Did you hear about the 8-year old who drove his parents car?
He had watch his parents drive for a few years and knew just what to do. He grabbed the keys from the key hook by the front door and walked to the family minivan. Following all the usual safety measures he had watched his parents follow, he was careful to properly adjust his seat, mirrors and buckle his seatbelt.
The little boy started the car, placed it in gear, and slowly pulled out into the road. It was easy! Just like his parents, he came to a complete stop at stop signs, always double-checked for oncoming traffic and always proceeded with caution.
Everything was going great! His heart was filled with anticipation as he made his way down the road to his favorite arcade. Space Zappers 3 was going to schedule to arrive on that fateful day. That is when it happened.
This naive 8-year old thought he had read a sign saying, “Left Turn Only,” but he was wrong. Before he knew it, he was faced with something he had never seen before in his life. Never had he seen such a thing while riding along with his parents before. What was going on? What was this? He could not divert his eyes from what was ahead of him.
Headlights. That is the last thing he remembered seeing before the oncoming traffic slammed into the minivan. The damage was done. He would never be the same. Sure, he made it to the hospital and they did their best to mend his wounds, but there was always going to be scares. He would always have a limp. He would never be the same.
Years later, as an adult, he still has flashbacks. Surely, this could have been prevented.
The End?
Letting your kids navigate the Information Superhighway alone is as dangerous as letting them drive to the arcade by themselves and the damages can be just as grave. Some recent research has stated that the average age that kids view pornography for the first time is 8-years old. In fact, 90% of children between ages 8-16 have viewed online pornography.
90%.
8-years old.
Did you get that?
Please, do not allow your kids to access the Internet unsupervised.
Charles Specht says
These stats break my heart, both as a father and a pastor. ;-(
Jimmy Rustles says
This whole article is silly hyperbole.
kolby milton says
The frustrating thing with this stat is that a ton of parents I talk to are in complete denial that their child would have been exposed to online porn. When I talk to parents, they often believe that their child is immune to online porn because of their parenting. I once heard a great statement from a fellow pastor on online porn, “it’s not when you find online porn, it’s when it finds you.”
Eric Dye says
Frustrating, indeed! (Great quote BTW.)
Jonathan Ober says
it’s not just online porn anymore either, there are apps that allow for texting/sexting, there are phones and ipods and other devices these kids have access to so fast. Then there is the deleting history or the ease of Incognito Tabs (Chrome), and hiding your browsing pretty much built into any computer or device these days. Parents need to go to the hub to protect their kids through DNS blocking or internet providers need to provide some kind of ‘porn out of the house’ method at the router level that can’t be bypassed without removing the block by an authorized party. This would be great for parents of kids/teens and even the parents themselves. I couldn’t tell you how many times the temptation is presented in my work day. I need help with it and I am 31, I can only imagine what a puberty stricken teen is facing and bombarded with.
Abby Williams says
Jesus Christ, the word “exposed” not willingly watched. I know of many stories where children saw it on another machine (like a siblings/fathers phone or computer) Also I think it should be stated that children are naturally curious and may have heard the word sex, googled it and voila, uncensored pics (that’s how I found out!) Also I think it should be stated that children reach puberty at different ages so there is no certain “age” to access it. In a perfect world for bible thumpers, helicopter parents etc. it would be impossible for anyone under 18 to access porn, but that’s not the case. The fact that some 16 year olds haven’t had access to porn actually worries me about their situation, I mean come on, are you allowed to leave the house? Again this doesn’t talk about the legitimacy of the article itself. Some people consider lingerie pics porn. Smh ????♀️