Safety In The Information Age

Teaching Your Family To Be Safe On The Internet

"And ye will not suffer your children that they... serve the devil... But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness..." -- Mosiah 4:14-15 The Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ Click here to read the entire chapter. Click here to view the entire Book of Mormon. Click here to learn how to obtain a complimentary copy of The Book of Mormon.

We wish the world were more 'family-friendly.' Outside influences are becoming more coarse and violent as the days pass. Unfortunately, there is no Environmental Protection Agency watching over the Internet and the pornographic pollution that contaminates it. In July of 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional. This act had been passed by overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate and signed into law by President Clinton on February 8, 1996, but was immediately challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union through a lawsuit. The act would have made it a felony for anyone to knowingly transmit "indecent" material to minors. The court said, in essence, that the right of adults to such materials outweighed the need to protect our children from exposure to such "adult" material.

On March 22, 1997, at the Utah Conference for Families, Governor Mike Leavitt talked about how the Internet is changing our world. Every school in Utah is wired to this powerful new tool. And so are public libraries. The Internet will affect all of us for good or evil. There is a dark side. Unrestricted pornography can now enter our schools, our libraries, and our homes through this electronic wonder.

The Internet is a wonderful world of new opportunity for children and adults -- a colossal dynamic library brimming with information. It is the opportunity to expand minds and develop skills necessary for the future. And whether we like it or not, the World Wide Web is here to stay. Informed forecasts state that it will become common for nearly everyone at home, in the office, at the airport or in a library to use almost any computer or any television set to buy airline and entertainment tickets, peruse catalogs, purchase a book, take a college course, pay utility bills, do banking and so forth. In the 1997-98 school year students in every school district in Utah will use computers to access the Internet.

More and more our children and grandchildren will use this tool. Even if you don't have the Internet at home, there are always neighbors, libraries, and schools where people can hook up, and it's okay most of the time. But there are hidden dangers!

Even if a mere 2% of the Web is seamy, that amounts to some 50,000+ sites you'd rather your child not stumble across.

Parents need to know what to look out for. Think of the Internet as a giant shopping mall. There are places in the mall that are okay for your kids to go into and some places you've told them to stay away from. Once in cyberspace on the Internet, there are as yet no real barricades to keep children out of places they shouldn't be.

But that shouldn't frighten you. The real world is the same way. What your family needs on the internet is cyber-smarts. Watching your kids venture into the Internet is a bit like sending them off to school for the first time. Just as you teach your children to look both ways when crossing the street and not to accept rides from strangers, just as you teach them to say "no" to drugs, alcohol and tobacco, there are rules your children need to know when they are navigating the Net.

The materials in this folder were assembled for the purpose of helping all members of the family to be safe on the Internet. Use the information contained herein to strengthen and educate yourselves and to arm yourselves with knowledge. Children are our main focus, but adults will be exposed to many temptations as well. In the recent past in order to view the items that are freely offered on the Internet, an individual would have to go into a sleazy movie theater or ask for magazines that were kept behind the counter. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, "those who welcome this latest technological marvel into their homes also open the door for all manner of pornography and adult content, from the merely naughty to the unbelievably explicit."

The concluding section contains advice from our prophets and spiritual leaders concerning the type of challenges that the Internet and other corrupting forces bring into our daily lives. As a Relief Society Presidency, under the close direction of the Stake Presidency, we have felt so much inspiration from our Heavenly Father as we prepared this project on the use of the Internet. It is our strong hope and sincere prayer that these materials will be of value to each individual and each family unit as they meet the challenges that our society thrusts upon them.