Parents, do your Children use the Internet?

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Shin

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Sounding the Trumpet Against Pornography

Do not, or do not normally and unsupervised let your children use the Internet.

If you do let them use it, turn off pictures and videos, so that they cannot be shown – this is what parents should normally do for their own sake. I advise all adults, for their own sake - Turn off the pictures on your web browser. Only turn then on if necessary. Get a flash blocker, so that embedded videos can’t be shown automatically. Get a filter. Arm yourself. Learn to deal with the computer.

For example, you can get the Firefox web browser with the IE Tab add-on. You turn off pictures, if you want to turn them on, click the IE tab button. They’re on. It’s an easy, one button solution. The Flashbock addon blocks the videos. All free downloads.

You can turn on content filters.

Only if there is a trusted website (truly trusted), then turn pictures on only for that website. Always be supervising your children on the Internet, never let them go on it without guidance. Children should feel free to say whatever they have to say in front of their parents, if they don’t, there’s a reason they feel guilty.

Educate your children. Teach them about purity from a young age, before they even understand what it is at all. Tell them to pray for it, before they even know what it is. They need the habit -before- it because dangerous, so they aren’t surprised. Learn about purity yourself. What it really means not to be attracted to others improperly, both in the reaction, and in the thought. Read what the saints have to say about purity.

If you put the cap on the torrent of filth from the world, your life will be sweet and beautiful. 🙂

‘Nothing is so beautiful as a pure soul. If we understood this, we could not lose our purity. The pure soul is disengaged from matter, from earthly things, and from itself. . . That is why the saints ill-treated their body, that is why they did not grant it what it required, not even to rise five minutes later, to warm themselves, to eat anything that gave them pleasure. . . For what the body loses the soul gains, and what the body gains the soul loses.’

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

‘The Virgin Mother, all pure and all white, will make her servants pure and white.’

‘If you would keep yourself pure, shun dangerous occasions. Do not trust your own strength. In this matter we can not take too much precaution.’

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

‘Blessed the one who stands in the assembly and prays like an Angel from heaven, keeping his thoughts pure day by day, and has given no entrance to the Evil One to make his soul a prisoner, far from God his Saviour.’

‘Blessed the one who seated in his cell like Angels in heaven keeps his thoughts pure and with his mouth sings praise to the One who has authority over everything that breathe.’

St. Ephrem of Syria

Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.

1 John 2:15-17
 
Yes, Internet become a very big problem for Children. Parents should be aware.
 
My parents did and they let me watch videos/pictures. However, the computer was kept in the living room, we had time limits, during hw, it was for hw and that was it, and afterward, only a certain amount of time on the Internet.

And the conditions for the three of us getting Facebook were that we had to friend them. They got to have access to our AIM contacts, etc. My dad’s actually the techie of the family, so we knew he meant business when he told us something was off limits (especially as we always depended on him to fix the computer!).

Trust me, there was no way they’d let their teen children get involved in porn or something. My dad made sure we knew he could check things even if the history was cleared!

But we needed computers for homework (and one was not enough for the family, if you take AP courses, you need to write a lot of papers) and having iTunes was cheaper than buying CD’s, nor did we have to share CD’s. So my parents decided the best route was to trust us with freedom and punish us harshly, should we abuse it.
 
Yes it is very important for parents to control their children’s activity on the computer. What sites they can visit and how much time they spend on ‘fun’ computer time. I know that high school students who are taking advanced courses do need plenty of time to use the PC, but often that is just typing time rather than time actually on the web.

Thakns for the reminder Shin.
 
As the former design engineer for one of our national carriers I believe you are overreacting a little…

Yes, there is TONS of porn on the net if you go looking for it and from time to time something will pop up but the big bad porn boogyman is not out for your children, he is out to get rich and most young kids don’t have credit cards.

My sons 6, 4, and now even the 2 year old use the Internet daily. As my kindergartner (soon to be first grade) reads on a 3rd grade level he searches for whatever he wants. I have “safe search” turned on on Goggle and thus far (knock on wood) I haven’t had a problem at all with stuff “popping up”… and this is after YEARS of them using the Internet.

Setup sites for them to go to - Hot Wheels, Marvel, Noggin, BigFishGames, Pogo, NickJr, Cartoon Network etc… in the links area and they will spend their time there.

However because my son can now read so well he likes to watch videos on YouTube - I’m cool with this for the most part (all the PCs, 4 of them are in my office so I know what is going on). They like to watch old music videos, movie trailers etc… However he has some older friends now who are wanting to check out Horror type videos. Personally I have no problem at all with Nudity (nudity is not the same thing as sex BTW) as my wife has breastfeed all our sons as have our friends with their children so none of us have made it a “big deal.” However I DO have a problem with graphic violence. I’m ok with Superhero and Cartoon stuff but IMHO no human needs to see some of that stuff regardless of their age.

For years I have used and deployed Blue Coat devices at work and found their content filtering to be the best IMHO.

Thus I’ve been installing K9 on their machines and plan on locking mine in the future. www1.k9webprotection.com/

Don’t mess your browser or computer up, don’t worry about building a linux box to run a content filter etc… K9 is free and it will take care of that for you 👍 It will let YOU choose what you feel is safe and appropriate for your kids… check it out!

Happy Surfing!
Joe
 
As the former design engineer for one of our national carriers I believe you are overreacting a little…

My sons 6, 4, and now even the 2 year old use the Internet daily. As my kindergartner (soon to be first grade) reads on a 3rd grade level he searches for whatever he wants. I have “safe search” turned on on Goggle and thus far (knock on wood) I haven’t had a problem at all with stuff “popping up”… and this is after YEARS of them using the Internet.

Happy Surfing!
Joe
I’m glad you’ve taken some precautions but – I think ignorance is bliss Joe, I’m sure your children have run into it on YouTube. And you do need to care about nudity, it is not harmless. Otherwise people would walk around naked. But they don’t. And there’s a reason. People need to learn a certain bashfulness and shamefacedness, that is a virtue, not something to be overcome.

When we read what the saints have to say about purity, they avoid anything that could possibly harm it like the plague. And it is one, because it kills souls.

That’s why one of the best ways to keep Youtube more harmless, if you are going to use it, which I do not advise generally – But as long you are, do it while supervising and use a flash blocker. Flash is what is most often used to display videos and many advertisements. If you have the Firefox browser and install the free add-on ‘Flashblock’ for every video there will be a placeholder instead, that you have to click on to view. It’s one more step between you and the advertisements. You will not be inundated with the videos you did not choose to see being advertised, which can contain pornographic material displayed before they are even run.

But I still don’t advise your children use Youtube, even supervised with this, what people need is a ‘SafeTube’ that requires all videos previewed before being placed on it, so that the content will always be safe for children.

So if you are doing the Youtube, block all videos but the ones you choose to see, and read between the lines on any video titles before choosing for them to pop up.

Perhaps people have some technological recommendations for people about how to block out unwanted content and more recommendations on filters? 😃

Let me add there are still more things that can be done to protect your children from the pornography on the Internet. And not just the hard porn, but sleaze that is the way many movie and music stars dress like casually. You don’t want your young boys staring at this stuff, you want them trained to look away and to avoid it, to hate it not to love it.

So, one of the ways to protect your children from pornography on the Internet is to install an ad blocker like Ad Aware.

Because this stuff appears in advertisements frequently.

You can also block websites on your own.

This next bit requires a little work.

Inside your computer there is a file that is called ‘hosts’, this file can be used to block all the web pages you do not want displayed.

If you have windows it is by default in your ‘C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc’ directory. Take a look at the link above, and view what the inside of a hosts file looks like. It reads like this:

127.0.0.1 ad.a8.net
127.0.0.1 asy.a8ww.net
127.0.0.1 acezip.net #[SiteAdvisor.acezip.net]

Etc.

It at the beginning is very short. But if you download an ad blocking hosts file and replace the default file, it will be very long. And every time an advertising site in that list tries to display, it will be blocked and give you a default cannot connect to the site webpage instead.

You can add as many websites that you want specifically blocked that you want, just by putting in a new line reading: 127.0.0.1 WebsiteName.ToBlock.Com

And this is very useful because if an advertisement comes up and gets through your defenses, and you right click and view the ‘properties’ it will tell you the website address the advertisement comes from. Then you can put it into the list, save the new hosts file, and block that website for good. 👍
 
My kids are on the computer too…Always monitored and with time limits…And to websites chosen for them…It’s the only way to avoid having to explain something that can traumatize them…
 
*I don’t shut off the images feature …what I don’t allow is for them to have facebook or myspace, I find those areas to be worse than many other sites…a lot of bullying, and cyber nonsense goes on there. A distractive thing, I think. We have a laptop, and recently, had our desktop fixed, and the computer is in the family room, and my dd does view youtube, but to learn guitar songs, ‘riffs,’ etc…

I am not naive, and my kids know what is permissible and what is not. My dh and I have had the internet talk with them. They mainly play online games, or use it for reports for school. I trust them, and if they do something to lose that trust, then, I would consider putting the filter. They stay out of trouble, and are pretty darn good kids. I don’t believe in showing kids that you don’t trust them, right off the bat, especially when they show a level of understanding and maturity in using technology.

But, if I ever needed to, I would consider going these measures. Interesting points.

I would highly recommend NOT putting a computer however, in a kid’s bedroom. It will serve as a distraction, I think…I know that our son with having PS3 in his room, became very distracted at times, and would leave homework to the last minute. THAT we addressed and now have time limits on. See, if you break the trust in our house, then we dole out the restriction. We don’t show lack of trust, until there is a reason to. *
 
You know, I have used the internet for work and personal use since it came to be. I have never ONCE accidently had porn pop up.

I know how to search, what links NOT to click on - it really is simple to avoid the bad stuff.

Kids should never be alone on the computer, the only computer with inet access in the main part of the house and only used when a parent is around.
 
*Shin–are you speaking of pop ups (making sure the blocker is on) or filtering all images? I ask, because sometimes, and I can see this happening, I am looking for a picture of book, or celeb, or something random…and racy pics will be in the line up. :mad: These even happens when I’m looking for a religious picture, etc… :mad: :mad:

So, those images can show up on a screen of other images (in google for example) inadvertently, if you are looking for something completely unrelated. *
 
Shin,

Perhaps you missed it but I designed a Nationwide Internet service back in the 90s with hundreds of thousands of points of presence and now I not only price but also design network and security solutions. I have also trained thousands of people… literally, on how to use the internet for work and play.

All my systems at home, most custom built, have ad blockers, pop up blockers etc…

This isn’t ignorance this is reality. My son’s PC which he watches YouTube on (no PornTube) is 2 feet behind me, I hear and see everything as I’m working at night or surfing (or posting on CA!) 99% of the time it seems.

My point is that people don’t need to be scared, they just need to be cautious. I have NEVER EVER EVER heard of someone turning off images until your post… and obviously I know a lot of Internet users. (did I mention I have one of the early InternetNIC handles for domains from 91?). I say this stuff about my experience not to boost me but to make a point.

Anyone can make a video and scare people… The truth is there is a lot of bad stuff out there and regrettably I know where to find it pretty easily. However I also know how to block it.

A good content filter, like the one I mentioned is really all you need as pretty much every browser has a pop up blocker. Keep viruses out with an antivirus and turn on automatic updates.

Last point, do you REALLY think that all these fortune 500 companies would just be running content filters and proxys if they thought porn was still going to get through? All it takes is 1 lawsuit.

My advice is a good filter AND (this is the big one) supervise your children to know what they are doing online, teach them what CAN happen then set high expectations and follow through once they are teenagers should they break those rules.

Joe
 
Well, if I said it once i’ll say it again. Do not, really on filters. It doesn’t take brains to get through them. It takes even less brains to search for ways to get through them. Supervise the children is the only sure way.
 
Yes, they use the Internet extensively. They have NEVER had anything resembling porn pop up. Ever. I check their history fairly regularly and rather randomly. Nothing remotely scandoulous is EVER there. They are teen boys who have used the Internet for over 10 years now.

I have the browser pop up enabled, a good anti-virus program, and a good firewall set up. No other filters are enabled.

I told my boys what I expect and they know the consequences.

They use it mainly for homework, Flash games, WOW gaming, iTunes, and Facebook. I have their Facebook passwords and go on to see what they are saying there as well. It is all pretty innocuous.
 
Yes, time limits and especially keeping the computer in a public space where the screen is visible to passersby. Our kids computer is positioned so I can see the screen from my office where I work.

You should occasionally check the “history” tab to see what websites they have visited.

In addition to porn there are also sites with vulgar content for kids (the type of stuff that appeals to 10-12 boys). Also, I try to limit all commercial sites whose purpose is to convince a child to ask their parents to buy them more stuff. 😦

JB
 
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