A Culture of Accountability: Parenting the Internet Generation

Monday, March 29th, 2010
Written By Luke Gilkerson
Categories: Lust - Fighting the Battle, Parenting the Internet Generation, Pornography Addiction

A Culture of Accountability: Parenting the Internet Generation

This is one video testimony of a teenager talking about his pornography addiction.

I was struck by what he said about the importance of parental help and accountability. Using guilt and emotional appeals to virtue are not the best approaches to helping your son or daughter fight online temptation. Instead we need to create a culture of accountability in the home. This involves formative instruction and parenting upfront, not just as a reaction to existing problems or crises.

This is one of the reasons Covenant Eyes exists: helping parents create a culture of accountability for themselves and their children. In the anonymity of the Internet Age, this sort of accountability is needed all the more. Kids need to have a gut reaction to disturbing images or interactions online, and the confidence of knowing that their home is a safe place to talk. Filtering alone does not do this. Children need to know they are not merely being “blocked” or “spied on” by their parents. A culture of accountability is the way this happens, and accountability software is one tool for parents to use.

To learn more about this, listen to what counselor Paul Mavrogeorge says about how families can use accountability software in the home, or read “Is Filtering All There Is?“