With 79% of our children being exposed to explicit material at HOME, the dark side is seeping through our computers, cell phones and tablets. With the Force, we must do our best to safeguard our children from being exposed to the potential threat of pornographic material that is lurking in the web’s storm troopers. It does happen and over 83% of the time, it’s accidental. This means that our kids are just stumbling on it.
Follow the light side of the Force, which created these settings to fight the dark side. Every phone, tablet and pc needs these settings in place.
- Google’s Safe Search. Make sure your browser’s search engine is set to Google (instead of Bing or Yahoo, for example) On each device, type in https://www.google.com/preferences. At the top is SafeSearch Filters. Set it to “Filter explicit results”. When you are on a pc, you can lock this setting. You will see this option on the right, click it and follow instructions to keep it locked on that browser. You will need to do this for each browser you use.
When you are on a portable device, remember to click “save” AND there is a little bad news. On portable devices, there isn’t a way to lock this setting. Which means this is great for the little ones, but if your teen chooses to look into the ways of the dark side, they will probably figure it out. This is why many people use the highly recommended software, Mobicip.
2. Youtube: Restricted Mode.
In an effort to appease the light side, Youtube has set up a Restricted Mode. On a computer, as with Google, you can lock this in your browser. At Youtube’s home page, scroll to the bottom, the very bottom. Click on the box Restricted Mode. Then follow the steps to lock it. Once it’s locked, you will need to enter your Google password to turn it off. Note: This will filter out most of the very bad stuff, but Mobicip will be MUCH more thorough.
On portable devices, the app has the same setting. It’s easy to turn on, but also easy to turn off and doesn’t include a way to password protect it. Open the Youtube app and go to Settings>General>Restricted Mode. Again, great for the little kids, but easy enough for teens to step over to the dark side. How can the light side win? With the Force on your side, you block the Youtube app altogether and only allow access to Youtube through your filtering browser, like Mobicip.
Now if you already have a filtering browser on your portable device and think it is filtering Youtube, this may come as a shock, but NO filtering browser can infiltrate the dark side of the Youtube app (or any other app.)
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Written by Jonathan
Rev. Jonathan Cronkhite has been serving youth and families for the last 28 years. With the heart of a pastor, he encourages and equips families to have Homes Devoted, through conferences, workshops, coaching, and writing. Married to Carrie for 25 years, they have 5 children, three of whom are young adults. Jonathan enjoys working alongside and discipling his teenage sons and their friends, renovating and flipping homes. He supports Carrie as she leads a home school co-op, and together they practice hospitality and serve in the community.
