Did your son or daughter get a new mobile device for Christmas? If so, have you talked with them about using it appropriately and avoiding inappropriate things?
Here are a few tips that may help:
Family Safeguards
Has your family discussed together the benefits and the potential risks of using technology? Have you established any family rules about when and how to use your devices? You can help keep your family safe by establishing family guidelines and a culture of trust where family members support each other. I discussed this in more depth in a previous article where I provided a downloadable document Family Safeguards for Using Technology.
Read the booklet Parenting the Internet Generation.
Filtering and Accountability
One of the best programs I’ve seen to help your family stay clear of pornography is Covenant Eyes, a Christian-based program that provides internet filtering, but the real strength is in their Accountability System where you identify an Accountability Partner. Learn more.
Additional Resources
On this site, I maintain an ongoing page (shown in the right sidebar) that lists resources in overcoming pornography from the Church and from other sources.
In Europe many members see this subject a little bit differently than those in Utah. When I take my family to the beach many women choose to be topless and people change into swimsuits on the beach with no shame of being seen naked for a moment. Children are free to run around without any kind of swimsuit until about age six. Women regularly breastfeed in public without shame. The human body is more normalised. Nudity is not equated with pornography. Pornography is more seeing a human being and treating them as an object with disrespect. So I teach my children to treat people with dignity. They know what people look like in healthy nonsexual situations. They are naturally curious. But when they do encounter true pornography they will have the tools to say “that is not how I wish to treat others” or “that’s so fake, that’s not how real people look”. in this way porn will either be a turn off or simply no big deal.
Jan – your response is quite intriguing to me. I think it gets to the heart of the matter, and is truly following the “spirit of the law” more than adhering to cultural norms. Thank you for sharing.