument, although it always seems to be advanced
> to excuse to repugnant bit of crusading.
> 
> If I shut the extraneous details of the crusade out of my mind, it always
> seems to come down to asking myself the following question:
> 
> What material effect would result from parents banning their children?
> 
> 
> And obviously the answer is that more children would use Wikipedia.
> Wikipedia as Rock and roll.
> 
> So how could this be to the detriment of Wikipedia?

I do not think it is to the detriment of Wikipedia proper, but yes, I do 
not allow my children to use Wikipedia by themselves. And I will not 
before a few years (until I really lose control on what they do on the net).

I do not qualify myself as a highly traditional and restrictive parent.
Quite the opposite actually. But in three years, I saw enough image 
material on wikipedia, that I do not consider suitable for them to see now.

It may be that I am a minority *here*, but I also think parents are a 
minority amongst involved editors. I do not see it as detrimental to the 
encyclopedia; simply, Wikipedia as is is for adults, not for children. 
There is nothing wrong with this.

ant