Doing Internet Safety

I chose to interview my mother, a 47 year old mother of 7 children, for the "doing" section of Internet Safety. I figured that because I have three younger brothers from the ages of 17 to 22 as well as two younger sisters, aged 10 and 15, that I wanted to make sure my mom was well prepared to safeguard my siblings. I also have a 24 year old sister but she lives with me and is a big girl.

I started out by just asking my mom what she knew about MySpace, Facebook, chatrooms, etc. I was actually quite surprised at all the knowledge my mom already had about these social networks. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since she does have a Facebook account and has been in the Young Women Presidency for years, not to mention the fact that she has 7 children. But my mom is so technically challenged as far as running software and properly getting applications to work, etc. So I guess I just see her as lacking in computer skills and knowledge even though I know her to be a very intelligent, very aware and knowledgeable mother. My 15 year old sister has both a MySpace and a Facebook account but my mom has already made sure that her profile is set to private, that she knows not to give out personal information such as her school or address, and that she only accepts friend requests from people she knows. My mom also checks my sister's profiles occassionally to ensure there is nothing inappropriate on her webpage. My parents have two computers in the home. One is in their bedroom and the other is in the playroom upstairs. Both rooms are heavy traffic areas in our home and they both have TVs in them so you know anyone can come at any moment and see what you are doing on the computer.

I asked my mom if she is worried about pornography with my brothers and what she does to prevent problems with that. My parents have a filter on both computers. They keep the computers in high traffic areas of the house and they try (operative word, try) to minimize the amount of screen time that the children have.

I guess as I talked about these issues with my mother, I just realized what a great resource the prophets and leaders of the Church are. Again, my mom is by far the most technologically challenged person in the family. Easily. But she was still very savvy and knowledgeable when it came to Internet Safety. She listens to the prophet, she listens to the leaders of the Church, she listens to the bishopric, and she listens to the council from her Stake leaders and it has truly been a blessing in keeping our family safe. I'm glad I had this opportunity to talk to her because I never really thought about or realized this.