How do you onboard children onto the digital world?

Question

Hey folks! My local community is having more and more discussions around smartphone and computer use for children/teenager!There is a lot of fear and helplessness. Shutting computers down as much as possible etc.I am looking for a &ldquo;Hackers Guide to the digital age for children&rdquo;. I want my kids to be curious, explore, break things. Is this naive? Is social media destroying the fun part about computers?Anyone here has a guide or suggestions how to teach or onboard kids to computers with a hacker mindset? As in exploration?

JohnFen · Accepted Answer

The hacker mindset encompasses far more than computers (and doesn't necessarily involve computers). Hackers are found in every domain. So, if your goal is to encourage thinking like a hacker in children, I think the first thing to do is to identify what sorts of things the particular children are interested in and encourage the hacker mindset with those things.
But in terms of computers, I think the most important thing is that the kids have their hands on things that are OK for them to break, modify, and generally futz around with in whatever ways excite them.
The hacker mindset is one of curiosity and experimentation, and I think children need an environment and tools where they can engage in those things with minimal risk of incurring the wrath of grownups.