Teens and Internet Usage

The benefits of Internet use are that adolescents have access to a vast array of information for academic research purposes/reports/essays/presentations when they conduct a Google search and they can connect with others, such as family and friends, that they normally wouldn't be able to necessarily connect with that are long distance or in another country (on Facebook or Twitter). They are able to share pictures and information with those family and friends on social networking sites. Also, they are able to instantly connect with family and friends through instant messaging such as Yahoo or Windows Live. I happen to connect with family members in Thailand and friends on the west coast (California) and, had it not been for Facebook, there would be little to no interaction at all (except for visitations or for rare phone calls). If I were to have children, that would be the case as well.


However, the dark side of Internet usage is that children are exposed to sexual predators as well as pornography: “According to a survey performed by the London School of Economics (2002), 90% of children between ages 8 and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet” (Louge, 2006, p. 2). Also, “A nationwide poll showed that half of teens ages 13-18 often communicate through the Internet with someone they have not met in person; one-third have talked about potentially meeting someone face-to-face whom they have only met through the Internet (Polly Klaas Foundation, 2006).

How we can apply 1 Corinthians 9:25 (NIV) which states, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” in a practical manner to parenting? When I think of this scripture, I think of the strict training that the Olympians have undergone years before the event. One way is to become much disciplined in what you allow your children to view on the Internet (as well as television and other media sources). As the article states, it is essential to monitor adolescent’s Internet use by putting the computer (even if it’s a laptop) into a common, family area (not in their bedrooms); that way their usage can be monitored. Also, it’s important to download Internet filter software which blocks inappropriate websites and pictures (that are X-rated). The Apostle Paul drew a visual parallel between the disciplined athletic training of Roman athletes to one’s spiritual life in pursuit of the high calling in Christ Jesus.

In Daniel 1, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are chronicled in the Bible as asking the Babylonian chief official, who was to oversee their diet so that they can be productive for the king, to withhold the meat and wine that would “defile” them. Hence, they were physically and spiritually healthier than the other boys in the king’s court. In an analogous sense, since we are Christians living in the world (like the Hebrew boys were living in Babylonia) we are also to feed ourselves with a steady diet of God’s word to discipline ourselves to likewise filter out the corrupt information and images that would defile our souls through the doorway of our eyes. King David states in Psalm 101:3 (NIV): “I will not look with approval on anything that is vile” and neither should our impressionable adolescent children be exposed to anything that will put them in harm's way physically or spiritually.