MUST READ Tip – How to Protect Your Family’s Eyes from Porn {UNITE Link-Up}

They simply clicked on a link about a local girl’s volleyball team. It wasn’t where they were headed. Someone clearly made an imposter site and attached photos that were highly upsetting.

A friend tried downloading a link, giving access to watch the Superbowl. Little did they know, porn plagued the internet like an angry set of killer bees, attacking, disturbing any sort of assemblance of peace or safety, over the next couple of weeks.

Many receive e-mails marketing inappropriate “relationships”, unknowingly download “free” content with hidden, disgusting images, are forced to see explicit pop-ups, direct messages, Facebook solicitations, as well as a whole host of unwelcomed content frequently.

This world seems far from safe, secure. It’s a place families, even vulnerable children’s eyes, are rarely protected while searching the internet. It’s almost guaranteed; our children, spouses, and even we, will at one point or another stumble across something that will scar our hearts and plalgue our minds.

When I was a child, I could hear my parents downstairs each night before they went to bed. They carefully inspected their five bedroom house, not only shutting, but locking each window and door to keep their family safe. Out of love, they wanted to make sure no one could harm or hurt their family….especially their children.

It’s universally accepted, one of parent’s primary job is to protect their children.

Yet, most of us fail to realize…

The internet also has “doors” and “windows”, not visible or seen, harmful access ways requiring parents to lock diligently, offensively use forsight to protect our families and children.

Our youth have teens sneak inappropriate photos to them via snapchat. They can be frequently exposed to sexualized content on Instagram. Many of our childre run smack-dab into a thousand different disturbing messages via all different streams of social media…

Yet as a society, we often fail to talk about it or even think about it. So….

• How does a parent nagivate this madness? Chase down an unseen “villian” of such vial or sexualized content?
• Does it seem so overwhelming, so we just shut it out of our heads, deeming “social media” something primarily for the younger generation? 
• Have we perverbially thrown our hands up and assumed our children will just “figure it out” for themselves, turn away, or just magically be immune from it?

As a child I used to sing in Sunday School, “Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.” I am reminded of that song innocently. Still, I wonder, how many of us actually think about, weigh, or give any real merit to what we see, hear, or touch?

Have we become a culture of people that long to “hear the facts” first, then we will will weigh it? Do we state, we need to see visible “evidence” before we make any decisions? Have we demanded to step out and “experience” before we feel confident enough to label something good or bad?

A few things I’ve considered lately…

• God makes us our children’s parents, and their safety should be our primary focus.
• Questionable content can be a slippery slope, whether mildly “off” or severely provocative.
• Lust and any sin, promises “enjoyment”, but in the end, will always take us farther than we think.
• Evil content and it’s purposes are to steal, kill, and destroy everything good in your life.
• As parents, we are accountable to God for what our kids see, hear, and do.
• Young children want us to protect them, but don’t know where or how to ask for help.
• It is time we get off the sidelines and start talking to our kids about the dangers of the internet….not with doom and gloom…but with educated awareness, conversations about boundaries and dangers…using every tool possible to proactively protect them.

INTRODUCING CIRCLE – (Please note: This is NOT a paid, solicited advertisement)

I breathed deep when I first plugged it in, not because my home was that different from yours, but because finally there was an answer besides filters that didn’t work. It felt good to know I could monitor sites like Youtube who seemed to constantly offer questionable content just one video away.

As I set Circle up, I knew I was, “locking unseen doors and windows”. It was empowering to be able to specifically place a kids rating for my children, blocking out things like “mature” and “Explicit content”, while personally filtering sites I didn’t want, like “dating”, and “gambling”. I also could add privacy settings such as “Ad blocking”, “Safe search”, and “Youtube restrictions”.

It was that feeling when you’ve gone through your entire house, and no only shut every window, but checked again that every entrance was securely locked and sealed. No one was sneaking into my house, unwanted.

It felt good to get to sit back and trust our family’s eyes would stay safe.

In setting up Disney Circle, I realized my home had more than a dozen devices that could access the internet; Netflix, Roku, iphone watches, Kindle, Amazon fire and many more. So many windows and doors, once potentially open, all with world-wide access to content dangerous and unwelcomed.

Disney Circle was an answer to uncounted internet hours of trying to unsuccessfully filter computers, block unwanted messages, discern the credibility of information infiltrating our e-mails or text messages. 

Disney’s small, white box sits quietly in the closet, after setting up each account, can track internet hours per person. With just one click from the master cell, we can shut off internet at specific hours, such as dinner time, or late in the evenings. We can pause accounts or internet sources, or even track down what sites each person, or even guests in our home are using. 

Each filter can be custom and very specifically designed per person. For example, my eleven-year-old is not on Youtube without me. I have heard of too many stories of kids as young as seven and eight who randomly started watching videos unsupervised, and before long become addicted to pornography.

Disney Circle is worth the investment of $99.00. We purchased it on sale for $79.00. It’s well worth any price. We paid hundreds for our home security system. Most even pay thousands for gates, fences, and alarms to protect their valuables and residence. Yet, we leave our children exposed.

What is more valuable than this next generation? If we would pay thousands to protect our homes, $100.00 is nothing, to protect the eyes, minds, and hearts of our children?

Porn lurked behind sites such as “Barbie”. It can sneak in through guests that come in your home via e-mails or “friends” you share on Facebook. Disney Circle allows you to put filters on content of teens or others who surf the net in your home, or to block internet all together, until after a child has done chores.

When I was in Elementary School, a fifth grade boy brought a pile of kids behind the gym to show them his Dad’s “girly” magazine. I was very shy then and lay awake for hours for nights on end, meditating on how dirty I felt afterwards. At the same time, if it happened again, I was able to walk away. Kids today are not so lucky. 

Young people need us as parents to sound the alarm about the dangers of the internet. Our children need us to be their eyes and ears, until they learn the skills to nagivate the internet for themselves, educating them about safety, using wisdom, and the serious business of opening a door to a world of disturbing material.

Our youth today, need us as parents, to not only shut, but lock the doors and windows of every unwanted aspects of the internet, guarding their hearts, protecting their minds…allowing maturity, discernment and cautious navigation to be something they are wise with…

Instead, kids today are bombarded, carelessly thrust face-to-face with disgusting messages and images, left without tools, and then expected to, “figure it out”.

When we leave our children unguarded, it is like leaving them alone in the mall with a bunch of pediphiles and then expecting them to discern which people are good and which ones are bad. As parents, it’s our job to go in first, navigate, and clear out what is unsafe and unwanted, before thrusting our children into any atmosphere…especially the internet.

Be a voice parents! Speak loud and often about concerns you see on the internet!

Warn other parents when you find something disturbing. Talk to your children about safe links, people, and media. Get the word out about which sites are acceptable, and which ones need extra protection.

In a time of the World Wide Web, we can feel small, as if we aren’t big enough to stop what content is being offered to our children. However, here are examples of parents voices making a difference, just last week alone…

• Parents ragged and shared posts about the dangers of new “mature” content on Snapchat, who planned to offer “an X-rated weekly edition that goes live every Friday…” called “Cosmo After Dark”. Snapchat got flack, and stopped this new material from exposing our children. Victory. 
• A kid’s movie, “Show Dogs”, was airing, where parents became outraged because there were parts about “petting private parts” in it, seemingly groom kids for unwanted sexual solicitations. There was outrage. Blog posts. Parents voices were heard. The movie was taken down and cut of disturbing scenes. Let’s celebrate loud parents.

The internet can be daunting. But, we are the gatekeepers of those God’s put in our care. Let’s steward our children’s lives well, doing whatever is necessary to make sure their eyes stay pure, their hearts remain clean.

Let’s “lock the doors and windows” to unwanted content, resting in peace and trusting we’ve done everything we can, to keep our children safe.

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