Education in Christian Counseling: Christian Parenting and the Internet
So on your “Good Christian Parental Checklist”, you can successfully declare before the Lord that you send your child to Church every Sunday, taught him his prayers, send him to a good Christian school and represent yourself as a good example. You have created a stable home with Christian values and have attempted to fortify your child with the necessary Christian morals to ward off Satan, yet something is amiss despite your Christian Parenting. Your child still occasional spurs out a dirty word and knows things he should not know about sex. He exhibits behaviors that he has not learned at home nor supposedly from school. Who is the culprit?
The answer more than likely is the internet. Unlike the television which can be easily monitored, the internet creates the illusion that the child is only doing research, homework or playing an approved game. The reality is the internet is a door to anything immoral, disgraceful and sinful. While its benefits have been utilized by the Church, its misuse by unknowing children can lead them into a world of pornography or sexual predators.
Hence, your checklist needs to be updated for the 21st Century. While we cannot completely filter what enters our childrens’ minds, we can protect them from numerous online images. The first step is teaching your child how wrong these images are. While curiosity still can overcome the child, at least through instruction, we know they have a feeling of what is right or what is wrong. Secondly, we need to filter our internet server, blocking certain sites and closing up anything that could lead a child into pornographic areas. Pop up control can also be essential. Many times when we download things, pop ups can emerge for sexual advertisements. Finally, we need to supervise. Do not let your child disappear for hours on end without periodically checking on him to see what he is “surfing”–and please, sometimes its best to let them go outside and play!
With the invention of everything that is good, Satan hopes to corrupt and spoil it. Much like corrupted humanity and dragged it down with him, he also corrupts anything that is good. Today, the internet is a huge problem for keeping our children pure and is a direct window to Hell—if you let it be.
If you are interested in Christian Counseling Courses, please review the program.
Mark Moran, MA