If you are over thirty you probably are familiar with the term “latchkey kid.” A latchkey kid, for those of you who aren’t, is “a child who returns from school to an empty home because his or her parent or parents are away at work, or a child who is often left at home with little or no parental supervision.” (Wikipedia) This term got thrown around a lot back in the eighties as part of a big public awareness campaign but isn’t quite as much the hot topic these days. The problem with latchkey kids, obviously, is that they are often left to fend for themselves without any form of supervision or hedge of protection. Of course, this is still a real issue for many homes but in this modern era we have a whole new generation of kids who are finding themselves in this same problematic situation when it comes to their online life. I call these children and teens “porn-key” kids.
It’s shocking to me how many parents let their kids go online on a regular basis with little or no supervision. Basically, many dads and moms just find it easier to send their kids to a computer, or tablet, or media player than actually spending time investing in their lives. Hey, I get it. Raising children while maintaing a career, AND a home, AND a marriage can be super difficult … draining to say the least. However, the way we deal with that reality should not be to pawn our kids off on the Internet … especially without some form of supervision or protection! The Internet is basically the wild wild west and our kids are plunging into it without any horse, gun, or even cowboy hat. Listen … the Internet is an awful babysitter and even a worse parent. As we find ourselves in this back to school time we know that things will get stressful. Make a commitment to not do the easy thing and pawn your kids off on the computer. That being said, if you do for any reason AT LEAST make sure you have some type of filtering software in place that will help screen out some of the crap.
Watch this video we put out a little while back. It’s pretty funny but really gives you a good picture of what can happen when the Internet plays mom or dad.