Our older girl, Ashley, sent a URL in an email to me recently. That URL led to someone’s web page, God’s Yellow Pages, that lists various Bible references available on the Internet that you can turn to in various times of need and tribulation. These verses are taken from the online copies of various Bible translations hosted on the Bible Gateway website run by Gospel Communications.

Given the fact that our two girls only came to know the Lord recently a number of months back, I am greatly encouraged by the fact that Ashley is spending time looking up, amongst other things, Bible verses and other things related to Christianity on the Internet when there is so much out there that could tempt or distract her from her new found faith.

As a person who spends a predominant proportion of my day on the Internet because of my work and my interests, I am greatly aware of the different temptations and distractions that the Internet holds and how easily accessible these are to children. Conventional wisdom dictates that as parents, we should try to protect our children from these distractions and temptations by taking actions to make them unavailable or to block them off.

However, my wife and I made the decision early on that being over-protective and attempting to shelter them from the evils and wrongs of this world and the Internet causes them greater harm instead. It is one of our parenting beliefs that the children should be made aware, from an early age, that right and wrong exists out there in the world.

Rather than obstructing their inquisitive minds, my wife and I try to encourage them to discuss what they do encounter with Mum and/or Dad… especially when they do come across websites that may be inappropriate for their age, has images that make them feel uncomfortable or content that contradicts what they’ve been taught at home and in church or when they have questions about what they encounter.

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“Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
- Proverbs 22:6 NASB

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It is our belief that it is one of our parental duties to educate and equip our kids so that they possess the mental capacity to make that differentiation between what is right and what is wrong for themselves and the fortitude to identify what is inappropriate for their age. While we recognize that there will be occasions when they will make a mistake, we trust that God will guide them in exercising the correct judgement and that God continues to help us educate them on the paths of His Way.

- adrian t