Parents must monitor

In the recent article about Northwest Arkansas students viewing/posting child pornography, this statement appears near the end: “One key to preventing kids from becoming involved in child pornography is parental involvement.”

It is not one key to prevention, it is the key. Giving a kid (and yes, a teenager is a kid) a connected smartphone without supervision is akin to giving them a loaded pistol or free and ready access to alcohol to use and consume however they see fit. The same is true of unsupervised home computers or laptops.

I have raised two daughters in the age of Internet and smartphones. There were no PCs in bedrooms. Our communal PC was in a family area. Their smartphones were a privilege, and they understood passcodes were always shared. If Mom and Dad called or texted and a response was not soon forthcoming, privileges could and would be revoked. It was clearly understood that their phones did not belong to them, but to Mom and Dad. If we decided we needed to look at how they had been using their phones, that would not be a problem, because, after all, they were our phones.

I realize how draconian this will sound to many parents, but the reality is that all this was explained to our kids in a manner in which they understood we had their best interests at heart and it was for their ultimate protection. There was absolutely no resentment over this and, over a period of eight years or so, we probably perused their phones once or twice. The Internet is much too dangerous a place to allow your kids free, unsupervised access.

GREG STANFORD

White Hall