Undoubtedly if you have children you have been asked by a child for some sort of new technology. Smart phones are everywhere. Its a scary world technology is, and it is dangerous for our children once they enter it.
Its a scary world for even the most mature adults to be in. Here are a few startling statistics:
- More and younger children are accessing internet pornography. The average age of first exposure is 11 (Randel and Sanchez, “Huffington Post” – 2016). However, “children under 10 now account for 22% of online porn consumption under 18” (British Journal of School Nursing.)
- 93.2% of boys and 62.1% of girls have seen online pornography before age 18.
(http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html – accessed June 6, 2014). - 21% of Christian men and 2% of Christian women say they think they might be “addicted” to pornography or aren’t sure if they are (compared to 10% of non-Christian men and 4% of non-Christian women). 2014 Pornography Survey and Statistics. Proven Men Ministries. http://www.provenmen.org/2014pornsurvey/ (accessed Dec. 29, 2015).
- 28% of Christian men and 11% of Christian women say they were first exposed to pornography before the age of 12 (compared to 23% of non-Christian men and 24% of non-Christian women). 2014 Pornography Survey and Statistics. Proven Men Ministries. http://www.provenmen.org/2014pornsurvey/ (accessed Dec. 29, 2015).
- At least one in four teens are receiving sexually explicit texts and emails, and at least one in seven are sending sexts. More than one in 10 teens are forwarding these sexts without consent, the study found. And roughly one in 12 teens have had sexts they sent shared without their permission. (Reuters Health, Feburay 2018)
- Since 2013, the amount of time young kids spend on mobile devices has tripled from 15 minutes a day in 2013 to 48 minutes a day in 2017. (The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight 2017)
- Children are accessing pornography via mobile devices. PornHub said its users watched 4.6 billion hours of pornography in 2016, 61% via smartphone and 11% via tablet.
- Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular social sites for Gen Z and Millennials, garnering 71 percent and 66 percent of mentions respectively. Facebook is at 54 percent while Twitter sits at 42 percent, though these are still trending with the youth, they have drifted since according to PEW Research, Facebook is a favorite for adults (parents included) at 74 percent. (Reportlinker.com, June 2017).
Like it or not we have to have a conversation about technology and the role parents play in protecting and guiding our children in smart technology decisions. If you want more statistics you can visit this site Here for statistics broken down by category.
Liela and I have a technology plan for our family. Some of the finer points (the kids call these the harsher) of this plan are the following:
- None of our children under 15 have a smart phone. We will evaluate at that point the maturity and value having such a device weighs on whether it will be allowed. (each family needs to gauge the age appropriateness of smart phones for their own families, we have been accused of being too strict and that’s OK with us. You need to set your own boundaries on age appropriateness.)
- ALL of our tech devices have Covenant Eyes installed on them. Dad, mom and children.
Visit Here to find out more about Covenant Eyes. (Full Disclosure here if you sign up and start using Covenant Eyes using our link we do get a referral paid to us. Without this referral we would still be using personally and recommending Covenant Eyes, but if you do choose to sign up for Covenant Eyes it would certainly bless us.) - None of our children are on social media until they are 18 (used to be 21 to the pain of our older children) again we have been labeled too strict and we are OK with that. Parents need to have the conversation and really think through when its appropriate for their children to be on social media.
- We use Circle for our WiFi to filter and control our internet at home. To find out more about Circle visit Here.
This is not an exhaustive list of things in our technology plan they are just a few to give you some ideas. Our strict choices may seem way too strict, but the “well everyone else’s kids have it” approach may very well be too lax. Find your place in the conversation and stay engaged. Don’t just do what we do, and don’t just follow the worlds approach. Make educated choices, have a dialogue with your kids, other parents in your church and even seek out professionals who know way more than we do on the subject.
Let me encourage you to visit Tony Bianco’s website http://www.familytechnologyplan.com/ I first came across Tony from his presentation at the D6 Conference a few years ago on this topic. His ministry among others has great insight on technology and developing your family’s plan to address it.
There are also several great books out on this subject, here are a couple:
- The Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch – Check it out
- Tech Savvy Parenting by Brian Housman – Check it out
There are a lot of great resources available on this topic but none of them are of any value unless we as parents make a conscious choice to be engaged in how technology is used in our homes and our families. If you would like help discussing a Family Technology Plan Liela and I would love to talk with you about the particulars of your family and help you get started. Use the contact us form to get in touch with us.