Christian Internet Filters

Family Internet filters became the topic of conversation between a husband and wife after one of the couple's children was found watching some questionable videos on one of the leading social interaction websites. While these videos were not sexual in nature but rather of violence, the ten year old had been introduced to the site by some friends at school on an overnight stay several weeks before this particular incident. The parents were committed to Christian faith and values and desired that their children be protected from unseemly kinds of influences for as long as possible. However, the parents welcomed the Internet as a wonderful place to gather information, be informed and entertained, but desired that the children's' travels down the Internet highway be safe and secure from its many dangers and temptations. Thus the research into family and Christian Internet filters for their children became a high priority.

Disturbing facts on children using the web are at the forefront of the development of family Internet filters. In the last year alone, one in five children has been solicited online by various forms of adult predators. These insidious monsters use the innocence of children, especially those who are alone at home after school and those who are having emotional difficulties that are common with adolescence. Young girls looking for the love they haven't gotten from a father are often easy prey for men who know exactly what to say to provoke interest. Consider also the incredible fact that nine out of ten children who have access to home computers have viewed pornography online accidentally while doing their homework. These are images that cannot be easily dismissed and can be burned into a memory for a long time.

Most family Internet filters offer some very similar kinds of services with major differences. To begin, most services offer a customized account for each member of the family. A one size fits all approach is not realistic for any family that wants to honor the advancement of maturity, wisdom, experience, education and spiritual maturity. Many of the Christian Internet filters services offer program controls to control or limit instant messaging and the time that a child spends online, along with what time of day a child may be online. These services can also provide a log of which websites were visited and send instant alerts to the office or other workplace through txt messages, phone call or email if someone visits an inappropriate site. For those parents who want to provide a child with some measured freedom tempered with large doses of guidance, the log of recent Internet activity can provide opportunities for parents to sit down and discuss the appropriateness (or not) of trips taken to certain websites. The best filtering services will also alert parents to names, phone numbers, addresses or school names that have been posted on social networking sites.

In most cases, family web filters will provide excellent protection for members of a family. However, Christian Internet filters are more sensitive to the philosophical creep of cultural values that have seeped into American society. For example, issues of gay or lesbian marriage can be blocked, or gambling, or online card games or alcohol and tobacco use or certain health related issues or other sites considered too harmful by the Christian web filters and the parameters set up by parents. The ongoing battle for the spiritual control of young hearts and minds can be a very real concern not shared by all good and involved parents, and thus the difference between regular family Internet filters and Christian Internet filters. "And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may be able to prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

Christian Internet filters can often provide easy-to-find links for children to use in homework assignments such as many homeschooling websites. These filters can offer links, for example to creationist websites to help counter evolutionist teaching at school. Another distinction that these Christian services can offer is a self accountability feature when it comes to pornography. If a husband struggles with his thought life and even such things as swimsuit or lingerie pictures cause battles within him, the man's wife and he can together decide to end any Internet temptations and the wife can block her husband's access to general problem sites. A decision by the wife alone to take such action could become a very sensitive issue between them. Some filtering services go so far as to request a phone call by the primary installer of the filter to deactivate the service and attempts to delete calls actually result in the one deleting files is taken off the Internet till the issue is resolved! It should be stated that despite the help family Internet filters can provide some courses of action should be taken at home.

A family computer should always be set up in a high traffic area. The ability for parents to always be nearby to take a quick peek at what their children are viewing is very important. Whatever the agreed rules are for computer use are they should always be enforced. Stressing to children that any attempts by people trying to contact them by means of a chat room or a social networking site should be reported to mom and dad immediately should be part of the agreement. One president wisely said, "Trust but verify."

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