My 14 yr old wants a forum.

[UncoderMom]

Thats right... "hey mom, can I have a site like your misfits site, one that I can have admins and stuff". LOL He wants a game site or something....

I told him I would let him have one, no harm right? I'm on a dedicated machine with plenty of space.

Then I got to thinking... whos REALLY gonna be watching all those teenagers? Especially with their cracks, hacks and mods.

Oh hell no! Not on my machine! LOL

Do any of you webmasters with teenagers let your kids have their own sites?

[OldSchoolDSL]

It good that your son wants to start using the internet for more then just Facebook.

I would start him off with something simple and FREE, such as phpBB. Have yourself as the Master (Super) Administrator and him as an Admin. Censor a few things to prevent him from linking to well known file sharing sites & from anyone uploading files also.

From time to time... Pop in and keep an eye on him.

I think its better that he came to you, then rather doing it behind your back.

[Lautaro]

I started learning all the web stuff when I was like 13 or 14 ... i remember the 1st things I liked to do is create blogs at blogspot and add cool widgets and all that stuff, even tho there wasn't even 1 person visiting my blogs lol .. then i started to work more on the style part and coding so i decided to learn html so i learned all html on w3schools.com, very good website though.

I used to download a lot of cracked / hacked scrips etc.. including vbulletin on my 1st warez forum .. and eventually started to do paid jobs one a few websites ( because i learned how to use photoshop, code in xhtml + css & php + mysql / mssql ) so i started making money online and saving it on my paypal account ..

But of course now that I have enough resources I like to have all my programs licensed and to be all legal ^^ .. I have a gaming network with 3 different games and a few thousands of users .. oh an obviously i closed the warez forum ^^ ..

The good thing about starting to use the internet and scripts at that age is that you get to learn a lot .. I can mention myself as an example, im 18 now and i know how to design professional websites and code scripts not using any kind of program like dreamweaver etc..

i would say you should let him have his own gaming website, but of course control all that cracked / hacked stuff so he doesn't gets into that ^_^!

[Jack12]

Let him do it. I started playing around with forums, websites and the internet in general when I was around 13/14 (hell, I'm only 18 now) and it was great fun and taught me alot of what I know today.

Start with a free forum script, and localhost so he can have a play around with things, then when he's comfortable with the scripts he plans to use, let him register a domain and cheap shared hosting account and start his site.

Chances are it will never go anywhere but it can be alot of fun and some good experience should he want to get into the webmaster business.

[munnakv]

My 13 old kid manages his own forum in the area of his interest : Rubiks cube.
The forum is not active, but I am happy that he spends some of his time usefully. The forum is however not hosted from my dedicated server.

This is a video of him solving Rubiks cube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gg_K8ijWQ4

And this is his forum:
http://www.cubetalks.com/

I would suggest you to encourage your son also to have his forum.
If nothing, it will hone his social skills.

[UncoderMom]

I homeschool him under a full time virtual program. He could probably get credit for it and social interaction is always a plus with homeschooling.

He is already very good at stuff like this... Hes used sandbox programs for years now. He says he wants to be a game developer when he gets older. Its a research project he has to do this semester "how to become a game developer". The saying goes that its easier to teach a child a new language, than an adult. So, I guess the same thing can be true for PHP and the like. LOL

Hey, nothing wrong with phpbb, its where I got my start! I remember coming to VB and thinking, OMG plug-ins? haha

[Boofo]

You're the only one who knows for sure, Lisa, as to how mature and responsible he is. That is what you should base your decision on, not what others have to say about it. Just be ready to watch things as they develop to see what direction it all goes in.

[mrt12345]

well this has something that came up lol my son is going to 10 years and he has a big passion
for trading Pokemon cards so he wanted a website that he could do his trading. but i have a vb licence so i a have been thinking of use it so there friends can get on to trade and have there conversations and they could start a club. but i will look after the site and admin but let him do the moderation , the only thought i have is what the other parents might think maybe it is to young but i have been hearing that there letting there children on facebook that i won't allow for my kids yet so at least with vb i would have some control and maybe let the parents join in to help moderate the site so we can say it is protected by parents. then maybe the kids won't come lol

he is turning 10 next month so this would this be a good present and when he gets older he can admin the whole site himself. but he might have to look at more then pokimon cards .

[TheLastSuperman]

This is touchy for me... my 8 year old little girl already knows how Daddy is on a PC, I've already busted her when Disney's Pirates emails me chat logs about them using words Kess instead of Kiss and other so no matter what let's not think our own children are the picture perfect image of childhood innocence because if we do then we're failing as parents imo. I would not do this, I would throw up a static html or php site with some videos and images or a slide-show and nothing more... why? Well if you introduce them to something more interactive you also open up the risk. Online predators come across a site they learn is ran by a 10 year old what do you think they're going to do pass it up saying "nah the mother/father will get us for sure" no that's not a concern in their eyes. On top of that a forum has the possibility to be hacked, dependent upon the method used your son or daughter's pc could become infected with something and then in turn you could be at risk - basically for me and I'm not bashing anyone for wanting to give their kids more however for me it's a HUGE NO.

[Paul M]

Wow, your a bit of a doom and gloom merchant.

@Uncoder - I say think yourself lucky a forum is all they want. Go for it.