Protecting Your Home from Porn – Part 1
The Internet is wonderful, but it’s also a dangerous wild-west of pornography and other inappropriate content. Just as you wouldn’t send your young child on a trip all alone, you shouldn’t do the same for when they log online. They need appropriate guardrails. Dan Wilson talks about three keys steps every parent needs to take in this two-part video and blog.
Read Dan Wilson’s blog on this: Protecting Your Home from Porn—Part 1
A few years ago, my best friend from college called me, and he was in tears. He and his wife kept their family laptop in a nook in the kitchen. And unbeknownst to them, their six-year-old son typed a potty word into the search engine. And then for three weeks, he watched hardcore porn videos until he was caught.
No one wants to be an overprotective parent, but we must confidently protect our kids from porn. In this video, I’ll cover two crucial parts of an Inside-the-Home Protection Plan. And then in a later video, I’ll discuss an Outside-the-Home Protection Plan.
Number one: filter your router. All your internet-enabled devices (laptops, tablets, e-book readers like a Kindle, smartphones, smartwatches, gaming consoles, even the newer TVs) can connect to the internet via your Wi-Fi router. Filtering your router is the best way to block porn at the source, where it can get into your home. You can filter your router by either installing software like OpenDNS.com, or buying a hardware product that filters all internet-enabled devices you assign to your home Wi-Fi network. It acts like a secondary router to the one provided by your internet service provider.
In my home, we bought such a device called the Circle with Disney. After downloading the Circle app on my wife’s phone, we customized the filter for each of our four kids and all their devices. We can set time limits, we can view search histories, we can block specific websites and apps, and set bedtimes, at least for the devices.
But there’s two things these awesome router filters can’t do. First, if your child takes her device over to her friend’s house, she can access the internet on that family’s Wi-Fi that probably isn’t filtered. Second, even if your child is at home, he or she can go to the settings on a smartphone or tablet and disconnect it from your Wi-Fi. Then the data plan kicks in, and the device accesses the internet via their data plan.
Number two: install accountability software on all devices. Accountability software will email a report of internet use to an accountability partner. Your child’s accountability report is a discipleship opportunity to talk with your kids not only about their internet behaviors, but what’s going on in their heart and their walk with the Lord as well. It needs to be said: parents need honesty too, with their own peer accountability partners, your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Now, there’s a lot of great accountability software companies out there. Our staff favors Covenant Eyes. The big point here is to actually check those weekly accountability reports. Accountability software only works when the accountability relationship is working.
Our kids are in a war, outwardly assailed by the world and inwardly struggling with lust and selfishness, confusion and shame. So don’t leave them isolated. Build up your Inside-the-Home Protection Plan, and move toward your child’s heart and encourage them with the grace and hope of Christ. They need that as they face their hyper-pornified culture.
