Were you as shocked as I was? Well, today, sexting is pretty calm compared to what kids now encounter.
As parents, we must be aware and educated so we can teach our kids “how to react and respond’ when something inappropriate appears on their device.
I started having conversations with my youngest son when he was around seven, letting him know someone was going to show him naked pictures that weren’t appropriate for his age, or just not appropriate at all. We talk about how he might feel when he sees them, we talk about how sad and degrading it is and how pornography typically shows women as objects.
Back in the day, a typical kid’s first exposure to adult content came from a friend showing you a Playboy magazine, or in my case, me sneaking in to read my dad’s adult magazines. My wife remembers her first look at adult content; she and some of her 6th-grade girlfriends were playing at a park and found a cardboard box full of adult magazines.
Neither one of us were prepared in advance as to how we would react, or what feelings we might experience when seeing adult content as our young brains certainly weren’t mature enough to understand what we were seeing.
Back in that day, it was a rare occurrence for kids to be exposed to pornography at such a young age, so the need to prepare their kids in advance wasn’t on most parents radar.
We all know in today’s world, adult content is readily available to kids of all ages. Yes, you do have parental controls for your kid’s devices, (please use them!) never forget though, you cannot monitor or control what is on their friend’s devices, devices that might not be monitored with parental controls.
I strongly believe it’s the parent’s responsibility to EDUCATE themselves on the current trends and popular apps their kids use, to ENGAGE themselves in how their kid(s) use their devices and to PREPARE their kids for content and information they certainly will come across at some time or another while using their devices. These three actions are key to keeping our families safe & smart with the technology we use.
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