It sure has been a while

It has been almost three years since my last post, I almost forgot how to do it. This post is totally out of the blue and may come as a shock just for the sheer fact that I'm actually posting something but, for an assignment for school I'm going to discuss my most recent meeting with classmates. The contents of this post will be of what I've been learning about, and studying this week. The thing I mostly want to share is a quote we were assigned to discuss in our group about technology and media usage.

QUOTE:

2. “We need to use Internet filters...to prevent...‘chancing upon’ things [we] should not see. We need to have...computers in a much-used common room in the home, not in a bedroom or a private place.” (M. Russell Ballard, “Let Our Voices Be Heard,” October 2003 general conference).

 

Last night I had the opportunity to talk with my husband about what we discussed in  class too. We have just recently moved our computer from our bedroom to the living room and this quote really made me think about our decision and wonder why we didn't do it a lot sooner. Our discussion in the group helped me feel even more sure that we did the right thing. I shared this lesson with my husband because I wanted to help him understand why it was such a good thing as well. 

My main reason for moving the computer was that I felt that I was impeding my children's advancement in technology. I was always reluctant to let them use it in my room, when I knew I wasn't going to be in there with them. It is important for them to get the practice they need with computers so they can keep up with their peers at school.

Some of the key points of our discussion were:

• Internet filters and much-used common room in the home.
• Having parental controls and internet filters are important for adults and children alike, just one wrong click could lead you in a bad direction. I actually asked my husband to explain to me in more detail the parental controls we have. This helped my understanding of just how much control we have at this point. We have restrictions for certain websites that require our kids to get our permission before they can even go into that website. We also have passwords on all of our devices just to be able to turn them on and play them.
• The two of us were worried about the computer being an all day long temptation when we moved it to the living room, but looking back it hasn't been a problem because, we, as adults are less likely to sit down for hours upon hours, to use the computer when we know we wouldn't allow our children to do the same thing. 
• We are less likely to sit down to "check our email" and end up getting sucked in to Facebook or Amazon.com when the desk is in this more common place in our home.
• When we know their are parental controls we may have a false sense of comfort though, so we need to make sure we are still keep a listening ear or a looking eye when we are moving about the house or room while our kids are on the internet.

Basically if you wouldn't want your kids viewing, hearing or reading it, then you probably shouldn't be either.

Our discussion at home went quite a bit longer and a lot deeper than the group at gathering but you know we have a lot more time for discussing as husband and wife than we do at school.

• We got into discussing the content in our kids' game systems.
• The apps on their kindles, iPods, and iPhones.
• We actually came up with a few more ways to monitor the kids' use, especially when it comes to our 13 year old son.
• We checked some app reviews and removed inappropriate content from our devices.

This was a fabulous opportunity for me to have an open discussion with my husband and brainstorm together on ways to be more diligent in our efforts to keep our kids safe while still helping them to advance in life.