The Lighted Candle Society is one of the great organizations fighting pornography. They just launched a Web site PornographyStats.com, featuring detailed information on the pornography market, statistics on how pornography affects society, and an interactive guide to scientific literature about sexually-explicit material and the brain.
My bishop asked me to talk today in a combined Relief Society, Priesthood, and Youth meeting about good resources on the Internet.
I decided to split the discussion into three areas:
I created a site that has links to everything I showed and discussed as well as the slides I used. It might be a little out of context since you likely were not in attendance, but maybe you’ll find something helpful there too. Enjoy!
http://someinternetinfo.bogusboy.net
Teenagers typically feel they know much more about technology than their parents. But do they really understand the issues of security and privacy on the Internet?
It goes way beyond identity theft. What about computer ethics? What should your children do if they stumble across an adult site? Do they understand the risks of Internet predators? Youth often have to learn about the pitfalls of the Internet on their own because parents and schools tend not to know how to address the subject of security and privacy on the Internet.
“Every kid, when they reach a certain age, [should] have ‘The Talk’ with their parents,” said one16-year-old. “We need to have the same sort of discussion in terms of privacy. The majority of teenagers know about the sexual diseases out there because of this conversation that they have with their parents or because they have the talk in the school in sex ed. I think [security] needs to be addressed the same as well.”
A major problem for kids is that they are, in general, far ahead of their parents in terms of internet usage. Teenagers blog regularly, use instant messaging to keep up with their friends, and are usually able to circumvent any computer security measures at school, said a recent panel of five teenagers.
“I think it is hard for the parents and educators because we are moving at a different pace than they are… no offense,” said one teenager. “It feels like we are done and on to the next thing by the time other people are aware of it.”
Some students are still not aware of the dangers of an open blog under their real names that include many real life details. “If you want to give out your first name, then go ahead, nobody is going to stop you,” said one 17-year-old. “But you should know that there are [dangerous] types of people out there.”
The teenagers had mixed opinions on how much should be taught at school regarding Internet safety. Some believed that ethics in the digital world should be a required topic, while others thought that only basic safety should be taught. However, they did agree that parents and schools should be talking about the Internet with their kids far sooner than they do today - by the age of 10 at the latest, they said.
Sometimes it is tricky for parents to balance their fear for their children’s safety with what teenagers may see as violations of privacy.
“My mom has blocked the TV, the computer and I’m not allowed to listen to a lot of radio stations right now,” said one teen. “I really feel like she doesn’t trust me anymore. She hasn’t demanded my password, but I know that she knows it, and I’m pretty sure she has gone onto my computer.”
Many teens easily find ways around their parents’ security measures. Some have e-mail accounts that the parents don’t know about in order to protect their privacy. “My parents wanted to check my computer, so I stopped using that computer,” said a 17-year-old boy. “I use the computers at school. There are things that they don’t need to know.”
The general feeling among the teenagers, however, was that parents should talk about the issues with their kids. “The most important thing is don’t talk down to us,” said one young man. “For the most part, we are not dumb.”
Source: Teenagers want computer security lessons
“As parents, we have to figure out where to draw the line between encouraging and allowing our teens to have autonomy, to experience their separate culture, and when we need to monitor their use of media,” says Kathryn Montgomery, author of Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce and Childhood in the Age of the Internet. She says it is especially important to help young people understand that social networking is often more public than they think. Sometimes monitoring them is the best way to do that.
Sample Child-Tracking Technologies
Software: Various programs can track Web activity and record online chats, instant messages and e-mail. Parents can receive reports and alerts by e-mail and, in some cases, by phone or text message. Prices range from $40 to $100 in one-time or annual fees.
Cell phones: GPS enables parents to locate a child’s phone on an online map. One service will text message parents if the phone leaves a predetermined zone. Monthly services typically cost $10 to $20.
Car: Devices can record distance, speed and driving behavior, such as hard braking and sharp turning. Some pinpoint a car’s location using Global Positioning System technology and alert parents if a teen driver exceeds a certain speed or leaves a defined geographic area. One, the CarChip, costs $139. Monthly services cost $20 and up.
Consider
If you are going to monitor your kids’ activity, it may be best to tell them you are doing it. If they know you’ll be monitoring, they may be more apt to be careful. Better to avoid problems altogether than to catch your kids in the act.
How do kids feel when adults start “encroaching” in their technology space? Read Youngsters not happy oldies going online.
“This is about parents being given tools to better protect their kids. That’s not Big Brother. That’s parenting,” said Jack Church of Teen Arrive Alive, a Florida company that offers Global Positioning System-enabled cell phones that allow parents to go online to check the location and speed of a car their child is driving or riding in.
In addition to monitoring activity, consider easing your children into new technology. If a younger child asks for a MySpace page, consider starting them out on Imbee.com, a social networking site for children that allows parental monitoring.
For more information about tracking your children’s use of technology, see Parents turn to tech toys to track teens.
As of today, the blog ldsWebguy has been rebranded LDSMediaTalk. Additional authors have joined the blog and will be sharing ideas on how to use technology to strengthen families and build The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
You’ll find the same kind of information you’ve come to expect at ldsWebguy, but more.
Check out the article in this week’s Church News about young adult use of technology. It talks about their heavy use of cell phones, texting, and social networks.
In their survey of 80 young single adults, “some reported sending more than 2,000 text messages a month.” They didn’t survey my 18-year-old. She sent 7,300 last month!
I previously blogged about the podcasts about Internet Safety by two BYU professors. They’ve just launched their 5th podcast about Safe and Responsible Surfing.
This audio podcast addresses technical issues including keylogging and peer-to-peer file sharing. It also addresses the importance of parental involvement in the personal and technical lives of their children.
You may be interested in the following article that appeared in yesterday’s Deseret Morning News:
‘Gen XXX’ findings surprising
By Tad Walch
PROVO — Men are by far the main consumers in the mammoth worldwide porn industry, but today’s college women are surprisingly permissive about pornography, according to a new Brigham Young University study.
The BYU researchers discovered that 49 percent of the female college students they surveyed find pornography acceptable. Only 37 percent of their own fathers agreed.
That information is groundbreaking because it is a subject that hasn’t been addressed by family or development journals, said Jeffrey Arnett, editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research, which published the study.
The study of 813 college students at six American colleges and universities — BYU was not included — is titled “Generation XXX: Pornography Acceptance and Use Among Emerging Adults.”
The research found that 86 percent of college men and 31 percent of college women viewed pornographic material in the previous year. Men said they used it far more frequently — 48 percent used it at least weekly while 3 percent of women did.
Still, Arnett said, “One-third of female students said they’d used it. That surprised me it was that high.”
The key question asked of students and their parents was if they agreed or disagreed that viewing pornography is an acceptable way to express one’s sexuality. Lead author Jason Carroll, a BYU family life professor, offered two explanations for high acceptance among college women and men, 67 percent of whom agreed.
“One is that this is a life-course finding,” Carroll said, “that we captured them at a high point in time and their acceptance will decrease and they’ll be like their parents. The other argument is that because of the proliferation of pornography, this generation has a unique acceptance of pornography different from their parents, and that it will last. I think there is a compelling argument that is the case.”
Arnett rarely publishes quantitative, or statistical, studies. He prefers qualitative data based on subjective interviews. He made an exception this time.
“This is a hugely important issue,” he said, “given that pornography is so massively popular on the Internet. There are questions about how will it affect people’s sexuality and their views of gender roles, and how is that going to affect relationships between men and women. Maybe it will just be a form of entertainment. We just don’t know yet.”
Arnett and Carroll said BYU’s findings raised as many questions as they answered.
Pornography was not a centerpiece of a larger BYU study on emerging adulthood that, as reported last week in the Deseret Morning News, showed college students and their parents no longer see 18-to-25-year-olds as adults. The BYU team regretted not including several more questions on attitudes about pornography.
For example, Carroll said it isn’t clear whether college women were saying pornography is more acceptable for women or whether they are growing more permissive about men using it.
The study does indicate, without establishing a causal relationship, that women who are more accepting about pornography appear more prone to risky behavior.
“If they say pornography is an acceptable way to express one’s sexuality, they have elevated levels of binge drinking and are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and have multiple partners in the last 12 months,” Carroll said. “That’s just by being accepting of pornography, let alone using it.”
Carroll said the BYU team is involved in a study in Seattle that could yield more information about how pornography affects couple formation and marriages.
“Only 50 percent of women are accepting but 90 percent of men are reporting some level of usage,” he said. “We know very little about what happens to pornography patterns during couple formation. Do women become accepting? Are more couples using it together? Do men stop using it when they are in a relationship? Do men keep using but hide it from their spouse? We have no evidence.
“It’s an area where there could be some real tension because men’s and women’s approaches to pornography are so different.”
Arnett would like to see researchers do some qualitative work, interviewing subjects personally about when they use pornography, what sort of Web sites they access, if there are some things they don’t find acceptable and whether they use it more when they aren’t in a sexual relationship.
Pornography is a $13 billion industry in the United States, $100 billion worldwide, according to the study. One-fourth of all Internet searches — 68 million per day — are for pornography. The United States hosted 244 million adult Web pages in 2006, according to Ogden-based TopTen Reviews.
Those statistics make it clear that researchers need more information about pornography’s impact on the development of children, relationships and families, Carroll said.
That is even more true as the next revolution in pornography begins to crest.
“Internet and pay-per-view movies broke down social barriers to pornography use, making it seem more anonymous,” he said. “Now we’re entering the pocket-porn movement as society becomes more wireless. Parental monitoring used to be about taking care of Internet use at home. Now a group of 16- or 17-year-old boys could go out for the night and as long as one of them has a handheld device with Internet access, they have access to pornography.
“Parental monitoring becomes impossible, and that puts a high value on helping children improve their ability to self-monitor.”
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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com
I just found some great podcasts about Internet Safety made by two BYU professors. They are 30-minute audio programs. There are currently three, with more on the way.
The first one is a general overview of technology and the Internet. It is a primer in plain English of what the Internet is and how it works. It talks about the wonders of modern technology, but just like any tool, it needs to be used wisely.
Numbers 2 & 3, are titled “What are your kids finding on the Internet?” They educate parents on ways kids try to hide their Internet activity from them. They also include stats about pornography and strategies of how Webmasters are tricking people into seeing pornography, particularly targeting young people.
Attendees at BYU Education Week were told that technology can and should be used for good. Ron Schwendiman, of the Church Internet Coordination Group, reviewed the wonders of the information age and cautioned that it must be harnessed for good. Some key points:
Read more in the Deseret Morning News.
BYU professor Phil Windley points out that the United Methodist Church now has an online social network. Read Phil’s comments about the site.
What are your feelings about the value of such a site for LDS people?
The Lighted Candle Society will hold its Guardian of the Light Awards Dinner on May 8, 2007. The Most Reverend George H. Niederauer, Archbishop of San Francisco, will give the keynote address at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Special guests include Mr. Michael Reagan and Ms. Pamela J. Atkinson. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about the fight against pornography.
In a previous post, I noted that a subcommittee of the Utah State Legislature unanimously passed a Resolution (H.C.R. 3) Urging Congress to Stop Interent Pornography to Children and Employees. You may be interested to note that this resolution passed the House of Representatives and the Senate with a 100% vote on both floors. (When was the last time anything passed both the House and the Senate with a 100% favorable vote?) On Friday, February 23, Governor Huntsman signed the resolution. There will be a future ceremonial signing and then an official state delegation will deliver the resolution to members of the federal government.
“We are excited about this first step. It shows that people are ready to take action,” said Ralph Yarro, Chairman of The