9 Simple Ways to Immediately Protect Your Kids from the Internet

Bekki — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 04:45:00 +0000

Inside: Protect Your kids from Porn and other Online Dangers. Steps that any parent can take.

Huge eyes reveal something is not right.

The pale color of his face, the quick breaths. He opens his mouth but cannot seem to find the words to tell you. And then, through sobs, he begins talking so fast you can barely catch what he is saying.

And then it hits you like a brick. Your heart sinks into your stomach as you realized what he is saying.

“Oh Dear Lord, No!”

Nothing melts the heart faster than hearing your 8-year old describe what he stumbled upon

on the Internet.

His shame, confusion, guilt, and sobs break your heart into a million pieces.

Sometimes we are Forced to backpedal in Parenting.

We never mean for our kids to be exposed to porn.

We never place our babies in front of a screen, brush their baby fine hair away from their big sparkly eyes, give them a quick hug and say, “This is the moment you will lose your innocence, sweetie.”

We never mean for it to happen.

We never plan to have to explain those things to such a young child.

But it did happen.

And we do have to explain.

We try to bless our kids with:

Good shoes.
A warm bed.
Healthy food.
Access to the Internet.

We have them using the tools of this “day and age” because learning is amazing. …and then it ambushes them.

So what’s a parent to do besides burn all the modern technology?

Practice

Just today my 11-year-old was doing some research about owls. He is reading The Capture by Kathryn Lasky and he wanted to see if owls really have blind snakes that tend their nests like they do in the story.

I had him sit next to me and pull up the browser.

I said, “OK, what do you do if something awful pops up on the screen?”

I remember being about 5-years old when I stumbled upon a Playboy magazine.

photo by Bartosz Richter

Those pictures made a forever impact on my life.

Is that what a woman was supposed to look like? Why were they doing that?

Why do I feel like this in my stomach?

I never told my parents what I had seen.

I simply carried it around with me for the rest of my life.

I was lucky. I think I have only encountered pornographic images a handful of times in my life.

But then again, I am older than the Internet.

Truth: Our kids are not growing up in the same world that we were raised in.

The Problem with Smartphones

Kids today are practically issued a cell phone at birth. We need to protect them. In America, the average age for kids to receive their first cell phone is 10.

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Parents hand their babies their smart devices to keep them quiet and occupied at the doctor’s office, restaurant table, and even in church. Sometimes, it’s the best we can do in that moment.

The doctor is running a full hour behind, the baby missed her nap, your 4-year old is hangry, and your 9-year-old is running a 102 fever. Yes, you hand your kids your smartphone to give them something to focus on rather than seeing who can scream the loudest in the 2 foot by 2-foot room you find yourself occupying.

No judging here.

I have handed over my phone to each of my five children many times. I have a son who is drawn to a lit screen like a tractor beam locked onto the millennium falcon. If it has a screen, he is powerless. While we could spend the next hundred years talking about the risks and benefits of too much/too little screen time, that’s not what I am talking about today. We have strict rules in our home regarding technology. Why? Because the Internet is a very dark, very helpful, very disgusting, very polluted place.

While technology is an amazing tool bringing spell-check, entertainment, and an endless supply of knowledge and pictures of cute puppies to our families, it is also filled with the most unimaginable trash. When we let our kids uses technology, no matter how old they are, we need to equip them with an escape plan for when they find themselves in a dark hole.

What Should Our Kids Do When they Stumble upon Pornography or Worse?

Mama, your child will be exposed to the unthinkable. I wish that it were not so. I also wish Breyer’s Ice Cream had 10 calories per serving.

It is not a matter of if they will be exposed to pornography, but WHEN.

“Not on my watch!” We declare.

But we are being naive.

Kids today have access to the Internet almost everywhere they go. Their friends have access. Their teammates have access. Kids ambush each other. “LOOK!” In a split second, your precious child is exposed.

So what do they do?

Simple Ways to You can Protect your Child from the Dangers on the Internet.

Photo by Ben White

1. Lock down all devices with parental controls.

2. Limit screen time.

Remember, you are the parent. While I cannot tell you what your family’s boundaries should be, I would recommend that you develop boundaries and stick to them.

3. Turn off your Internet at night.

A recipe for disaster is a child with Internet sitting in the dark without supervision.

Related: Net Nanny Is The #1 Award-Winning Internet Monitoring Software That Gives Parents The Power To Protect Children By Filtering Out The Harmful Content And Other Dangers Of The Internet.

4. Establish safe and very public technology zones.

In our home, all screens must be visible at all times.
No technology is allowed in bathrooms or bedrooms. (Actually, we do not allow technology upstairs at all either)
If parents say, “Hands up!” our sons must remove their hands from the keyboard immediately and then we take their technology from them to see exactly what they are doing. Kids learn very quickly how to make it look like they are being innocent. Yes, even my kids, maybe even yours.
Maintain parental ownership of all tech. At any point, on any day, for any reason, confiscate their technology and go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Kids need to know that they do not have free reign to do whatever they want.

5. Give them an escape plan. {Grab your printable below}

What Should Our Kids Do When they Stumble upon Pornography or Worse?

Have a plan.

Photo by Lukasz Dec

But what happens when we do everything “right” and our kids still stumble upon junk?

Like I said, I wish it wasn’t so.

Ice cream should have no calories and no child should ever be exposed to pornography or worse.

But it will happen. So what should they do?

First, assure them that they did nothing wrong if they are searching for a school assignment and something terrible pops up. It happens to me, I’m guessing it has happened to you, and I know it’s happened to our kids (Or it will).

5. Define Junk.

I am not suggesting you go into the gory details of beastiality or child pornography. I am suggesting that you share that good, great, bad, and dangerous information and pictures are all over the Internet. They will know when they stumble upon something that is wrong. “Trust your gut”. You can feel it in your stomach. (Be warned. The first time we prepped our older sons they were 8 and 5. One of them burst into tears because he had already been exposed to garbage and didn’t know how to talk to us about it. Talk about breaking a mama’s heart!)

6. Look Away.

The moment kids realize something is wrong, they need to look away. We tell our kids to close the laptop, turn over the phone, or close the device. This simple trick empowers kis with an escape path when danger jumps into sight.

7. Tell

We tell our kids to immediately tell us when they have stumbled upon something. We want them to know they can talk to us and that we will get rid of the junk. Establish a safe zone for this type of conversation. These things are hard enough on their own without adding fear of getting in trouble.

8. Talk

Talk about what they saw. Pray. Pray with them and then pray for them.

9. Best Tip: Role Play.

When your kids are using the computer ask them what will they do if something bad pops onto the screen? Have them show you. Practice. Not every day, but often. They younger they are, the more important this is to practice because it gets it into their muscle memory long before there is an issue (Hopefully).

Do not fear the Internet.

But do not trust it either.

It can sneak up on you. Actually, it will sneak up on you. It’s terrible.

But with a plan, your kids will know what to do when their spirits are in danger of being destroyed.

How early is too early to prep them?

Honestly, If they can look at a screen alone, they need a plan.

Statistically, most kids have been exposed to pornography long before they blow out 16 candles on their birthday cake.

As a homeschooling mom, I rely heavily on the Internet for all kinds of things.

Whether my 11-year-old is researching the places and landmarks within the Percy Jackson stories, or my 18-year-old is researching artwork to inspire his screenplay, my kids, your kids, our kids are online a lot.

We must know our enemy in order to defeat them.

We need to KNOW that there are Internet traps made to snare our kids.

We need to know that there is a science behind getting kids to stumble upon pornography.

We need to KNOW that it is only a matter time before our babies are in danger of having their purity polluted through their eyes.

We need to KNOW that we have the ability to equip them to defend themselves.

We need to KNOW we have tools that can help us protect our kids, but they still need an escape plan.

No, Ice cream is not the healthy snack it should be. Neither is the Internet the safe haven of learning and exploring that it should be either.

Let’s equip our kids with the skills they need to stay safe from garbage.

Let’s do our part as parents to keep the technology boundaries firm and well established and safeguard our kids from things that make them cry.

Better still, let’s enjoy a scoop of our favorite ice cream together.

Photo by Igor Ovsyannkov

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