So my project came from the experience I had this summer going to education week. My wife and I decided that it would be wise to go to a class entitled "Keeping the internet a tool for good." It was incredibly insightful and gave us great resources, but as they have ceased making visual or even written record of what is taught I cannot get you the resource info.
One of the things that shocked me was that as of the time that this teacher's resources were gathered, the average age of first exposure to pornography was seven, and average age of first intentional search was ten. This was awful! I was in utter disgust. How could have Lucifer gotten such a grasp on our society?
What were the most important things I learned from the class?
The class taught us that no filter, no matter how powerful, can totally block intentional seeking of pornography, but it can prevent the accidents from happening. The differences between a black-list filter and a white list filter were discussed. Black-list filters prevent known harmful websites from being accessed. While the white list filter has a password protected list of known websites that are good, and only these websites can be accessed. Websites can be added so long as the password is used. I think that in my home that we will use the white list type filters and have half of the password be known to me and the other half known to my wife.
Where can I go for information and resources that can be used to teach internet safety?
The I-Safe program is really good. I began the training for it, but didn't have the time to finish. I will want at some point to do so, just because it is a great resource, but I don't have the time at this juncture.
After doing this I talked to my parents Elders Quorum about internet safety when I was down there for a visit. I was shocked to see the attitude of defeat and complacency by these parents with regard to their children's own safety and morality. It felt like they had given up. Each comment had a tone of "there is just nothing we can do." EVEN THE TEACHER HAD THAT TONE!!!!! This I found infuriating and unproductive. At that point I nearly took over the lesson, and with passion I went and taught them that there ARE things that you can do to protect your children, and that it is important that they know what they are and implement them.
They had some background knowledge, but most of it was very out of date. The idea of filters for mobile devices they thought was impossible. I taught them about the different kind of filters and strategies that were taught in the class. I hope that it found place with some of them, but the pessimists still were the most vocal group. Did it make an impact? I hope so, for that ward's youth are in dire trouble. But I fear though that it fell upon deaf ears and that I was unproductive in my lesson. Let us hope that was not the case.
