Because of their exposure to new media, young children are at risk of seeing adult content using their laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Parents play a crucial role in explaining to their kids and making them understand that pages with pornographic materials are not good for them.
CBN News noted that an Internet filtering and monitoring software company has revealed that more than half of children are exposed to porn materials even before their high school graduation. Results from Covenant Eyes disclosed that 90 percent of boys and 62 percent of girls have seen porn materials before turning 18.
According to The New York Times, parents should encourage their children to "click away" from pages that offer explicit content. It also suggested that they can apply filters so that unmonitored browsing will still be safe.
Chaz, a father of two, told the same report that his 12-year-old son purchased an iPhone application that showed more than a thousand breast photos. Instead of scolding or punishing him, the father said he sat down with his son and discussed the implications of the pornographic app he downloaded.
He claimed that he was forced to put a filter on his son's phone so that similar incidents will not happen again. Chaz also said that he told his son that being curious is not a bad thing but expressed limitations on his use of screens.
In addition, The Wall Street Journal writer Catherine Pearlman claimed that it would help children to understand what they are dealing with if parents will talk to them calmly. It noted that books about body and sex will help moms and dads explain to their kids the essentials. They can also use this to open up the topic about porn viewing.
"Whatever you do, don't punish your son for what is, truthfully, a lapse in parental judgment. Instead, use this moment as an opportunity to begin a discussion that will hopefully continue for many years," Pearlman noted. "Punishment and shame have no place in this discussion."
