Computer or not for pre-teen?

I had a very interesting discussion with one of my friend today. Our children are 10 years old. Mine have their own computer, they have an email and an Iphone that they use as an Ipod touch.
My friend does not want her daughter to have her own computer and even if she did create an email address for her, she does not let her use it. She is extremely reluctant to leave her daughter access that whole technology.

In my family we are very comfortable with new technology. What I mean by that is that both my husband and I are using computer to work. So it is true that computer are always on in the house. TV is off but computer is on. It is a fact that children learn by example. So it seems more logic to me to teach them how to...

As I said since I started this blog, when you live next to a lake, what do you do to protect your children: build a wall between your house and the lake or teach them how to swim?

My position is to teach them how to swim.

So this is why my children have their own computer, their email...
They are very familiar with the use of Ipad, Ipod, youtube, research on the internet... They know what is facebook and what can be dangerous about it.

I chose to teach them and be with them when they use those new technologies. I stay extremely vigilant as I do not want them to waste time with it.

Here is how I see it, all those technologies are tools, using those tools is not bad, being used or manipulated by them is.

I believe that learning the proper way to use new technology is a fair choice and that the time allowed to those is the key. Real life must be most of our kids life: playing with other, spending time with family and friends, reading, practicing sport and art, hanging out, dreaming...

In our house we do not have any video games, our children know some of them as they did play them in friends house. But they do not care about them. As my son put it when he sit at the piano to practice "this is my video-game". In other word, they have other interest.

And in any case, as they do not have time to watch TV, they do not have much time to spend on the computer either.