Comments on: Are You Doing Enough To Keep Your Children Safe Online?

By: Kara

Kara — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:26:04 +0000

In reply to Sheila. Yes, we definitely need to teach them the good and bad of the internet. There is so much good to be found but it is so easy for kids to stumble upon the bad. Thanks for your comment!

By: Kara

Kara — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:24:42 +0000

In reply to Susan Evans. I completely agree. Open dialogue is so important and our kids need to know that they can come to us instead of doing a search for the questions that they have.

By: Rex

Rex — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:39:46 +0000

This is a topic that is so important to discuss with children, pre teens, teens and young adults. I spent 9 years as an ecclesiastical leader, the last 7 working with young adults. Every week was spent helping young adults, both male and female deal with and strive to overcome addiction to pornography. As I tried to understand the beginnings of their addiction, I asked when and how they first were exposed and the answers varied but most said that between the ages of 5-9 was their first exposure. Many with something that popped up on a screen while looking at something innocent and safe. Others got exposed to the idea through reading “Fantasy type books” and others through popular young adult or teen books or movies. For example “Team Edward or ?. All of these were innocent enough to begin with but lead to a need for more thrill or excitement type feelings. The internet can be a great tool for learning positive or negative. We need to help our young people learn to flee from bad whether it is “stranger danger” or bad feelings about something they just saw online. Establish the communication lines early and don’t put off having the discussion about safety in all areas. I heard one father tell his young son as he was starting school, “There are many bad drugs out there, some you take with your mouth but some you take with your eyes and they are just as bad for you. Stay away from both and come talk to me if you are not sure.” As families we cannot be too overprotective in these areas. It is so much better to prevent that to try to overcome an addiction.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 14:46:27 +0000

This is important to be sure. We have talked with my son about online safety–especially clicking through links he is not familiar with–since the time he started using the computer. He is getting older and will need to be able to navigate this on his own so we make sure to share our values and what we think the Internet is for and how it can be good and bad at the same time.

By: Susan Evans

Susan Evans — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:15:23 +0000

I’m uneasy about kids having unlimited access to YouTube and other areas of the internet. As a mother of 3 boys, and two of them teenagers, I like to make sure they are in open areas. My husband has also had talks with them about the birds and the bees so that they don’t have to hear about it elsewhere as if it is an unclean secret, at least when it comes to marriage. Teach kids to have good morals, and then hopefully they will make their own decisions wisely.