Is it good to recommend teenagers ATS for education ?

My CT mentor started me at at 14. Sure, I had a rough spot of it and asked to pull out for awhile while my mind resettled ... and it did.

Personally, I think you should first get the child's parents' (both) permission AND the child's permission.

Next, I don't see ATS as a teaching tool for children. It's full of mixed signals and erroneous information.

Teach him or her how to take an idea presented here and research it thoroughly from ALL angles. Use ATS as your own "teacher's idea list" and choose one topic at a time that may interest him or her.

Thinking outside the box is great - but first, one needs to learn how to examine the box inside and out.

Everyone above makes perfect sense in their presented cases, which just shows how we have pretty diverse ideas on things -- without necessarily a consensus -- yet still have this constructive (not destructive) forum for debating our ideas.

It can be convivial; it can be ugly. That's life (and life in the online forums).

In response to the OP: I think you should get the parents' permission before exposing your young cousin to this site. They are his parents; you are not. There is -- rarely, but at times -- some subject matter that is arguably adult in nature. I say that if you are inclined to expose him to this site, then you are of a bent that your cousin's parents already know. Is this cousin someone who's been like a 'little brother' to you? And how, exactly, are you thinking of exposing him to ATS?

If you just want him to open his mind a little more, I'd just talk to him about whatever it is (on ATS) that's important to you... and then tell him about it.... and then, if he seems interested, then suggest a couple of related sites -- based on his interests (#conspiracy; #UFOs, #weather, etc.) -- and then let him start searching for sites and answers on his own. You might suggest ATS as one of those sites, but other than mentioning it, I'd maybe let him find it on his own.

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I have a 12-going-on-20 year old boy. He's always been too big for his britches. Sharp as a tack (but who's kid isn't, right?).

He's been exposed to ATS looking over my should as I've read posts, looked at subject headers, etc.

And he's asked me questions: 'Daddy, what do they mean by X....?'; 'Daddy, are aliens really ruling the world governments?'; 'Daddy, what is HAARP'?...
You get my drift.

I tend to explain to him that -- on this site -- there are various views on these subjects. I try to explain to him the basics of, say, what HAARP is, both in terms of the official explanation *and* what others propose it may be.

And then I send him out on the web (with my guidance, looking over his shoulder), to find out some info on his own. I guide him to the more mainstream scientific sites. I discourage (but don't prevent) him from some of the nonsense extremist/alarmist sites (those that have no basis in any kind of fact). I let him come here.

I expose him to the wide range of views on topics (I just used HAARP as an example).

In the end, he has a lot of info to sift through. And we discuss it. And he considers it. And he forms his own opinions.

As he is too young to have been exposed to enough of the world to be able to sift the wheat from the chaff, I do dissuade him from certain sites and opinions where I think there's an overwhelming irrational -- and more emotional -- response.

In concluding this long explanation, this is just an overview of the kind of critical thinking to which I try to expose my own son.

I don't control his web browsing 24-7. But I would not allow him to be exposed to everything on ATS without giving him my parental/adult context to what he would see here. To paraphrase that famous line uttered by Jack Nicholson's character: 'He just can't handle the truth.'

I want him to decide for himself what the truth is. But he is still young enough to need some guidance to figure out what that is for himself, as a 12-year old's mind still exists in the imaginative and fantastical and the possibilities of the improbable. I don't want to stifle that; yet, I also don't want him to form his opinions from this site by simply reading the headlines and going off half-cocked as if everything on here is fact.

I am still a seeker of the truth, not a holder of it. And as such, I try for now to guide him to try to also be a truth seeker.

I try to not let him enter the 'web of lies' alone.

reply to post by zatara

I think it will do him good. I have a 10 year old, and a 14 year old, both boys, and they always come here and check ATS, and read a lot. Also, I take what I learn and relate it to them, so yes, both are getting the ATS education.

Personally, I think you should introduce him. I mean, let's face it, the American (I'm just assuming that's where you're at) educational system is crap. They don't teach you the truth, they teach you what they WANT you to know.

reply to post by Rising Against


After reading the replies so far I think your view on the matter is because of your own experiance of great value to me. I think many people here on ATS under-estimate the abillities of a 14 year old or teenagers in general.

Ofcourse I wouldn't expose a child to "questionable" information if I thought it could get him in some kind of trouble or if it wasn't spent on him. As other members suggested I think it is wise to ask permission of his parents and will I inform them of the nature of this site.

It is a smart kid and at that age I was also interested in fringe science, strange happenings, mysteries of the pyramids and other ancient places like Easter Island. Politics and its corruption game was too much dry and boring and was personally not interested in that stuff.


It is a bright kid my little cousin and know him well. He is curious and got his head screwed on straight. I think that for him it will be good to read about peoples opinions, ideas and interests. He will be actively busy with the english language when posting his replies, learn to formulate his thoughts and develop an opinion for himself....14 years old is an excellent age to start learning such skills.

Many subjects are viewed here on ATS and can it well be an oportunity for him to gravitate to a certain disipline like archeology, math, physics or whatever he feels inspired to do with his life.

definitely not!

There are adults who lose it reading some of the stuff on here and it takes a maturer mind to discern fiction from fact, and 80% of this site is fiction.

don't do it

Is it good to recommend teenagers ATS for education

I guess it depends on what you want to educate them about. ATS has all sorts of things going on ... If you want to show a teen about how people can de-evolve into a mob mentality then show him/her the Zimmerman threads. If you want to show a teen that there are people who still actually believe that their religion is the only one that is right on the planet, then show them the ATS off topic religion threads. YIKES!! It's a good lesson on how not to act. If you want to show that teen that there is more going on in the world than what the main stream media is spinning ... then definately show him/her ATS.

BTW .. my daughter just turned 16 and she has an account here.
She doesn't post often ... but she's got one and reads threads here from time to time.
(she likes Jim Marrs books)

I don't think saying "they're too young" and putting an opinion of an age limit on visiting this site is very hypocritical.

For one, most on here are always going on about kids being lied to in their history lessons, and that they are deliberately being dumbed-down, but when they're possibly to be introduced to ATS, the truth is too much for them to handle?

I say hell yeah, introduce them to it.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Yea!!! Don't even think about it, just introduce him!!! I was fourteen when I found out everything too, now I'm in deep ^^