Focus On The Family

Last evening, our whole family watched (via internet) a live broadcast from Focus On The Family entitled FAMILY PROTECTION: Online Safety, Media Discernment, and Cultural Influences.

http://www.family.org/protection/A000002825.cfm

We have always had concerns regarding internet safety for our children resulting in very limited access and extremely close supervision by us. DadToCherubs has personally been involved (on the technical end) of more than a few sad stories pertaining to families, their children, and the internet. We did hear about some new tools - Safe Eyes (internet filter) and various monitoring tools that we are going to look into for clients and perhaps for our own use as well. Our children were quite impressed when they heard about the risks, the outright dangers, about safe use, about discretion being needed, about not giving personal information, about making good choices with searches, about holding themselves accountible and behaving responsibly online - not that they have never heard these messages before, but somehow hearing them again from another source seemed beneficial. With a few "tools" in place, DadToCherubs and I are inspired to give our older children a TEENY bit more access to the World Wide Web .... very closely supervised by tools, and of course under our watchful gaze at all times (which is, our opinion by the way, the BEST protection of them all !).

The guests gave some hair-raising statistics ... how many children in this country have unrestricted access to TV, internet, and other tech-media without any supervision - how many lives are changed (negatively) due to this "freedom", and some specifics as to HOW they are changed - scores of reported incidents of children being stalked, cyber-bullied, and contacted inappropriately (and only guesses as to how many incidents go unreported). It was frightening to hear that a recent poll showed that 1:3 children between 6-18yo are cyber-bullied, and the 1:5 children 6-18yo are stalked online at some point. CRAZY !!

They also went into some depth concerning MySpace and FaceBook, some of the safety features that are available, and even some advice on their useage. And of course chatrooms, virtual rooms, instant messenger services were covered as well. There were even some topics that DadToCherubs was not even aware of ... game sites, game circles, file sharing and moving with only user name info ... YIKES !!

Time and time again, though many protective measures were discussed, it was clearly said that NOTHING IS FOOLPROOF, and NOTHING IS GUARANTEED "SAFE". Of course, we already knew this. And it was said "even if you can trust your child, the biggest concern out there is that you absolutely cannot trust anyone else online because there is no way to confirm who they are vs who they SAY they are. The other statement was the the secular world would have our mantra be "kids will be kids - you cannot protect them forever - they need to find their own values - they have a right to freedom and privacy". Those secular messages stated so clearly were alone the scariest part of all !! Even our child who challenges our authority most of all (and will someday make a wonderful lawyer - HA !) said "Wow - it is really scarey to think that many parents really believe that junk." Hummmmmmm ....

We also (according to our children - HA!) are the last parents on the earth that have not given their children cell phones - for calls, texting, and such. However, this will not change anytime soon. We do not "drop off" our children anywhere, so the only NEED we could find for a cell phone was to call Mom or Dad from upstairs or downstairs - " is my red shirt clean ?" or maybe "is dinner ready?". Nope - not necessary. But having a better understanding of this medium for future knowledge is certaily great. DadToCherubs and I are old fashioned - our cell phones are for CALLS rather than games, texting, and such. HA !!

And finally, the discussions about these mediums of communication - how they are impacting the lives and behavior of children and adults - for better and for worse. It was interesting to hear how these modes of communication are changing "traditional" means of communication and behavior - writing, speaking, and more - from the perspective of educators, parents, clergy, and even law enforcement officials. These topics gave us ALL some things to seriously consider.

DadToCherubs and I highly recommend listening to this broadcast for all parents who are raising children in our tech-driven world. It was very beneficial to us, even with Dad being very tech-savy (and Mom, well, not so much). For our children, it opened a dialogue that will likely continue for years to come. It also impressed on them the true seriousness of the "tech" world.