We’re not anti-internet. We have email and we run a website. We post photos to Flickr and we buy things from Amazon. But we don’t feel that we need to surrender our responsibility to teach our kids how to navigate the internet. We don’t allow what ‘all the other kids’ do at their home to dictate how our house is run.
Ten-year old Plum, is not allowed to be on the internet for more than 30 minutes a day as we feel she should spend the majority of her time in the ‘real’ world, reading, writing, and running around outside just being a kid. The time Plum does spend on the internet is supervised- a parent is in the same room. Three-year old, Bluey, doesn’t go on the internet at all unless he’s watching from a parent-approved selection of music videos (see Will.i.am). 
Our only internet connection is on the family computer, which is in our living room. And we have no plans to change this at any point in the future. Much to Plum’s chagrin, we tell her there’s nothing to see on the internet in her room that she can’t see in the living room. If Mom or Dad want to research or watch something that isn’t entirely family friendly, we just wait until the kids are asleep or in school.
Children learn how to move about their neighborhood independently through a step-by-step process. Maybe they are allowed to go around the block, or walk to school by themselves, but they’re not allowed to cross a busy street. The internet works the same way for us. Our children progress through steps of increased independence on the internet, so they emerge as young adults who understand the value and the risks of it.
Plum doesn’t have a FB account. She is actually 3 years younger than the FB defined age of permissibility though that doesn’t stop many kids. She has an email set up through Zilladog which she uses rather infrequently. Plum enjoys Webkinz, searching for songs to purchase on iTunes, and researching her latest obsession- bow & arrow sets (thank you , Hunger Games).
We see no reason to allow Plum full, unsupervised run of the internet. A naïve search for a youtube video can yield countless inappropriate hits. As can anything seemingly benign entered into Google. In this day and age, innocence passes by incredibly quickly. We want to keep our children as protected as possible for as long as we deem appropriate. Since we are in the same room when Plum uses the internet, anything she stumbles upon can be discussed immediately. And most importantly, anything that she is exposed to that is beyond her age, we can STOP instantly.
And no! We aren’t sheltering her in some aggressive way. We have very interesting discussions on politics, sexuality, history, etc. But the difference is simple – these are face to face, robust conversations! Internet usage that is unsupervised is a flat interaction with no incentive to discuss whatever you stumble upon.
This is what works for our family.