Many parents nowadays are afraid of the computer and the internet. They find it "beyond" them and many just surrender and give up any form of control with their children with regard to the use of the computer and the internet. But would you let your kids walk on the street blindfolded? Consider these:
* Adult pornographic websites that could trigger urges and reactions in your pre-teens way before they have the necessary maturity or knowledge to handle them.
* Online identity thieves who could beguile and charm your teenagers into revealing confidential information that they could use to their advantage and profit, such as your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, perhaps even bank information.
* Seasoned pedophiliacs who pose in chat rooms as your kids’ peers and buddies, befriend them online and cause them to drop them all caution, and lure them into a more personal encounter where your children can become unsuspecting victims to these sexual predators.
The numbers are alarming. According to 2005 and 2006 statistics of Familysafemedia.com, the largest number of online patrons of website porn are minors from 12-17 years old. Ninety-percent of them log on to porn sites while doing their homework. Fourteen kids out of 100 willingly give out their e-mail addresses to strangers they chat with.
Parents need to develop a plan and strategy to help their kids enjoy the benefits of the internet but at the same time avoid the pitfalls and harm the internet can bring to their children. Here are some pratical steps to do this:
1. Build a loving, trusting and open relationship with your child. Let your child know you are there to love, support and protect him or her in everything and that includes the internet. Let them know that you are there to help them out in case they do make an error of judgement due to innocence or ignorance, not to primarily judge or punish them firsthand.
2. Talk with your kids about the real danger that the internet poses to them. Tell them the harm that pornography does to a person's mind, attitudes and values toward the opposite sex. Tell them they should not reveal private information to anyone they meet in the internet and more importantly why. They should also never agree to meet anyone personally through getting acquainted in the internet.
3. Keep the PC or the laptop in a central area of the house (say lounge or family room) rather than in their own rooms where they can live a separate secret life in the internet. As the Bible says, live in the light and not in the darkness (See Ephesians 5:8-14).
4. Install a personal accountability software such as the one found in http://x3watch.com/ . If you download and install the file, you will be sending information to your selected e-mail addresses (maybe your cell group leaders or elders) about which sites your computers has been going into, all those who use that specific computer. It sends a report either fortnightly or monthly. This software is a great help to make sure your PC is not used for any objectionable material such as pornography.
5. Consider installing parental control and filtering software such as those found in:
Below are useful links about this topic: