Danger Will Robinson! Family Internet Part 2

dangerwillrobinson… I hear regularly about a child who gains access to internet porn via a portal that they were unaware existed!  When I ask, parents tell me that  they are careful about their children’s internet usage and access by telling me that the family computer is in a public space… or maybe they have put a program that allows them to access the history of the computer.

They are naïve.

Here are some things you need to know in regards to your children’s internet access that you may not be aware of:

Essentially all game systems and game devices have internet access and typically has a search engine built in.

Your child’s ipod, ipad, or smart phone has built in internet search engine.   It offers unfiltered and unfettered access to anything on the internet.  Videos, chat rooms, live cameras… it is there.

For example, most apple products have something called “restrictions” under “general” in the settings.  There, a parent can turn on, code, and limit or restrict video access, internet access, etc.
Safari can be turned off entirely… and I recommend it.iphone_restriction_2

If you think your child needs internet access on the device, (and I would challenge this – most everything a child would need can be gotten from a more narrowly defined Ap.) then I would say the best option would be to purchase a search engine ap… Bsecure and Covenant Eyes are two options that I know people recommend… I am sure there are more…  They are filtered and an email can be scheduled to be sent to the address of your choice with a report… and if you get the full account with them, you have all kinds of further features.

Speaking of Aps, many Aps have internet access built in… many, in fact… but most of them only allow the user to access their materials, game page, etc.  However, others have built in search engines!  Facebook’s Ap is one of these.  In order to surf the web, one need only open the Ap and click a link.  Since it is what it is, the access will go around any other kind of filter.

Be aware of which Aps are on your child’s device and what their capacities are.

Did you know that your family’s game system probably also has internet capacity?  Your Play Station, Xbox, and even your Wii can get online and search online with little effort.
Netflix and other movie systems often have access to all kinds of movies, documentaries, and shows with ratings of all kind… unless you intentionally create settings and passwords.  In fact, many modern televisions come equipped with direct internet access!  Does yours?

There is another issue as well:

Texting.

Too often parents are also unaware of what goes on in their child’s texting life… all 3000 of the monthly texts 😉
Too many kids are foolishly (and kids are foolish) sending sexual texts; like historically used to happen with Facebook and email.  Texts are even less accountable in nature.

Something came up in my office a year or so ago:  a middle school girl had sent a topless photo of herself, via text, to her boyfriend.   Showing off, he sent it to a few of his friends… one apparently out of state.  In that moment, he had unknowingly broken federal trafficking child porn laws!

Like so many powerful things, there is little room for error with the internet.

Unlike most powerful things, the internet is easily accessible to virtually everyone with no training necessary… and no decades for a system of ethics to develop and be trained into us.

It is vital that we are diligent to monitor our children’s texting habits.

And something you may not know is that many Aps have additional texting capabilities – many games have chat rooms for talk between the players, but there is little-to-no policing of that activity.  One game I play has one comment thread that is 18 and over only for crass humor but there isn’t any way to police it.

Numerous Aps and other programs that are otherwise kid-friendly have text capacities or internet access.
You have to be aware of which ones offer which things… and know that most of your kids are being pressured to load in and use the Aps that are secretive, allow photos, have limited accountability and more.  You need to regularly search for scary and dangerous Aps for kids and then check your children’s access points.  I could post a list, but it would be badapps1outdated by the time I posted.

Honestly, there is nothing equivalent to being involved enough to see what is going on in your children’s life… make sure you are aware of what they are doing and what access they have… who knows, you might even enjoy some of the same programs.

The way we handle this is:  we only use one itunes account shared by the children and me… furthermore, the kids cannot purchase or without the password that only my wife knows (and my office manager)…  and we will continue this through their childhood and teen years… once we approve an ap or program, they can play it, but we can still be aware of them – because they automatically upload on my devices too!

Stay in touch.  Be aware.  Too many moms and dads aren’t even aware of all of the portals for the internet in their homes… don’t let that be you.

0 thoughts on “Danger Will Robinson! Family Internet Part 2

  1. AWESOME POST Chris!!! And a little somthing I thought you Would Like .
    Posted on Desiring god by.john Piper
    Dr.Clyde Kilby had a pastoral heart and a poet’s eye. He pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature. He was not naïve. He knew of sin. He knew of the necessity of redemption in Christ. But he would have said that Christ purchased new eyes for us as well as new hearts. His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things. He ended that lecture in 1976 with a list of resolutions. As a tribute to my teacher and a blessing to your soul, I offer them for your joy.
    1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.
    2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”
    3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
    4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.
    5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.
    6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.
    7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”
    8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.
    9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.
    10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this veryday, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.