What Should Parents Do If They Find Out That Their Children Watch Porn?
Parental Guide to Protect Your Child Against Online Pornography
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- Parent Monitoring Tips
- Monitoring Apps
- Social Media Parental Control
Sep 11, 2024 Filed to: Parental Control Tips Proven solutions
Despite the apparent disadvantages of watching hot videos, it is still one of the highest online searches. According to Statista, porn searches reach as high as 20%, with the number expected to rise even further soon. With these glaring numbers in mind, parents should be more vigilant about what their children are watching online.
So, how does porn affect the brain of your child? That's what we're about to find out as well as learning how to curb the menace. Read on!
Disadvantages of Watching Hot Videos
How does porn affect the brain development of your child?
1. Normalizes sexual harm
According to Dr. Sharon Cooper of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, children and youths are more susceptible to porn images because of their brain's mirror neurons. The mirror neurons determine how a child learns. In other words, they help the child observe and imitate what other people do.
That said, watching explicit videos can limit your child's success in forming sustained emotional relationships in the future by normalizing sexual violence and rape. Overall, pornography can leave a long-lasting negative emotional effect on youth and children than other media content.
2. Can lead to addiction
Porn addiction can be just as dangerous as drug, alcohol, and gambling addictions for both adults and young people. That aside, if your child continues to have access to this immoral content, they will find it enjoyable and eventually make it a necessity. Also, they will have an uncontrollable urge, which will result in the loss of self-control.
Even worse, various medical studies reveal that a person suffering from a single addiction is likely to suffer from another one. Therefore, the chances of your pornographic addicted child suffering from drug or alcohol addiction in the future are pretty high. And yes, this addiction is likely to affect their academic performance as well.
3. Disrupts real-life goals
Learning how to set life objectives is an integral part of your child's overall development. If your child is hooked on porn, it becomes difficult for them to focus on their academic goals. It is, in fact, no coincidence that any porn addict usually deals with financial, relationship, or career struggles.
It's challenging to set a porn consumption schedule once it becomes an addiction. So, the more you watch, the more you want to watch, replacing your real-life goals. In a nutshell, this momentary pleasure can destroy your child's ability to set and achieve big goals.
4. Social Isolation
Porn addiction is one of the main culprits of social isolation. That's because your child will want to watch the videos alone. In return, your child will start feeling shame and social awkwardness while in public.
Also, your child feeling shame as a result of watching porn can make it difficult for you and your child to share moments. That can slow down their maturity process and prevent them from hitting their full potential.
5. Promote aggression
Establishing a long-lasting romantic relationship is an integral development part for youths and young adults. However, exposure to adult content might do the opposite. Porn usually displays hostility, especially towards women than other sexual media content. The violence and aggression mated towards women can teach adolescent boys that it is socially acceptable to demean and behave aggressively towards women.
Also, pornographic content doesn't portray how real people behave and act in intimate relationships. Therefore, your child might set unrealistic expectations on their future partners and deter their ability to build and maintain relationships.
How to Know if Your Kids Are Watching Pornography
Although it can be difficult to watch every online movement of your child, there are multiple ways to know if they are watching hot videos. So, if you want to find out if your child is addicted to porn, here's how to go about it:
1. Monitor any suspicious texts
Because children are likely to be initiated into the vice by their friends, it's best to begin your search on their social media activities. You can do that by monitoring their text messages or DMs on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and others. To do that, ask for their log-in details or conduct multiple spot-checks on their phone. An easier way is to install a third-party parental control app like FamiSafe, which gives you full control over your child's device.
2. Check their phone activity timeline
On top of perusing through their text messages and social media DMs, you can also monitor your child's phone activity. Again, FamiSafe will come in handy. With this app, you'll know which apps your child likes to use and at what time they use them. For example, it's possible that your kid likes watching hot videos late in the night when everyone is asleep. In that case, you can disable their device to help them get sound sleep.
3. Browser History
If you can't see any of the above signs, go straight to their browsing history, where you're likely to find whatever you're looking for. Of course, this won't be easy unless you physically get their device. Alternatively, you can get help from the FamiSafe parental control app to view all your child's browsing history. In case they enter an adult content website, you'll get a real-time notification and act upon it.
Parental Guide to Protect Your Child Against Online Pornography
Generally, explicit content may cause young people and children to develop negative behaviors. But the good news is that there are various measures that you might take to ensure that your child or adolescent doesn't become a porn addict. Below are the five key types of interventions:
1. Open Communication
Having open communication with your child about the dangers of watching pornography is undoubtedly the first line of defense. As a responsible parent, you can initiate this with your child to help them shun the vice.
Teach them to encourage critical thinking by asking themselves who makes porn, and why do they make it? They can also ask themselves what they stand to gain from watching adult videos before opening one on their device. In conclusion, strive to foster a healthy discussion about online pornography with your child.
2. Parental Control App
If your child uses the Internet frequently, parental control apps should give you a helping hand. You only need to install one on your device and theirs to enjoy unlimited and remote access to their mobile activities. With this technology, you will keep tabs on your child's browsing history, media gallery, app usage time, and so much more.
However, using a parental control app is a measure that will work best if it's part of a comprehensive approach to online responsibility. That means communicating to your child about what to do and not to do online. Make it clear that you'll be monitoring their mobile devices and online activities.
- Location Tracking & Geo-fencing
- App Blocker
- Web Filtering
- Screen Time Control
- Smart Parental Control Setting
3. Limit Computer or Phone Access
Although this might seem brutal, it has proved to be an effective method of keeping child pornography at bay. Don't just give rules but also ensure that they use computers and phones around home responsibly.
First of all, place the computers around your home in open spaces where you can see your child while using them. Keeping them in their rooms encourages privacy, which is a catalyst for porn addiction. Another thing, turn off or collect their phones or laptops at night for charging.
4. Know Their Friends
As mentioned earlier, children are introduced to pornography by friends either at school or online on social media platforms. Although parental control apps should take care of online issues, you must take strict measures to keep your child from bad companies around the neighborhood.
For example, make it a habit to know your child's friends or who they are dating and their parents. Even though your child will think that you're invading their privacy, this measure is necessary. Be sure, however, to keep building a cordial relationship with your child and let them know that you're acting in their best interest.
5. Support
Finally, if your child or young adult has already been exposed to this vice, it's paramount that you give them support to overcome the situation. Let them know that they can report to you if they accidentally view porn without repercussions like closing the internet or phone restrictions. Also, tell them not to respond and report to you about inappropriate messages to help you nip it in the bud.
Child pornography addiction is becoming a serious problem worldwide. While you can use parental control apps to limit your child's access to specific content and apps, this method can prove futile if your child is tech-savvy or an adolescent. Therefore, it's best to educate your child about the disadvantages of watching hot videos and encourage them to report to you in case they come across inappropriate content.
Moly Swift
staff Editor