did you have unrestricted internet access as a child?

[byebyemadworld]

There was no internet for me as a child! Lol. I'm 43. I bet you can't even imagine that?!! . We had to go to the library, read a book, wait for our favourite programmes to be sheduled on TV and when computer games came along- they didn't save your progress. When you died- you'd have to start again! Ha ha- the 'good' old days.

I don't think I really started using the internet till I was in my twenties. By then, it was probably 'safer'. It was that weird dial up thing then- you couldn't use your phone at the same time. Things have changed so much. It must have been weird at the start though I imgine... was the whole thing more like the dark web?!!

Same for me. I'm 44.

 

[FormerlyFe(IV)]

Kinda, yeah. I had access to the internet since I was 7, we had broadband even. But I was pretty young so I only stuck to flash game sites like Lego, Disney, Nickelodeon, Miniclip, etc. I usually was using the PC when my parents weren't busy (shared PC and they worked on it) so I didn't really have supervision but I didn't really stray much.

When I got older, family PC, then my own PC, but they were in the living room and my parents stopped leaving the home as often. Did I see a lot of messed up shit, like shock sites and stuff? Yes, partly by the influence of my friends. I also tried to watch adult content when they were away, was caught a few times, and they even installed a childproofing system that I managed to disable myself.

I mean yes I did see some awful stuff (https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/whats-the-worst-thing-youve-seen.126035/#post-2084009) but at least I'm internet literate and it helped a lot for when I didn't have friends or school to go to.

 

[pointblank]

I browsed the Cartoon Network website and played KND flash game. I would also play MMORPGs like Tantra Online up until the break of dawn at a net cafe lol. Good times.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I've had unrestricted internet access since elementary school because my mom trusted that I'd be responsible enough to avoid adult content. She was actually right to since I generally did my best to practice internet safety from a young age, though I did have a small mishap when I was in middle school where I accidently released some possibly revealing information but that didn't amount to anything and probably won't do shit since I'm an adult now.

 

[CatLvr]

There wasn't an internet when I was a kid, so nope. I spent as much of my time outside as I could.

 

[notreallybored]

I thought television was a lot less censored and explicit in the 70s - 00s or is that just exaggerated ?

ב''ה,

Look at the history of the "fleeting expletive rule." This peaked in the 2000s probably, yet various "groups'" pressure replaced the FCC as the influence, while FCC rules were slow to change for broadcast until it all went into plaid by 2017. Cable was pretty unrestricted the whole time and just made some of the wackier stuff pay to view because, scarce entertainment, fewer loud complaints from people who sunk cost to pay to see whatever.

 

[2messdup]

There wasn't an internet when I was a kid, so nope. I spent as much of my time outside as I could.

Same here.

 

[Electra]

Pretty much yeah

 

[ForgottenAgain]

When I was a child, at some point my parents got a desktop PC. It was one of those with a super heavy monitor that would hurt your eyes. It was running Windows 98.

I didn't have interest in it as I thought it was an adult's boring equipment like a fridge or a vacuum. At some point my father got us diskette games to play on it. I was excited until I played it and it was a game trying to make maths fun haha.

Then it evolved to my parents having one laptop, Windows XP. I have fond memories of my father, my sister and I playing games on apps like GameHouse one at a time. He bought us some games from there: one about a grandma rescuing cats, Insaniquarium, Luxor, Diner Dash...

At 13 I got my own laptop and was unrestricted. I don't think my parents thought anything bad could happen. I was also afraid of angering God so would show my parents every piece of software I wanted to download and ask permission. Spent my time on Neopets, Barbie games website, girls games websites playing dress up and baby games.

At some point I downloaded a videogame that was free and had so much to do. I remember thinking: the characters in the game have so much dialogue, they sound like real people! It was an MMO lol

Made friends with people from the MMO and an online boyfriend. He turned out to be a very angry person but did send me letters in the game with gear for my character. Once we went on a date and he gifted me a brown horse! I tamed a rare rabbit and gifted him so he could have a pet companion.

I loved the Internet I got access to.

 

[Darkover]

i was born 1986 i didn't get access to the internet until 18 years old when i used to go to a internet cafe
that would of been in 2004 when i first access the internet this was before smart phones invented and cloud computing and before social media

 

[LostLily]

Luckily a, since my parents are tech illiterate and too busy with my special needs brother I had unrestricted internet use. But that just led to a internet addiction which I have yet to kick

 

[Lexandro]

No, internet didn't exist when I was a child, I'm 50 :)

 

[avoid]

I had unrestricted internet access but not unrestricted computer access (e.g. no computer after dinner) and no access to the modem and router. At the time my father worked as a sysadmin so I don't know how aware he was of the websites I visited. I've been visiting adult websites since I was 15 years old and he never showed any signs of knowing.

Except, once and only this one time, he asked me about my visit to an adult content website. I replied with that some websites (e.g. TPB and illegal streaming service websites) aggressively push dodgy ads causing visitors to accidentally open various dodgy websites including scam, porn and gambling websites. This is true and happened to me a LOT, but I was also browsing adult content at my own volition.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I had unrestricted internet access but I didn't really do anything with it because I find everything to be so boring anyway

 

[Namelesa]

I have unrestricted internet access which I used to watch youtube videos that my parents won't have liked me to watch back the cus of swearing and inappropriate content but I never swore or said about the stuff I was watching. I also did start watching porn at 13 but I don't really regret it cus its been helpful in figuring out my sexuality and gender and I don't think it negatively effects me like other people.

 

[fishlover]

i remember the fun times of searching my little pony and seeing gore and horse porn

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I mostly did since I was ten years old, though at first I spent all my time on Neopets and other kid-friendly websites. It wasn't until I was like 13 that I started looking into more risqué stuff. My dad even confronted me once about a site that I found but I told him it was from a friend who showed it to me. I don't know if he bought it but I'm sure he just didn't want to talk about it anymore after I gave that excuse. A lot of my knowledge of sex stuff came from Wikipedia and Kidshealth.org and not porn at least. I was mostly scared of porn sites at first because of all the malware and viruses that I was thankfully educated about.

 

[Myforevercharlie]

Internet was a thing of the future when I was young.
I remember we had one PC ( with a matrix printer!) in middle school for our class.

 

[BlendedHeart]

I'm so glad I didn't have Internet when I was a kid or a teenager.

With all of this p*rn at one click distance I would've lost my mind. Now I don't really care about it.

 

[yowai]

Yeah they weren't aware or tech savvy enough to know what or how to ban anything lol, if I ever had children myself I would've never allowed that to happen

 

[Gorbolflungus]

kinda yeah, but id mostly just watch youtube so nothing crazy really

 

[Thisisnotaname]

Yes but 128k ADSL

 

[noname223]

Weird relationship. I am not sure whether I was aware how to clear the browser history but I think a teacher told us that. I think I knew it but not from the beginning. I started to have some internet with 11. I think the first times I used it for my risky stuff was with 13 and 14. My mom scared me with malware and told me not to visit porn sites. They even thought you could easily get viruses which is not my experience now. With a good anti virus programm you can visit a lot of website with not big concerns.

I think my first inapproriate sites were the major yellow press newspaper. I saw which articles my dad clicked on and there were som half nude women. But also like someone else said wikipedia.

I actually watched my first (softcore) porn in German TV. I had some pay TV channels. But my actual first experiences were a sports channel that had such content at 12 a.m. I think the first time I noticed that was on New Years. Lol.

I watched way more gore than porn as a teenager. I am glad I was not exposed to hard core porn that early like a friend of mine. But gore was certainly not helpful in my development.

 

[Cavalcade]

Yes, and frankly, thank God that I did- because otherwise I think I would have gone through even more hell as a gay kid born to conservative Roman Catholics. It gave me a way to speak to other people that didn't hold such terrible views of the world, to make friends in an abusive household where I was being heavily bullied at school and deeply isolated from the world, and to engage in hobbies that I still find solace in to this very day. Sure, I've had my fair share of bad brushes and influences from it, but if I didn't have that outlet, I probably would have been suicidal much earlier in my life.

 

[FinalVoid25]

Yes.

 

[sorrynormal]

Yeah lol. It would often result in people checking my search history and questioning me on it

I remember always having to clear the broswer and file history lol. There was eventually a windows program to make hidden folders that could only be accessed with a special key combination. Good times.

 

[rabidbunny]

yes, ive been online since age 11. ive been groomed a lot, influenced by so many things and honestly im horrified by what my digital footprint might look like. i never usually posted things under my actual name but still. its a part of the reason i hate myself so much. the embarrassment and disgust makes me want to disappear so bad. i wish someone was looking at what i was doing and who i was talking to. i was so young and lonely and insecure.

 

[enough of this]

When I was a child, there wouldn't be internet access for at least another 30 years.

 

[lucyanne]

I did not have the Internet as a child.
It wasn't invented yet.

 

[maneose]

my first memory of internet was literally lesbian porn from the 80-90's i was between 3-5 lmao, never got exposed to gore really much, just tons of porn (to be fair i sought out)