Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Ernest Staats
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000330
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00:30 Hello and welcome again to "Issues and Answers."
00:33 We are so glad that you could be with us today. 00:35 You know, we're going to be talking about 00:38 a very current topic 00:39 and that is social networking on the computer. 00:43 We're gonna talk about its impact, 00:45 we're gonna talk about the pitfalls. 00:48 And when I'm talking about social networking 00:49 I'm talking about things and chat rooms, 00:52 Myspace and all of that stuff that seems 00:55 so foreign to many of us older adults 00:59 but that the younger generations, 01:01 I mean, this is second nature for them. 01:03 This is another life if you will for them. 01:06 And I was thinking about this program 01:09 and the scripture that came to my mind 01:10 was 1 Corinthians 15:3. 01:14 Here's what Paul writes, 01:15 "Do not be deceived and misled, 01:18 bad company corrupts good morals." 01:21 And parents, this a program you need to watch 01:24 if you have teenagers, young adults in your home 01:29 or even those that have gotten outside your home 01:31 just so that you may have to relate with them 01:33 and may be can give them some spiritual guidance. 01:35 And it is my pleasure to introduce to you 01:38 returning for a third time, 01:40 actually, this is the fourth time 01:42 you've been on 3ABN, 01:43 third time on "Issues and Answers" 01:45 and this is Earnest Staats. 01:47 And Ernest, we are so glad 01:48 that you are back with us. Thank you. 01:50 And you are the IT director which is Information Technology 01:53 director for the Georgia-Cumberland Academy 01:58 in Calhoun, Georgina. 01:59 How long have you been there? 02:00 We've been there nine years in the area. 02:02 I've been at the school for six. Okay. 02:05 And as you said you've got all these degrees 02:08 and all these little alphabets soup behind your name, 02:10 we're not gonna go into that, 02:12 but, you know, someone gave you 02:13 some really good advice. 02:15 You said that you are a techie person, 02:18 you know, bits and bites and zeros and digits 02:23 but someone gave you the advice 02:26 don't look at this as just technology but what? 02:30 But as a ministry and that's where I've felt like 02:34 I have a potential ministry within the security area 02:36 'cause this is an area where 02:37 I would have studied a lot. Okay. 02:39 And I've spent a lot of time 02:40 and that was Robert Henley from Southeastern Conference 02:42 first came up with the concept and recommended it. 02:45 Then Nancy Lamoreaux from the division really encouraged 02:47 and she started asking me to go around 02:49 and she through the division paid for me go 02:52 and visit other people, start talking about security 02:54 and family safety and online safety for 02:56 not only families but for ministries, 02:58 for churches, for organizations. 03:00 So tell us about, as I said someone 03:03 so awful is-- 03:05 about some of the social networking places 03:07 and what they're like, what their names are. Okay. 03:11 Social networking is just basically a place 03:12 where you can go hang your hat if you will. 03:14 You put your picture up there. 03:16 You pull up kind of music you like. 03:18 You talk about things that happen in your daily life 03:21 but you let other people comment on it too. 03:23 So then they may talk about whatever you're talking about. 03:26 So it's just kind of an interactive community 03:28 where people talk about your life. 03:30 And several of the big ones 03:31 Myspace is one of the largest one, 03:34 is the largest one, excuse me. 03:35 And I just started, how long ago? 03:37 I mean it just came, I don't know. 03:39 It seems like it's just only been in the last year 03:42 so that I've been hearing Myspace 03:43 and all of a sudden, that's all you hear. Right. 03:45 It's been out for five or six years. Has it been, okay? 03:48 So that I remember, it might be before that, 03:50 I don't want to know their inception that 03:51 but it is just, it is a phenomenon 03:54 that is really taking the world by a storm. 03:55 For example, they have 150,000 new users a day. 04:00 You know, they get over 13 million views a day 04:03 which is twice the number of Google. 04:05 You know they have 4,475 per second. 04:08 And Google is one of the largest, or the largest-- 04:11 It is the largest search engine. 04:12 Search engine on the internet 04:14 and Myspace has double the hits. 04:16 Double. That's amazing. 04:18 But let me ask you something, 04:20 with all that has been talked about, 04:24 the safety issues and chat rooms 04:26 and the predator's who go online looking and for victims, 04:31 you know, they're trolling if you will. 04:33 With all that's been talked about 04:36 and people who are being educated, 04:38 aren't people being safer or more careful about 04:42 what they put online? 04:44 I wish that was the case. 04:46 Some statistics from 2007 which were very alarming, 04:48 let me just share one of them, 04:49 96% of students between ages 9 and 17 04:54 have Myspace accounts. 96%? 04:58 96, that's between ages of 9 and 17. That's amazing. 05:01 You're not even allowed to be 05:02 on Myspace unless you're 13. Huh. 05:05 So all the wards that are 13 05:06 and under are lying about their age. Oh. 05:09 And that's something you find very common. 05:11 I've gone to Adventist schools before 05:12 and I've asked the kids, fifth graders, 05:14 how many of you have a Myspace account? 05:16 More than half have raised their hands. 05:18 And this is fifth grade? 05:19 Fifth graders, they're not 13. Uh-huh. 05:22 So, and you know I have sixth graders 05:23 and I've talked to them and they're not old enough. 05:26 Some of them are not old enough 05:27 to have the Myspace and they already have them. 05:28 And I even talked down to third graders, 05:30 I know one third grader that has 05:32 a Myspace account is very active on Myspace. 05:34 So this is someone-- 05:36 a third grader that's obviously little mature for their age 05:38 and they can actually come out 05:40 and keep up with 05:42 the activities that are going on that. 05:45 So if, are they being, 05:48 they're not being careful then is what you saying. 05:50 Even though the parents are warning their kids 05:53 and they hear these things in the news about predators, 05:56 those putting up information that. 05:58 What kind of information is dangerous 06:00 to put on these social networks? 06:03 Statistics of a 2007 studies showed that 06:06 more than 50% of the kids were online 06:08 putting their address, the school they go to, 06:12 sometimes their and I think it was about 06:13 just under 50% were putting their cell phone numbers. 06:17 So this is leaving them open to be a target 06:21 for predator to shoot down and literally get them. 06:24 In one situation I was involved with 06:27 when I was up in one school. 06:28 There was a young lady there and she was over 13 06:31 but she talked about that she was closing the restaurant 06:33 at night by herself, 06:35 and she told when her closing shift was done. 06:38 So and she--you know talked about the restaurant 06:40 she worked at, she was the only person there. 06:42 I mean, if someone want to rob the restaurant 06:44 all the information they needed 06:46 was right there and she would have, 06:47 I'm sure had to be hurt in the process. 06:49 You know, I sent off hey, you need to get this off, 06:52 you need to get this off your account, 06:53 this is why I explained to her. 06:55 You know, you didn't even think about it. 06:57 Yes, so there are just things that to them 06:59 because they don't have those devious minds, 07:02 they are not thinking 07:04 that the information they're putting up, 07:05 they just think these are facts in my life. 07:08 And youth have the idea that they're immortal. 07:11 You know, young kids, usually when you get older, 07:13 you try to mature out of that. 07:14 Some of us don't mature out as fast as others 07:16 but at the same time as you are going through that, 07:19 teenagers especially don't have that idea 07:21 that anything bad will really happen to them. 07:23 Yeah, right. 07:24 So what kind of an impact, a social impact 07:28 besides this predator and the dangers of that, 07:32 what kind of the social impact does it have 07:34 being on this online networking 07:38 and the social chat rooms and things? 07:42 Some of the social impacts some of its very positive. 07:44 There are some people who just, 07:46 they're really soft-spoken, their mild. 07:48 They don't feel like they can speak out in class 07:50 and the social network gives them a place to do that. 07:53 You know, it allows them to communicate 07:54 and share their fears and share their things 07:56 which sometimes that's good, 07:57 sometimes that makes them little more vulnerable. 08:00 But at the same time it does allow them 08:01 and it can enhance communication skills 08:03 with direction and guidance. Okay. 08:06 I always say with direction and guidance 08:08 because parents seem to be a part of that, 08:09 because if they're not, 08:10 their English is not getting any better, 08:12 their grammar is not getting any better. 08:13 You know, but if you there to help them-- 08:15 I think text messaging is gonna ruin our English grammar 08:19 because I noticed now that people are beginning to email 08:22 and that text message lingo and you think oh, please. Right. 08:27 And it originally started with a bunch of geek cads 08:29 as I call them and it was called leetspeak, 08:31 you know, which was another way of saying geekspeak. 08:34 And you know there's whole another language 08:35 and that's kind of-- in cell phones you write 08:37 have changed a little bit and it's changing our, 08:40 you know, the Webster's dictionary, 08:41 is kind of a living document 08:43 because it is constantly changing. Oh, yes. 08:44 Google is now a verb and a noun. Yeah. 08:47 So when you said I googled something, 08:49 you know, everyone knows, you may not actually used Google 08:52 but you researched it. Right. 08:53 So and that's way it is changing our society. 08:56 So let's be really specific, 08:59 what are some of the risky behaviors 09:01 that people are doing online 09:04 in these social networking scenarios? 09:07 30% of the kids that our poll found that 09:09 they were talking to people they did not know 09:11 who they were through social networking. 09:13 And I mean, there is Myspace, 09:15 there's Friendster, there is-- 09:16 I mean, Livewire, there is I mean, 09:19 Live Spaces, Cyworld, 09:21 I mean, they go on and on and on. 09:23 There's a whole bunch of amount there. 09:25 But as these people are doing, 09:26 now they're talking with people they don't know. 09:28 They're posting pictures, 09:30 sometimes, inappropriate pictures, 09:31 you know, if you go like we've talked before 09:34 you try buying something off the wreck, 09:35 you look at it say, maybe that's a little bit edgy, 09:37 you know, maybe I wouldn't 09:39 but you put that same picture online then all of a sudden, 09:41 it takes a different feel to it. 09:42 And I want to just backup here 09:44 because a while ago you said that 09:45 you told a little girl to take this off 09:47 about the restaurant closing, 09:49 but even though you deleted, 09:51 anything that's been on the internet, 09:53 once it's on the internet, even though, you've deleted it, 09:56 it is still archived somewhere 09:59 where someone could go pick up the information, 10:01 isn't that true? 10:02 Most of it yes and it's through 10:03 what's called World Wide Web archive 10:05 and you can ask it, but so once you post it, 10:07 you don't know who's downloaded it. Yeah. 10:09 And they put it on their computer, 10:10 on their jump drive 10:11 so it can be reposted somewhere else, 10:13 it can be shared 10:14 and the department of Office of Juvenile Justice, 10:17 they have found that this is a highly motivated group 10:20 the people who are into cyber predators 10:22 so they share this information with each other. Yes. 10:24 And they share the searches, they share the contacts, 10:26 so that's something you need to realize that. 10:28 But then with young people 10:30 they're posting their cell phones, 10:31 they're putting their school, 10:32 you know, events and addresses and names, you know. 10:35 I went online and I posted that 10:36 I graduated from Campion Academy 10:38 and I was able to find several people 10:40 who I haven't seen for years. 10:41 And we talked and it was a great time. 10:43 You know, gives me excuse to save money 10:45 not go back to a reunion, 10:46 at least that's what I tell my wife. 10:48 But you know there are so many aspects to it 10:51 but at the same time there is also some downsides 10:54 because if there are kids 10:55 and they are posting their schools 10:56 then the person or person who wanted to harm them 10:59 or do something that was inappropriate, 11:01 it's a lot, you've given him 11:02 a lot more information to do that. Okay. 11:04 So what can parents do 11:05 if they find out that their children 11:08 are participating in risky behavior? 11:12 If they've been maybe posting some personal information, 11:15 talking to strangers which is always risky behavior, 11:18 not just in person 11:19 but it's particularly on the internet, 11:22 it is very risky. 11:25 One of the things as a parent as we've mentioned before 11:28 when I have been on your shows 11:29 we got to open the lines of communication. 11:31 Its imperative that as parents and children, 11:33 we start talking and making sure that they understand that-- 11:36 its because we love them, because we care about them, 11:39 because we want to see them grow old 11:42 and not have an early grave 11:43 and not have something horrible happen to them 11:45 or just have unfortunate event. 11:47 By once we start communication, then when you start 11:49 being a part of the Myspace world 11:52 we need to-- I suggest well, 11:53 parents to have a Myspace account 11:55 and link to your child's account 11:57 and kind of see what the information is there, 11:59 several vendors out there, on safespacers 12:02 and there's other ones out there, 12:03 if you do a search on Google, 12:04 you can search for Myspace tracking. 12:06 And there's companies out there 12:08 that will email you and give you alerts 12:09 if you kid got something on there 12:10 that might be inappropriate. Huh. 12:12 And there are some of the companies 12:14 who even go so far as to comment back to your child 12:17 and say, hey, I saw those on your Myspace, 12:19 this doesn't look good but it's not your parent 12:20 than telling the child, hey, take this off. 12:23 So there are some companies that's a community based thing. 12:26 How does a parent find those type of companies? 12:29 If you go to Google, 12:30 I mean, there's ones called safespacers, 12:33 and you can go to Google and type Myspace tracking. 12:36 Myspace tracking. Myspace tracking. 12:39 And then there will be able to see 12:40 there are several different companies that are out there, 12:41 and there's new ones coming out all the time. Okay. 12:43 That will help the parents understand, 12:45 okay, maybe, if they don't feel comfortable to technology, 12:48 here's something that can help them. Okay, okay. 12:50 Now what about downloading? What do you recommend? 12:55 Not to? Okay, why? 12:57 'Cause that is the only thing is downloading. 13:01 Because and I've seen it done with 13:03 even religious organizations. 13:04 They say while we're doing this program 13:06 for the Lord, so it's okay. 13:08 But if you have it paid for the legal rights, 13:10 it's still illegal. Okay. 13:11 And you're still costing someone. 13:13 A Christian artist gets downloaded illegally 13:15 as much as a secular artist 13:17 which is unfortunate state 13:18 of Christian affairs in my opinion. Yes, it is. 13:21 And we are seeing more and more of that when-- 13:24 with those downloads, come viruses, 13:26 come worms, come inappropriate content, 13:28 pictures and other things. 13:30 And they're doing this specifically trying to target 13:33 and get their hooks into the young people. Okay. 13:35 Now beside the, I mean, 13:38 there are internet filters that parents can put on, 13:41 let's talk about that for a moment. 13:44 When you put an internet filter on, 13:46 that's not a cure all. 13:48 There is hundreds of ways to bypass filters. 13:51 And if you go on my website, 13:53 it's not its not rocket science and its not new to the kids. 13:55 Okay, now I believe last program 13:58 we've talked about your website 13:59 but I like to get that again 14:01 and his website is es-es.net, 14:08 es-es.net 14:11 and if you go to Ernest website, 14:14 you can get some information 14:17 that he's got even a pictorial thing 14:19 that will take you through and walk you through 14:22 and learn about these things and find, 14:25 I mean, I encourage all parents 14:27 who know that your kids are using the internet. 14:29 If you have kids, they are, whether you know or do not. 14:31 So I encourage you to go there 14:33 and look for that free information. Okay, so. 14:37 With that-- like you've said 14:39 I've got narrative powerpoints 14:40 they can sit there and listen and watch and learn. 14:42 There's lots of resources on there 14:44 that it can start open the conversations for parents, 14:48 and they need to make sure that their child understands 14:50 whatever they put on Myspace or something is not private. 14:53 It's being used by all the Fortune 500 companies 14:56 and job references now. 14:57 It's called the shadowresume, 14:59 it's what it's called and it's your online life. 15:02 So if your child in other words took spring break 15:07 let's say they are in college and they took spring break 15:10 and they went down to Cayman Islands 15:13 or the Bahamas or Florida or somewhere 15:16 and did some wild and crazy things, 15:18 just went do some wild and crazy parties 15:20 and came back and posted that on the internet. 15:22 What you're saying is when they graduate from college, 15:26 the interviewer or the company that's interviewing them 15:29 will be doing research 15:31 and looking at that shadow resume 15:34 and that could make or break 15:35 whether or not they get the opportunity 15:37 to have the job offer to them? 15:39 Not only that but colleges are also now 15:41 and public universities are even looking at Myspace profiles 15:44 and rejecting people 15:46 based upon their online profiles. Mercy. 15:48 'Cause if they're seeing that they're holding 15:49 illegal drugs in their hands, 15:51 they're talking about smoking pot 15:52 or something like that on their website 15:55 which is something that's talked about pretty frequently. 15:57 And are drinking or underage drinking, 15:59 lot of them will reject them straight up 16:01 from that college or university. 16:03 So that child doesn't realize 16:05 that they think they're being cool 16:07 and they're affecting the rest of their life. 16:09 And that's true and there's been case, documented cases. 16:12 There where this two young people in the Northwest. 16:14 They were young, they were under the age of 18, 16:16 they sent inappropriate pictures of themselves to each other, 16:19 a boyfriend and girlfriend type thing. 16:21 A parent found it, they reported it to police, 16:23 both of those children are now registered 16:25 sex offenders for the rest of their life. 16:27 Oh, mercy, how sad. 16:29 You know, they made a bad mistake 16:32 but that's going to go with them 16:33 and sex offender registry goes with them 16:35 for the rest of their life. How sad. 16:37 Now we've talked a lot about predators 16:40 and the different things that impact 16:43 this social networks can have 16:44 but let's talk about this for a moment, bullying. 16:48 Because there's a lot of bullying 16:50 that's going on the internet 16:52 and anybody can put anything on the internet. 16:55 You know, I remember the first time 16:56 that I went to Wikipedia 16:58 which is an encyclopedia. Right. 17:00 And I thought, oh, cool, 17:02 I was looking up this information and I grab it, 17:05 I'd been here two or three times 17:06 before I realized that anything, 17:08 anyone can post anything to that. 17:11 You don't know what the accuracy is. 17:14 And a lot of times because we find something online, 17:17 we trusting that it's accurate. 17:20 People can post all kind of lies, 17:22 or even all kinds of reputations. 17:25 So let's talk about 17:26 this form of bullying that's coming up online. 17:30 It's actually growing almost exponentially. 17:33 And it's really alarming that's even happening 17:34 more than the cyber predators to be honest. Really? 17:37 They're finding and its having a greater impact. 17:39 I mean, we've started naming of cases 17:40 warning for mob where a young man hung himself 17:42 and, you know, there's other ones-- 17:44 different states where people were involved 17:46 and the kids committed suicide because what has happened. 17:48 Its people all types will turn to these 17:50 social networking sites or online chat rooms 17:52 where they can type and talk to each other for a refuge 17:55 because they're having some type of social difficulty. 17:57 Well then if they go into this place looking for a refuge 18:00 and they're being beat up verbally, 18:03 you know, on being said horrible things about 18:05 then has a lot stronger impact on them. 18:08 Well, and when you're young, 18:09 and say you're 13 years old and have a little snit, 18:14 little argument with your best friend 18:15 and that best friend gets on there 18:17 and posts some kind of a tacky lie about you, 18:19 it's very damaging to a young psyche. 18:22 It is very much and they're finding 18:24 that there is lot more control trying to happen 18:26 between boyfriend and girlfriends, 18:28 even on cell phones, text messaging each other 18:31 through the night, wanting to know who they are with, 18:34 wanting to know what friends they're with, 18:35 or why aren't you with me if they have to be home 18:37 while you're studying 18:38 as much as you know every 10 minutes. 18:40 You know, which then the kids are having hard time studying 18:42 'cause they're constantly text messaging 18:43 their boyfriend or girlfriend and going back and forth. 18:46 Well, I saw in the news recently 18:47 and I'm sure you saw this about 18:50 in England I believe that it was they called nomophobia 18:53 or is that what they call it? 18:54 And that's where they can't be without their cell phone 18:57 and text messaging and I was surprised 19:00 the number of adult people on that interview that said, 19:02 yeah, I sleep with it, 19:05 sometimes I text all through the night. 19:06 And you are thinking, get a life. 19:10 But it's just a phenomenon 19:12 that we don't really understand 19:14 but it's not going to go away, is it? 19:16 I don't see, going away and actually 19:17 one of the really interesting statistics to me 19:20 when I focus on youth because I work in an academy, 19:22 they have found online internet addiction 19:25 is really strong in two major areas in life. 19:28 The teenage realm and the emptiness realm. 19:32 The emptiness realm, 19:33 the internet addiction is going through the rough 19:35 and they were surprised by that. 19:37 That recent studies that's come out 19:38 in last couple of years. 19:39 And when we say internet addiction 19:40 we're not talking about pornography addiction, 19:42 we're talking about just having to be online 19:45 and be connected and feeling like 19:47 your life is over if you're not. 19:49 And I tease my dad about 19:50 getting three different forms in the same newscast. 19:52 I say, you heard it twice, you don't need to hear it 19:53 three or four or five times. 19:55 You know, we joke and tease about that. 19:56 And where with my dad it was more TV, 19:59 with some of the other people 20:00 and actually some people of my dad's age, 20:02 it is becoming, it's shifting from TV now to the internet. 20:06 And they're just-- and even if they're doing 20:07 ministry stuff, they're just constantly on. 20:10 They don't get unplug. 20:11 My wife and I try and take a trip 20:13 at least once every year 20:14 where we got to a camp where there's no cell phone, 20:16 there is no TV, there is no internet. Yes. 20:18 And we do that on purpose to detoxify. Right. 20:21 You know, just spend family time 20:22 with our little girl and have some fun. Yeah. 20:24 It's a bit of shock for me, 20:26 I don't have to get used to it the first day. 20:27 I have to unwind and say, okay, no laptop. Yeah. 20:31 You know before we get to kind of wrapping up 20:35 much of what we've discussed 20:37 the thing that I wanted to ask you about is 20:40 kind of fail to do this. 20:42 When we were talking about 20:43 how to protect our children from internet predators, 20:48 is it possible to protect our children 20:50 from internet bullying? 20:53 I would like to say yes but I don't feel like 20:55 that be accurate. Yeah. 20:57 You know, it happens through someway, 20:59 it happens not just on internet, 21:00 it happens through cell phones, 21:01 it happens through, if you have 21:03 the lines of communication that your child realizes 21:05 if someone is not treating them appropriately, 21:07 they need to come to you. 21:09 Legal, they will-- 21:10 if it's a kid that's being bullied by another kid, 21:12 local law enforcement will take that very serious. All right. 21:15 So if that's happening, 21:17 you need to have an open communication 21:18 between you and your child so that we can say 21:20 we need to talk about this, 21:21 we need to take this to next level, 21:22 talk to the school, talk to the legal if necessary, 21:25 you know, talk to the law officers 21:26 and say they are saying these horrible things about my child. 21:29 She is being bullied 21:31 because they take bullying very seriously. 21:33 And part of what happens is because what can-- 21:35 your child can become a victim 21:37 but then lots of times through their victim status 21:39 they will also become an offender. 21:41 Because they want to get back the people 21:44 and that's where we are trying to teach 21:46 the same values that we have in real life. 21:47 We want to have in this online life 21:50 whether its internet, cell phones, or whatever. 21:52 I think our floor director was today telling us that 21:55 there was a case locally, 21:56 or maybe not locally it's was on the seen in news 21:59 and various news stations about an online bullying. 22:03 A case where somebody posted something to rogatory 22:06 and then the little girl's kidnapped, 22:09 the one that had posted the remark 22:11 and actually video taped then beating her up and all. 22:14 So this is really prevalent 22:17 and it's growing, isn't it? It is growing. 22:20 Like I said its growing more than-- 22:21 actually-- on the good news is that, 22:23 actually sexual solicitation online is going down. Really? 22:28 Which is great and you know 22:29 but the aggressive mess is going up a bit 22:32 and the online bullying has more than compensated. 22:35 So online bullying is starting to happen, 22:37 it's not happening more than 22:39 online solicitation of inappropriate, 22:41 you know, action or pictures but it is really taking off. 22:45 So in a bottom line, if you think about, 22:49 you know, we don't think that technology is evil. Right. 22:52 But the impact that these media is having on us, 22:56 how do we protect or how do we-- 23:04 how do we let our children grow up in this world 23:10 and encourage them to grow up safely? 23:13 That's a good question. 23:16 My best answer that I can think off lots of prayer. Okay. 23:20 Making sure that your child is grounded in a belief system, 23:24 making sure that your child 23:26 takes their belief system with them online 23:29 so don't encourage them, 23:30 if they download illegal Christian music, 23:32 go buy the CD and say we're going to be, 23:36 you know, Christian about everything we do in our lives. 23:39 We're gonna honor the Lord in everything we do. 23:41 Make sure that they understand 23:43 that your value system transcends 23:44 what media meets on. That's good. 23:46 Make sure that you are involved 23:48 when you're talking and communicating with them. 23:51 Yeah, that's good. 23:52 And as you do that, then I think you're gonna start 23:54 opening the doors for two way communication 23:55 and you can share and you can then start rooting 23:58 some of these barriers that often times come up 24:00 in the teenagers years 24:01 between the parent and the child. 24:03 How are you working with your daughter? 24:05 She's 4 years old and you said 24:07 she's already online going to strawberryshortcake.com. 24:11 How do you see-- 24:13 are you going to we've already discussed 24:16 in the previous program that you said 24:17 it's really not wise just to say, okay, this is dangerous, 24:20 so I'm gonna unplug you from it 24:21 because the world is going there and you even recommend 24:25 and are trying to reach teenagers 24:27 and ministry that we use this medium 24:31 because this is the medium that's there 24:34 and it's not going away 24:35 and this is what this generation is growing up on 24:38 and we really have turned to corner. We have. 24:40 So how are you going to-- 24:43 what parameters are you gonna use 24:45 as you view your own daughter 24:47 as far as time, that's a lot of in all of that? 24:51 Probably, I'm gonna make sure that 24:52 we're involved in outside activities. Okay. 24:55 That we unplug detoxify, I enjoy rock climbing, 24:58 my wife enjoys quilting. 25:00 You know, she's playing 25:01 and learning both about both aspects of our lives. 25:04 You know, I taught archery at summer camp. 25:06 You know summer camps are great thing for kids, 25:08 but I recommend a summer camp 25:09 where they're not allowed to bring headphones. Right. 25:11 'Cause they're some out there. 25:12 They need to unplug and see if there's a real life 25:14 and be involved in that. 25:16 We are involved with her life. 25:17 Right now, she's on the computer, we are with her. 25:20 She's not even if it's, 25:21 you know, because there's always internet, 25:22 she can click through even as a four year old, 25:24 you know, she navigates Norgren 25:26 or some of these other education sites 25:27 or some of the Christian sites, she can do it by herself. 25:29 Yes, at four. 25:30 At four, so at the same time, I'm not gonna just say 25:34 I know she's good I'm gonna use it as a babysitter. 25:36 Internet can never be a babysitter. 25:38 Nor can television, you know, they just recently 25:40 came out with a study 25:41 after all these years that they have been saying that 25:43 your children will be smarter if they watch TV, 25:46 they're learning that the more TV 25:47 you watch between the ages of just newborn 25:52 and to I think four and saying that 25:55 your brain loses its ability 25:58 to have that synapts connectivity 26:01 and really process of full thoughts. 26:03 So that's interesting. 26:04 Well, if you think about all the images, 26:06 they are over stimulated. Yes. 26:08 For example, I basically had 26:10 a technology workshop with my kids 26:11 and we were online 26:12 playing games, it was a safe game, 26:14 there was no first person shooting or anything like. 26:15 It was a race car game. 26:17 We are watching the super bowl 26:19 and we at the same time running around with, 26:20 you know, little kind of like Nerf guns 26:23 and shooting each other all at the same time. 26:25 For them that was normal. 26:28 That was a normal mentality, 26:29 we're doing three or four different things at once. 26:31 Okay, so let's wrap this up real quick, 26:33 we got a minute. 26:34 What should parents specifically remember to do? 26:37 You need to remember be a part of your child's life. 26:40 You need to remember to realize that yourself that 26:42 you don't want to become a spiritual statistic. Okay. 26:44 So you want to make sure that 26:45 your spending time with the word. 26:47 Make sure your child is grounded 26:48 in the same philosophies that you are. 26:51 And just make sure that not only is the communications open 26:53 but that the child understands 26:55 and that they need to take on your belief system. Okay. 26:58 And limit the time so that we can 27:01 keep the kids busy beyond the screens 27:03 where they've got some kind of something to do. 27:05 And talk to your children about what they're doing 27:08 and let them know that you care 27:09 and that you love them. 27:11 And we want to thank you 27:12 so much, Ernest, for coming back. 27:15 This has been very informative. 27:17 I know that I've learned some things 27:19 and you kind of bringing me out. 27:21 I'm one of those generations that-- 27:24 I'm very active on the internet and I understand that 27:26 but I certainly don't understand the darker side of it. 27:29 So I hope that you've learned something from this 27:31 and I hope that you are going to-- 27:34 for you that are grandparents 27:36 even I encourage you 27:37 to learn something about the internet, 27:39 learn how to connect with your grandchildren 27:44 and what they're doing online. 27:45 Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 27:48 the love of the Father 27:49 and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. 27:51 Thank you, so much for joining us today. |
Revised 2014-12-17