That's so sad, when I was first aloud to "roam free" on the web at 12 was when I taught myself basic and pascal.

I used it differently back then too. I opened a browser with what I wanted in mind, I found it, then I closed the browser and did something else. There was never this mindless wandering or idle talking, just fetching pdfs and saving html tutorials and downloading compilers. Maybe I've romanticized it though...