I spent the last week and a half on vacation with my family in Naples Florida. The beaches were amazing, everything was green and blooming and life had an easygoing pace. One day we went to Naples Pier. It’s a huge pier that goes way out into the ocean and it was packed with fishermen. We saw people catching all kinds of fish. One guy we walked by caught a shark. My kids were fascinated. The whole pier experience got me thinking.
Our kids are kind of like fish cruising through the ocean of the Internet. As they swim around to various websites often bait will be dangled in front of them. It could be a suggestive ad on Facebook that chums that water. A misspelled web address may surround them with many chunks of flesh and the sent can be strong. They may even swim over to a well-known fishing hole they heard about at school to see what’s “hanging around”. They know what’s inside the bait – a big sharp hook that will tear into their flesh. But somehow their brain just turns that reality off. They just see the bait. It looks so good, it’ll feel so good to eat, maybe if I just swim near it, maybe if I just smell it, maybe it I just bump into it, MAYBE IF I JUST EAT IT!!!!!
They’re hooked. They thrash around wondering what’s happening. They try to swim away fast and hard but they can’t get away. Something keeps pulling them back. They thrash more and swim harder but they’re getting tired. Suddenly they’re gasping for air, flopping, wondering how they got in this situation…
They’re back in the water, they don’t know how or why but they don’t wait around to find out. They swim as fast as they can away from all the floating bait vowing never to go near another piece of it. Days or weeks go by and they swim carefree; that terrifying experience a distant memory. As they’re swimming they see something floating in the water. They get closer. They realize they’re a bit hungry. They notice a very nice piece of bait and go in for a closer look.
As this cycle continues to repeat itself the hook in the bait isn’t so scary anymore. Your kids kind of get used to it. Kind of enjoy it. So mom and dad what are you going to do to stop it? Have you talked to them about the dangers of porn? Have you put anything on your computer to help stop some of the bait: X3Watch.com. Safeyes.com?