Greatest Views Come With Highest Risks

At church today, one of the lessons was a discussion about safe use of communication technology such as Internet, cell phones, and all its uses--especially how it influences our youth.

Just like some of the most beautiful scenes in the world are only found at the risk of harm or death for those unprepared and careless, technology can connect us with so many wonderful people and life-improving information at the risk of destructive and even life-threatening consequences if not used wisely and cautiously.

We recently watched the Caves episode from the BBC Nature Series: Planet Earth. Incredible footage of things very few people ever see.

Lechuguilla cave scenic © Gavin Newman

The Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico was uncovered just over 20 years ago and has incredible, white sulfuric acid-created gypsum crystal formations untouched for thousands of years. Its so precious that you need special government permission to even enter the caves--it took BBC two years to finally get permission to film the cave.

The picture above was taken in the Chandelier Room, so named for the giant crystal formations hanging from the ceiling. To get to this incredible site, more than a mile inside the mere 101 miles of cave explored so far, the first thing you do is climb down 118 feet almost vertical. Then in the pitch black, silence you climb up and down piles of rock from ceiling collapses and occasionally pass through tight crawl-only passages.

The crew from BBC who filmed the cave, dragged their heavy film equipment through the pitch black cave for 10 days of filming. Can you imagine the food, water, lights, batteries, safety equipment and other things they had to be prepared with? If they weren't well-prepared and careful through their journey we wouldn't have that beautiful witness on the TV screen.

Technology gives us access to sites, sounds and information beyond imagination. Its how the common person can see unimaginable details of galaxies, planets, comets and stars. Its how we can instantly talk with a friend on the other side of the planet. It's how the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring hope, joy, and love to almost every truth-seeker on the Earth.

However, technology can also be a tool destructive to ourselves, others and society if misused. Addictive, family-destroying pornography is a click away even with the most thorough of parent controls and protective software. Text messaging and social network sites such as MySpace are used by the common high school student to socially assault others or to buy and sell drugs. Locally, the use of text messaging alerted a High School principal of the significant problem of students abusing prescription drugs. Technology is even used by predatory people to find and harm innocent victims.

So what do we do to help ourselves and our children wisely and carefully navigate these treacherous caves of technology so we can safely be magnified and uplifted by the good things that can come from the proper use of technology?

1. Create a Safe, Open Environment.

• Utilize Parental Controls and other technology-based protection: In order for people to get trapped into doing something bad, they have to be exposed to it. Technology-based protection isn't fool-proof, but it prevents a lot of accidental exposure.
• Be aware of what your children are doing: When people do things they know are wrong, secrecy empowers them to continue digging deeper into trouble. Know what your children are doing and what their friends are doing. Look at you're child's MySpace page, the cell phone bill, the Internet history. Put the computer in an open area--provide every environment and opportunity to prevent secrecy from enabling him/her to act on temptation.
• Limit personal information: Avoid providing personal information to the world. Any specific identifying information available on the web can be used by someone with malicious intent to physically locate an individual. Recently a blogger posted an innocent picture of themselves on a public blog which was picked up by a less-than-innocent forum group. Even after making the blog private, the forum was still able to locate cached pictures, and even download the picture from the picture storage site Blogger uses. Posts on the forum from people working together to find the picture again hinted of recognizing that their pursuit of the picture was not appreciated and hoped 'no one catches on.' You often hear of predators stalking individuals because they put too much detailed information on their blog, chat room, or MySpace. Its easy to put pieces together when you are talking about your High School or the store you went to across the street from your house that is unique only to your town, etc.

2. Educate yourself and your children. We can't always be there with our children and no technology-based safeguards are 100% effective, so if we can empower our children with the knowledge they need to make their own good decisions they can choose for themselves to avoid dangers.

• www.netsmartz.org This website was mentioned at the church meeting today. It gives a lot of information about Internet safety for all age groups. This would be a great activity to do together with your children.
• Let your children teach you. By the time I could type 'How R U?' in a text message, there are some youth who could have text messages the whole Lord of the Rings series to their friend. LOL (Laugh Out Loud.) Youth today know technology like the back of their hand.
• Let your children know your expectations. Help them know what to do.
• Be an example. Use the internet the way you want your children to use it. Children do what they see adults do, especially those they respect the most.

3. Develop a close relationship with your children. This is probably the most important. Generally speaking, if you are close with your children (especially starting young) you will trust them and they will trust you. Some youth may argue that all of these 'restrictions' prove that you don't trust them or 'its a violation of my privacy' for you to know what they are doing. But if you are able to maintain a good relationship with your children, they can know your intentions are based on your love for them. They can know you are only trying to protect them. And you will know the type of decisions they will make and you can be able to trust that they will be as faithful to you as you are to them. At least that's the type of relationship I hope I can develop with my children.

I'm sure there are other things that can be done to maximize our opportunity to have such wonderful technology tools at our disposal with out falling down paths of physical, emotional, social and spiritual danger. I try to be careful with my blog, but after today's education, there is still a lot more I can do to be extra safe--and certainly a lot more I can do to prepare my children for things they will face as they become older. You probably have some good ideas too...

sources: (click links)