This is not a condemnation of the World Wide Web. Personally I have benefited greatly from the internet; that's where I find reading material, information about my Faith and spiritual content like prayers and meditations, Others... not so much. So it's about how you use it, not whether you use it or not.
Regarding your children. I can't tell you *exactly* how to raise them because I don't have kids and I don't know all of your life situations. But I can give some advice that may be useful, since I just became 19 and still remember how my generation grew up with social media.
If you are willing to allow your children to use computers please try to make sure that someone responsible is supervising them. It's so easy for them to use private mode once they learn where it is and what are its limitations. They also learn quickly how to delete the history search. Among my generation it was common to just hide what you are doing. Say they are talking with strangers in ther secret Reddit account, and they hear your footsteps coming. They will just hide it and pretend they are doing their homework.
I suppose there are many good articles about Internet safety for children made by people who know better. However, I present some advice and comments that may be usefull:
1: Good Content May Be Appropiate Only for Adults
This is particularly true about Traditional Catholic stuff. Most of us are very prudent and whenever the topic is inappropiate, we warn our readers. However, some writers tend to be rather imprudent or graphic when descipting adult topics.
2: You Never Know What Your Search Results Will Lead You To (And what those search results can lead you to)
You can type "Teddy Bear" and pictures of cuddly plushes will appear everywhere, but if you scroll deep enough you can find creepy teddy bears. You can type "animal comics" and together with Garfield and Snoopy you find animal comics aimed at adults - and in this society, "aimed at adults" means that is very likely to be something too depraved or too violent.
This happens because the Internet was designed for the adult society, not for kiddies. And while there are children-in-mind websites out there, free navigating means they will be exposed to unappropiate content.
Children like looking at pictures. Every image may attract their curiosity to very disturbing and frightening stuff. For example, looking for Elmo pictures they happen across a horror videogame called Poppy Playtime, in which Elmo can be one of the monsters, as shown below:
A video by popular youtuber Mikecrack
Out of curiosity, they click at the Poppy Playtime Elmo picture and start watching the video linked to the image. At the beginning they are frightened by the athmosphere of the game, but they find it interesting and keep binging videos. Eventually they reach to streaming worse games like Slenderman, Resident Evil, Dead by Daylight or even life streamings of the Ouija.
The fictional monster Sirenhead isn't even the beginning of horryfing Internet stuff.
This is not a problem without a solution. By typing "for kids" or "for children" the problem can be alleviated, and if you use Duck Duck Go, please make sure you click the "strict" search option. Tell your children to be carefull with their clicks, and supervise them.
3: Just Because It Looks Family Friendly Doesn't Mean It Is
At the beginning of the Millstones on the Road articles I planned to make an article about cartoons that are not appropiate for children. Most anime shows, any film by the ultrapervert Ralph Bakshi, and others like Family Guy, South Park, Cool World, Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, to name a few, may look innocent because they are animated, but that doesn't mean they are appropiate.
That's because you need to learn that many things that are associated wih childhood are used by adults in ways that are not infant friendly. Cartoons, videogames, antropomorphic animals, coloring books, online games, and even films and comics that were initially intended for young persons are taken over and even turned into very disturbing stuff or offensive materials by the sick adults of our society.
Your children should be aware of this fact.
Let me give you a few examples that I believe you should be aware off:
Looking for animal cartoons at Duck Duck Go, I have found many content related to the furry and bronie subculture. While most of the content I have been exposed to is not sexually explicit or at least clearly obscene, there are way too many perverts among them, so it would be very dangerous if your kid perused one of their websites, thinking that since the characters are antropomorphic everything is for all ages.
Most furries looke like this, just a little bit more detailed & immodest. You probably noticed that most of them look harmless and friendly, don't you? That's the trap.
This picture shows normal antropomorphic animals (above) as compared with furries (below)
Notice the change in attitude, the appereance of the eyes and the hairstyles.
Some deviants write sick parodies of children literature and coloring books. They look innocent until you look closer. Also, because of the increasing amount of adults interested in children's films (Disney and Marvel would be a classical example) as well as nihilst parody shows like The Simpsons or Mad it is possible that looking for pictures of Mickey Mouse they find some adult-bad-taste-jokes and parodies about him.
All of this becomes more alarming because sickos use this techniques to grooom chlidren. They make themselves a Pikachu account, they play Pikachu games, they make Pikachu videos and all this is not because they like Pikachu but because they hope one kid will fall into their grasp.
(And yes, if you download Pokemon Go you are not being prudent).
Kiddie social webs like Club Penguin, Animal Jam, Clash of Clans or even Roblox and other online games with chatboxes are unsafe because those willing to damage innocent youths can make an account and astutely try to groom your children. Yes, there are supervisors, but the best supervisor is one that is meant to be always close to them - you. The supervisor is expected to check millions of accounts, don't expect him to magically wind up when creeps appear. This can happen even with their videogame consoles: X-Box has an option called "X-Box Live" where sometimes you can contact strangers.
4: Social Media is a No-No for Young People
I believe social media is a no-no for young people under 15 for the following reasons:
a) Their social media use will mostly be a waste of time. What are they going to do, watch cat videos and share "Dora the Explorer" memes? Adults already spent too much time using social media and they know that. Now imagine children, who need to learn self-control as early as they can, being trained into wasting their time, fighting with online people and learning swear words.
b) Social media is brain-numbing addictive crap. The scroll-down mechanism was designed after the addictive slot games of casinos. Since everybody adds thousands of new tweets per day, these endless zombie scrolling never ends. I speak from experience, because even if you practice scrolling down looking at internet pictures and You Tube recommendations you waste time and it is very hard to stop.
If your kid has troubles like depression he will use the scrolling down mechanism as a coping mechanism, but in reality it is just a carrot and stick trick that will eventually destroy your concentration mechanisms and your very own soul. Don't let them start since little. What's the point of complaining that they use the magical phone when they are meant to be conversating if you teach them the fun social media even before they learn to write properly?
c) Social media can cause mental health problems. It's not only that the content you get exposed to can be too disturbing or depressing. Idleness, wasting your time, will definetly not help you to increase your mental health if you already have problems.
d) Social media is full of evil individuals. Nobody can know who they are, because they hide in anonimity. They make themselves a friend and then they stab you at the back. Older children or teens may be able to ignore everybody, children tend to forget the Litlle Red Riding Hood.
5: Just Because You Give a Warning Doesn't Mean they will Follow It
My generation (I was born in 2002) is stiff-necked, cynical and disrespectfull. I remember in school we were given endless talks about how drugs kill you, how social media creeps are real and how alcohol makes you stupid. But since our role models were Harry Potter, Sponge Bob and Homer Simpson (yes, parents let their children watch The Simpsons) and later cringe-kings like Cardi B and Metallica, who would listen to the wise advice of our parents? (Particularly when they were Gen-X and Millenial Divorce Dupes?)
I say this because internet blocks alone won't save your children from their own malice and the peer pressure of their "friends". You need prayers and penance. You can tell them horror stories about children who are abused, sold into slavery, addicted to porn and traumatized by treating the internet like a big playground, but if they learn to see you as a conservative tin-foil hat coward who doesn't let them be themseleves, it will not work.
Since the sixties we are driven by a teen-spirit mentality that makes young people think *they* know better than you. Yes, this has always happened, but know it is exacerbated by trends and the media. Don't you remember hippies, punks, grunge, goths, social justice warriors and emos?. The normal adolescent desire for independence is aroused in such ways that every generation, teens rebel against the "establishment" of their parents and society.
I did benefit from contacting strangers via the combox, but I contacted very few people who are decent and do not expect you to destroy your anonimity for them. I am one of the lucky few. Your children can be damaged by anyone under your own nose, without you noticing.
Some ideas to help your children survive the Internet Age:
There are probably other people who can give further advice. At the moment, based on my experience and what I have heard other people saying, I think the following counsels may be good:
1: Don't Let Them Use Private Mode:
That way you can make sure they aren't visiting creepy websites ot contacting suspiscious strangers.
2: Teach them to Resist Peer Pressure:
That way, they won't come to you crying because they want to have an Instagram account, because some of their popular, materialistic "friends" want them to have one. Really important for a Catholic this times.
3: Don't put Pictures of Them in the Internet, and Teach Them to Practice This Themselves:
Unless you are a public person, there shouldn't be any picture of you in the Internet. I see parents putting photos of their kids in the internet, like if they wanted to sell their children to the curiosity of big tech. I don't care about the drawing your kid make this morning in the kitchen. I don't care if they will start going to school this year. But "Meta" is willing to monetize such information.
Since everybody is fascinated with making obscene photoshops to humiliate others, it is better not to give them material to start. That will save your children from cyberbullying in case one dude thinks making a nude photoshop of them is a good idea.
If you think I am exagerating, you may want to read about the Deep Fake Mode
Or try tofind the differences between these two versions of Keanu Reeves
4: Supervise Them When They Use Computers:
This will make them obey your authority and not click stuff they should not be watching.
5: Don't Buy Them an I-Pad Until they Need It.
There was a time in which the only device we had was an X-Box and a Nintendo. Our parents would give us their I-Pads, but only in certain ocassions and only to play games they had already downloaded. I got my first computer at 13, only when I started to need it. Do we seriously think 5 year old's have to make Powerpoint Presentations and Word documents for school?
Plus, the imprudence of a children is aroused when you give them their *own* device. It is very hard to prevent them from:
1: Contacting random strangers as if wishing to form life-long friendships with them
2: Sharing pictures of themselves in compromising status
3: Insulting other people out of boredom
4: Having "Internet Boyfriends"
5: Spending more than 6 hours using social media
6: Clicking those creepy ads saying "Congratulations, You Have Received a Gift" and "This Thing Cures Cancer"
7: Putting Private Information for Everyone to see
8: Visiting the Dimond's website
9: Try to enter the Deep Web
Modern society wants to push the baby-with-an-I-pad by making applications for toddlers and putting I-Pads in school. It was school that made me make my first Email account and my first Pinterest Account. I am not saying that this is evil, but until your children actually need such a device, don't give it to them. You already have too much work trying them to watch TV in decent amounts of time. Don't succumb to their whines and temper tantrums - who is in charge, you or them? What will they do to you if you don't comply to their wishes? Strangle you with a teddy bear? Torture you with Baby Shark songs? Come on.
If you are a kid who just strolled by my website you may do good to follow this advice:
1: Don't trust anyone on the internet.
2: If your parents are not supervising you please do yourself a favor and don't peruse things like horror videos and social media accounts of unkown people. It is more important to beware of online games, because they tend to have viruses and hacks. It is better to download your own games into your computer like you download an application in a phone.
For example, instead of opening Google and searching for "Pacman Online", you download a Pacman game into the device.
3: Try to keep a good communication with your parents about what you find online.
4: Practice mortifying your curiosity. Don't just click into anything that captures your attention. Is it useful? Is it important? Are you completly sure the website is not bad? If in doubt, ask your parents or someone you can trust. Or just drop the apparatus and go play.
Conclusion
Children today are viciously masked, tied down and prevented from engaging in healthy rough-and-twombly games by their Karen moms, but if they watch porn, play Grand Theft Auto and contact weirdos in social media it's all right?
Will you dare tell me that I have spoken lies in this post? That I am too afraid of the web? Perhaps you can tell that to the experts that discovered excessive internet use is linked to depression and anxiety. Perhaps you can tell that to those parents whose kids have been permanently wounded by imprudent internet use. Or to the suicide rates that increased just when we were graced by the prescence of social media. You are probably aware of all this things. But now it is your responsibility to act on this. Don't be a conformist who just repeats that internet is dangerous and then lets his kids use high-tech phones while refusing them the liquifier. DO IT. The souls of your kids and your very own depend on it.
