When did you receive your own personal computer?

Someone had made a poll about this on Deviant Art, and it kind of got me thinking. The poll question was: "What is the youngest age a person should be to have their own personal computer?"

I was rather shocked, to say the least, at some of the responses. Despite (when I had looked at it) the poll age with the greatest votes being 13, many people were responding saying 3, 4, or 5 years old - basically a toddler! Now, I'm hoping that they were just kidding, and I'm guessing some were (hopefully), but I don't think all of them were.

So, what do you think? How old should you be before owning your very own computer?


I voted 13 in that poll and was surprised to see that's what most people had voted for as well. I feel that 13 is the earliest age, since you're officially a teenager and you'd be entering high school soon, so it's a good way to prepare and learn the ropes of the internet and the computer (if you hadn't done so already on your parents' computer).

Personally, I still don't own my own computer, and I'm 22! I just have a laptop (Macbook), and I got that when I was, what, 20? So, I'm sorry, but from my own perspective, I cannot feel "the pain" of young children who don't own their own computers yet. I know that more and more kids are getting cell phones, which really just kind of freaks me out for some reason. (I got mine when I was 16, when I had a driver's license.) I do support our hi-tech world, but I simply don't feel that it should ever become a necessity for children to own their own cell phones or computers.

Well, I can't answer the real question you've presented, which was when I received my first personal computer. I've been using a computer since I was very young. I don't remember exactly when, but it was no big deal at that point, because we were running DOS using floppy disks to play games like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

Even when I started using the internet, I was pretty young. As one could expect from a young boy with the world at his fingertips, I got into some things I wasn't supposed to, but that's to be expected. For the most part, though, I used the internet to provide the entertainment I didn't get from the real world. I looked up websites for my favorite anime and TV shows, spent a lot of time in chat rooms, checked out games; it was just something fun.

It really comes down to the individual, since there will always be children who do the right thing and children who do the wrong thing when given a privilege. If parents supervise the things their children do on the computer and install supervisory programs to take care of the rest, I don't think it's ever too early to let a child have a computer. They're revolutionizing the world, and the sooner you start learning about them, the more prepared you'll be when you need to make use of them. Even through idle fun like playing games, drawing shapes in Paint and typing here or there, you're developing useful talents (i.e. - motor skills, graphics design and keyboarding, respectively).

Most people immediately see the negative impact. "We're encouraging our children to sit at home on the computer all day!" "We're condoning inappropriate behavior by providing them a way to access mature content!" Things like that aren't a direct precipitate of computers themselves. Those issues arise from poor parenting and supervision.

So, I guess my answer is this: how early your child should have a computer is directly influenced by how well you monitor and care for your child.

Sorry if all of that is technically off topic, since I guess you had asked when we got our first computer, not what our opinions were about the original topic on dA.

While I don't think I a child should have the need for their own computer, I do think they should at least be allowed on it as young as 3, 4 and 5, as your poll mentioned. Not all the time of course, but I just say this because I know I[ had a bunch of children's PC games when I was younger. I had the Reader Rabbit games, the Jump Start games... And I learned when I played them. They have games for as young as the Preschool level in those series, and the games strive to teach kids. And they're effective, in my eyes.

Like I said, though, I don't think a kid needs their own computer until they're in middle school at the earliest, or even high school. Until the time comes where they need to start typing their assignments and have an actual need for the computer, they shouldn't have complete access to one.

Personally, the first computer that was ever fully mine and mine alone was my laptop, which I received as a graduation gift for college. I've used a desktop computer at home since I was... ten or eleven, maybe, and though I did consider it 'mine', it was still something that other members of my family used as well. And when I first started using it, I had to ask for permission, and even then my time on the computer was limited.

My sisters are ten... and they've had a laptop for a year or two. I will quickly say that I don't like that, but that's because I had to wait till I was 14 to get my own. At the same time, my sisters are getting cell phones this christmas, and I don't have one yet either... but that's a different story, I could care less about cell phones.

I grew up first going on the computer when I was 5-6, somewhere in that age range, playing a Tonka game that was state of the art at the time. I have nothing against starting on a family computer at a very young age, especially if you have a geek in the house. Eventually, after many formats and devastating viruses, you'll learn what not to do in the electronic world.

I still, however, do not like the concept of someone getting their own computer, that they can do whatever they want on before 14. I don't know about you guys, but at 13 I was one of those fo-rum trolls. Granted I didn't mean no harm I still talked like one and was pretty much a... well... an idiot. I used to abuse smilies, didn't know that I was supposed to be capitalized, didn't know what a period was, etc.
-Do we really need more people like that, with total privacy around the internet?-

I got mine around 10 or 11, just because my dad liked building computers and had like 6 of them hanging around. Between the two of us, we were on the internet all the time, which made phone contact to our house pretty much impossible because of it being dial-up.

Got my newest desktop back in May and it's flippin' awwweesssooommeee. Awww yeah.

Wow, you guys are all pretty lucky. We didn't even get a family computer until I was either 12 or 13 years old, so I guess I was a late starter to the internet.

I don't have a problem with kids using computers; I just find it odd that such young children are owning their own computers so early on in their lives. I guess that makes me sound old or old fashioned now. I'm also all for protecting my child, but only until they reach a certain age. Like, I'm not the type of person that's going to care if my child were to look up some less-than-clean things when they're a teenager, because that's pretty common nowadays and expected, and I don't think that would make me a bad parent at all. Better they learn about things themselves than to remain ignorant for too long a time.

Ohh, I remember dial-up days lol. We eventually had this answering machine application on our family computer, so that we didn't miss calls if we were on the internet.

I just recently bought my first computer a few months back, but even still it's not just mine it's my husbands too - or so he thinks just because he payed 200 of the 800.

...

I didn't get my OWN personal computer until I was married...

Yes, I got married at a young age...but still....

=/

and mine is a hand me down!

Even my desktop is a hand me down from my hubby since he got his decked out desktop.

I've been around computers all my life. We did school and typing programs and games with my dad... things like Lords of the Realm II and HoverRace and Minesweeper and SimCity and SimTower and SimPark... *sigh* good times.

It wasn't until 2004ish that I started using the internet a lot. This was largely due to role-playing, in fact, which is awesome in hindsight. I have a large family, so none of us really own our "own computer." I just use the one I'm on the most, so it's basically "mine," and others in my family have similar things.

We have 5 or 6 decent enough computers. Nothing fast enough for games or anything, really, but it's good for internet, school, imaging and writing.

Hmm..I didn't get my own computer, actually, a laptop, until last year. I don't have it now though, unfortunately

I do, or rather, we(we being my family), do have a computer though, we've had a computer since I was...ehh, 9 or 10?...one of those two, I'm pretty sure, is the right answer.

I actually have a fairly strong opinion about this. While I think children should be introduced and allowed to use computers from a young age, I think it's totally unnecessary for them to own their own, personal computer until they graduate and/or move out of the house.

I have never owned my own computer because I've always just used the computer that was for all of us to use. While I would have loved to own my own computer when I was in high school and such, I'm glad my parents never bought me one. I didn't need one, and I would have just spent every waking moment on it rather than finding other things for me to do... Sort of like I do now. ^^_^^;;

I was introduced to the Internet when I was ten, and I think that's probably the earliest that any child should be allowed to use the Internet without having a parent sitting right there with them.

I don't see what anyone who isn't at least college aged would need with their own computer. I mean... my little twelve year old brother owns his own laptop, and I think it's ridiculous. He's illiterate, so he probably doesn't do much more than watch YouTube videos on it. He could do that with the family computer.

I bring the point of view of a young teenager! Fear my awesome complaining abilities.

But not really.

I got my first computer at 11, and it's still sitting here at my desk, doing nothing. I've lived around computers most of my life. My parents got the first family computer when I was three or four. Eight years later, I got my own. Then they updated, and my sister got one (Grr, she was ten). I have the newest computer in the house, at the moment.

On to the topic, though:

I started middle school at ten, but barely used it for typing until my sophomore year of high school. Even then the typing was so sporadic that a family computer would have handled the job fine. i don't know about junior and senior years in high school for computers, but I suspect the same, or something similar.

Two weeks into college, and I really needed my laptop. Every assignment and most of the notes are typed. Truth be told, I don't think we even need computers until... 16.

I won't complain about getting mine early, though. *cackles*

I was like you Fate but then we are a bit older and were has grown up in the age where you could REALLY see computers take off. I mean I still remember using those old apple computers in school when i was 5-7. You know the ones with the typing games with the funky graphics and we still had to do our research in the library because no schools had internet. *sighs* Good times.

Er anyways. My family didn't get their first computer till i was about 11 maybe 12. But I did take to it rather quickly. I remember I had actually taken it apart so I could put it back together when I was 13. My parents weren't to impressed by that.....though I was able to piece it back together. I think that experience pushed me to begin making my own computers when I was around 16. So yeah 16 was when I got my very own and build it myself computer. It helped that I also made them for kids at my school....for a price. *coughs* << >>

My family had computers since soon after I was born, but I didn't get my own til about 15. It was only capable of running Windows 3.1 so my dad thought it was probably harmless.

Since it didn't have an Internet connection I didn't use it much. I was totally addicted to the Internet by 13, and was fascinated by it much earlier than that, when my family had Compuserve. I saw a lot of things that maybe weren't so good for my development as a person, but I also learned a lot on my own and taught myself so much.

Like how to silence the dial-up noise and hide the tray icon for "online" to trick my parents into thinking I was doing my homework

When I was 17 I was a huge computer dork and worked at a computer dork store where I bought parts to put together my first PC. I had it until just a few weeks ago. I replaced all the parts over the years, but the case lasted me about 8 years. That was probably the height of my online addiction.

So yeah, I don't think three year olds should have their own computers. The danger I was in of becoming a recluse was high even when I was a teenager!