Zahavasdad makes a good point. Flowers – guns are not banned either, even if I don’t give them to my kids. What about a chain saw…would you give one to your kids? According to your logic we should thus ban chain saws.
There is obviously quite a large range between banning an admittedly dangerous tool (a description that can apply to the internet, guns, or chain saws) and giving your kids (or yourself) free reign to do what you want with it. It has to be treated with the proper care and respect, not be banned.
Most of the gedolim in America came to this realization in the last few years. Those in Eretz Yisrael are generally at the same place as the American gedolim were about 15 years ago, when even the American gedolim favored banning, for the most part. Things happen more slowly in EY, but mark my words, the day will arrive when the Internet will be an absolute necessity, first in the US and a decade or two later in EY. And this isn’t many decades away either. The American gedolim currently are working with the underlying truth that if we don’t work to protect ourselves from it, we will be in a much worse situation. I predict the gedolim in EY will do the same within the next 10-15 years, and possibly much sooner.
(Please don’t get me wrong…I am not saying that the gedolim in EY don’t “get it yet” C”V. I just mean that in EY they are not yet at that stage where it is as widespread a necessity. And there are a number of gedolim in EY who already are beginning to work to find a solution for the internet, as opposed to banning it, though they may choose to be less vocal than those who favor banning it altogether.)