Responsible Internet Safeguards in your Home
If you have lead contaminated water coming into your house, you install a water purifier to make your drinking water safe, right? You do it for the health of your family and yourself. Yet, today, the Internet comes into our homes at high-speed with all kinds of dangerous substances--and many homes are lacking a filter! We need to take our family’s spiritual and moral health seriously by putting safeguards in place and by talking with our children about the dangers.
When I was in my adolescence, no matter how high the desire was to look at dirty magazines, the barriers were too high. They were kept up high behind the counter at the convenience store and you would have to ask the clerk to get one down for you. Even though I didn’t quite have the moral fiber to refuse an opportunity to peek, I lacked the audacity to make that public transaction. But today, illicit content is generally only one click or web search away. Not only that, but every browser is equipped with an Incognito or Private browsing mode, enabling members of your household to visit whatever sites they wish, with no trace of where they’ve been once the browser is closed. We need to make it harder, not easier for our children and ourselves to access the things we shouldn’t.
There are many subscription services out there that offer protection from these websites. Often, they require installing special software on every device in the house. That may be fine if you have a single computer, but what about all the many devices that come in and out of your home? Will you be installing special software on all of them? Probably not.
The better option is to filter the internet at its point of entry into your home. Fortunately, there is an excellent way to do this with no service or subscription fees. I’d even say that it was easy, but then again, my job is in Information Technology, and I'm not sure if you would find it the same. So together with my church, we’ve decided to put together this tutorial explaining how to set it up.