A central goal we have is to help train and develop people to meet the unmet needs of the world through culturally relevant programs and ideas. As part of that mission, we are going to be rolling out a 3-month campaign specifically for parents on our PARENTS page, which will provide some updated resources, videos and commentary to help raise awareness about the key issues we need to know relating to our kids and technology, relationships and sexual brokenness.
Let’s face it, parenting in the Internet-age is challenging. The average age that kids are first exposed to pornography is at age 11, and pornography is no longer a “boys” issue—girls are being impacted in many of the same ways that boys are in today’s world. One in 7 kids receives a sexual solicitation while online. About one in five kids have engaged in some type of sexting, that is, sending or receiving sexual images or messages from peers or strangers on their mobile device or while online.
Too many parents are clueless about what their kids are doing online and many are overwhelmed about how to protect their kids from pornography, strangers and peer-related issues. Many also believe that their kids are immune to the dark side of the web, but if you tuned in to our Babysitter Commercial, hopefully you were reminded that even when kids aren’t looking for pornography, many are coming across x-rated content through misspelled words and innocent word searches.
It’s one of my personal passions as a dad to help wake up parents to these realities, and I really hope you will tune in, spread the word and share your own stories, advice and challenges as we strengthen our parent community this summer.
Keep checking back…more to come.