Ada Herald Pastor's Pen July 24, 2014

A Necessary Conversation
     
   Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing with readers our family’s technology agreement.  Our approach isn’t foolproof by any means, and one of the things that I have learned the hard way is that it’s best to go slow with handing out digital devices and technological privileges.  It’s harder to take away a digital freedom once granted than it is to be cautious in handing out the privilege in the first place.

   Caution is the order of the day.  Our new technologies are changing our lives in unprecedented ways and it is the better part of wisdom that we approach them with a measure of care.  The technology agreement we adopted provides guardrails in terms of our time by providing opportunities to check out (especially in the evening and on Sundays) and in terms of the content we create or allow on our devices.

    When it comes to content, the overwhelming problem today is pornography.  According to the Huffington Post more porn sites are accessed per month than Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter combined.   Blogger and youth speaker Anne Marie Miller has travelled the country speaking to “church kids” at camps and has found that more young kids are exposed—and addicted—to pornography than ever before.  She points out that Google is the new sex education classroom for today’s children, who are typing in unfamiliar phrases and getting more than they bargained for in the search results.

   Ms. Miller counsels parents not to make the mistake of thinking that your kids are the exception.  As you hand out a new iPhone or iPod touch to your children, it would be wise to discuss your expectations regarding what types of sites are appropriate to visit.  We recently took the step of installing a wireless router in our home that routinely filters questionable content on any device connected to it.  Even if you trust your kids, don’t underestimate the seductiveness—and destructiveness—of this type of content.

   Content isn’t just something our kids are viewing, but it’s also something they’re creating.  A healthy technology discussion with your kids would include reminders that anything they post online is there for the world to see—forever.  Nothing can really be taken back.  We counsel our kids to not hide behind their devices.  We should all have the courage to post only something that we would be willing to say to someone’s face.  If you’d like to see the whole tech agreement we crafted, it will be on our church’s website this week at www.adafirstpres.org.