Top 10 Tips to Protect Kids from Porn

Thank you for making it such a great year! I’m looking forward to 2016, but before we head into a new year, let’s check out our most popular posts for a list of our Top 10 Tips to Protect Kids from Porn. We’ve separated them into three main categories: Learn, Prepare, and Teach. Want a Checklist for 2016? Get our FREE downloadable pdf below of our Top 10 Tips!

Learn

Tip 1: Understand Why Good Kids Get Pulled Into Porn

This is critical for parents! Therapist Mark Bell teamed up with Claudine Gallacher to explain three reasons why normal, healthy and good kids get pulled into porn: 1) they’re naturally curious, 2) all people are biologically designed to be drawn to sexualized images, and 3) pornography produces powerful chemicals that reinforce a child’s innate attraction to it. After explaining the brain science, they give three strategies to empower good kids to reject pornography. Read more in Sex Addiction Expert Explains Why Good Kids Get Pulled Into Porn.

Tip 2: Learn what Pediatricians are Saying about the Impacts of Pornography

Medical doctors are now seeing the physical, mental and emotional effects of viewing pornography. These include symptoms of anxiety and depression, higher risk for more risky sexual behavior (including assaulting other children), and future problems with marriages. Read more in Pediatricians Speak Out on Impact of Porn.

Tip 3: Know Your Allies and Get the Facts

Many people, including scientists, secular activists, and people of faith are fighting to help those affected by pornography to recover and to prevent porn’s corrosive effects on kids. Keep informed about their progress and what you can do to help. Read more at Who’s Fighting the New Public Health Crisis? More and more research is showing the damaging effects of porn, but there are still skeptics! Pornography costs billions in productivity loss, is a major factor in over half of divorces, and is linked with sex trafficking. Get your FREE report 10 Porn Stats Every Skeptic Needs to Know. Also, check out the great work done by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. They are getting porn out of hotels!!!

Prepare

Tip 4: Plan time to Talk with Your Kids

Mark Bell, a therapist with five sons, wrote How Does a Sex Addiction Expert Teach HIS Kids to Avoid Porn, and it went viral, logging well over 22K views this summer. He schedules a monthly interview with each of his young sons—it’s a special time to discuss all kinds of important issues. Mark says, “I ask them why it’s important to be aware of inappropriate pictures, images, media, peer interactions and conversations. I affirm what they say and try to add a little something extra that they may have missed or didn’t think to say.” Make it a priority. Life is crazy busy with kids, jobs, and community or church commitments! So we loved the post by Nicole Carpenter of Momentity.com which gives great advice for prioritizing that first porn talk. “The best way to find time to talk to your kids is to actually plan it into your schedule.” She says it’s like anything else that is difficult or daunting and gives 5 steps to make that talk happen! Check out Prioritizing that First Porn Talk.

It’s safer to be the first one who talks to your child about pornography. You can be there to answer their questions. You can set yourself up as the best source of information. You can reduce the shock and shame of inevitable exposure. Read more benefits of being proactive in 5 Reasons You Should Initiate Your Kid’s Curiosity about Porn.

Tip 6: Know How to Respond if You Discover Your Child Viewing Pornography

It’s so hard not to freak out, but parents who are prepared are more likely to be able to guide their kids safely away from porn. Claudine Gallacher interviewed Robert Weiss, Founding Director of the Sexual Recovery Institute and shares his advice for parents. Namely, parents must deal with their own negative emotions first and then focus on mentoring (not shaming) their kid. Learn six steps to lift your parent-child relationship, instead of lose it. Additionally, check out these seven steps a 16-year-old boy used to get porn out of his life in Teen Shares 7 Tips for Overcoming Pornography.

Teach

Tip 7: Define the Word “Pornography”

A lot of parents don’t want to say this word. I get it! But we’ve got to OWN this word if we intend to have power over it. Here’s a simple definition from Good Pictures Bad Pictures: “Pornography means pictures, videos, or even cartoons of people with little or no clothes on…It shows the parts of the body that we keep private—like the parts we cover with a swimsuit.” Dr. Jill Manning gives this advice: “Being clear on what pornography is and how to recognize it is the first step to protecting ourselves.” Read more from this post 3 Steps to Give Kids an Internal Filter.

Tip 8: Teach Your Kids What To Do If the Internet Filters Fail at School

Kids are online all the time at school working on projects and learning to use technology. Sadly, they are being exposed to explicit images even at school, and it’s happening everywhere. Parents are upset, but what can they do? First, educate their children on the need for an Internal Filter, like the CAN DO Plan in Good Pictures Bad Pictures. Second, practice your own internet filter failure drills at home. Third, understand your school’s policies and approach to internet safety. Get a FREE guide to 10 Things Every Parent Must Learn About Their Child’s Digital Education.

To help a child communicate sexual abuse, they need to know the correct names for private body parts of both genders. Read personal stories and empowering advice in this post: Which Simple Words Keeps Kids Safer?

Tip 10: Teach Kids about Their Two Brains

Learning how sexualized images can affect their feeling brain and thinking brain helps a child stay free from the natural pull of pornography. Recently, a young father who was worried about his 6-year-old son, shared how understanding his two brains has helped him stay free from porn. Read more about Brian’s experience in A Dad’s Two Brains Help Him Reject Porn. Note: Several chapters in Good Pictures Bad Pictures are dedicated to explaining the two brain concept to kids in child-friendly terms.

A Recent 5-Star Amazon Review of Good Pictures Bad Pictures:

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“This is a great resource to teach young children about the dangers of pornography. I’m really impressed that my daughter has actually used and demonstrated the principles taught about identifying it, telling an adult, and looking away from it! Thank you for this much needed information!”

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Kristen A. Jenson is the founder of Protect Young Minds and author of Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today's Young Kids. Kristen enjoys speaking, writing and anything else that will help empower kids to reject pornography. Kristen earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and a master’s degree in Organizational Communication. Kristen currently lives with her husband in Washington State, where she enjoys growing a vegetable garden, watching Masterpiece Theater, and taking long walks with friends who tolerate her incessant talking about you know what. Above all else, her husband and three children are her greatest treasures.

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Led by Kristen A. Jenson, author of the best-selling children’s book Good Pictures Bad Pictures, Protect Young Minds™ (PYM) seeks to help parents “porn-proof” their kids before they come across highly addictive and easily accessible internet pornography.