It’s not if your children will ever come across a sex video or adult content anymore; it’s a matter of When and the clock is ticking.
When a child gains access to a digital device, sex video and pornography are very easy to stumble upon, either by intention or accident. So, what can you do to safeguard your child from the Perilous damage of being exposed to sexual content at an early age?
It is a question that most parents and caregivers are concerned about today. In fact, 76 percent of parents believe that they are responsible for educating their children about healthy sex and intimate relationships.
As a parent, you can also completely block your child from watching porn, but at the same time, there is a better route, which is to prepare your child mentally to deal with explicit content in a much more mature and safe way.
5 Ways to cleverly Protect Your Child from Pornography
The more you try to hide porn sites like Borwap or any adult content, the more curious your child will be. It’s better to feed their curiosity and answer their questions proactively, on your terms, than completely avoid any conversation remotely related to sex video or sexually explicit content.
1. Learn the damages early exposure to adult content can do
The very first step to protect your child from pornography is to educate yourself about what pornography is in the present day and how it can affect your child’s well-being.
Stop thinking that your child will never be able to reach adult content. Instead, consider how long it will take for the pornography to get to your child.
Hypersexualized media is at the tip of your finger, be it a pop ad in the middle of a free game or a provocative cartoon character. And being exposed to such content can raise questions and concerns in your child’s mind.
When these concerns go unanswered, most children take it upon themselves to dive into the rabbit hole that leads straight into the den of pornography.
To create a protective layer around your child to safeguard them from sex video & pornography, first, you must understand the stakes. It will allow you to broaden your scope and be more assertive with your children than sitting back and hoping your child will not see porn if you have enabled parental control on their phones.
2. Talk about pornography
If your child has a digital device like a phone or a laptop, access to pornography is not too far away. In fact, they may have already seen what the world of adult content may look like.
You may wonder about the best age to start the awkward conversation about sex video and adult content with your child.
Then know as soon as your children are allowed direct access to the internet, it is time to talk about pornography because your children are more ready to talk about it than you are.
Be open and honest about what pornography is, and never avoid the subject when your child tries to inquire about it. It would also be great to casually bring your child’s attention to the connotation of pornography.
For example, say these are bad pictures; they can affect your brain badly, or tell your parents or an adult when you see something similar on the net or on a friend’s phone.
Your child is much safer talking about porn and sex video with you than with their friends.
3.Feed the temptation
One mistake that Nigerian parents often make is that they either sound very uncomfortable talking about pornography or create a massive deal out of it. And when children observe the emphasis on the topic, they are more intrigued to do their research undercover than discuss it openly.
Hence, avoid giving away too much attention to porn and address it like you usually do, as if it’s nothing important or noteworthy.
However, keep the conversation about pornography going on every now and then so that your children become aware of the concept and are no longer uncomfortable around it.
Many parents find addressing their child’s temptation of asking, “why is a picture of a half-naked girl in my game'” very disrespectful. They cave in and often respond with aggression or sudden strict measures. Whereas all they did was make their child more interested in what it was.
So, the next time your child asks about it, remember to keep calm and tell your child what the picture is about.
As discussed earlier, you can always use words like “bad picture” or say something along the lines of it is a bad picture that shows private parts of the body that are meant to be kept private.
Note that the purpose here is to feed your child’s temptation, so they don’t need to research for themselves. If you can cure their curiosity with a simple yet effective answer, you have achieved your goal of protecting your child from pornography.
4.Provide an internal filter system
Many Nigerian parents tend to perceive that as long as there is a parental control filter on the device, their child is safe from pornography. But no filter is perfect. Like the point above, children see filters as a challenge to surpass. They are intrigued to know why there is a filter and what it is that their parents are trying to keep away.
Hence, children begin to find ways to pass that challenge and find what was meant to be hidden.
Also, what about when they are at a friend’s place? Or not at home? This means that external filters provide NO GUARANTEE that your child will be protected from pornography.
A more brilliant way to protect your child from pornography is to provide them with an internal filter system instead. Start by creating a safe space for your children to come up to you and talk to you about anything they want.
This builds trust, and your children will understand that you want to help them be safe.
Then, bring the topic of pornography or Sex Video into the mix. Talk about what it is and other words they can use to understand it. This will enable the children to realize when they see something similar and report their exposure to you.
Lastly, empower your kids with a plan to decrease the impact of pornography on their minds. Most importantly, teach your children to stay calm and never freak out when they see adult content or sex video.
In other words, pornography shouldn’t excite them at any level. This will help your children to stay focused on rejecting porn, as it is not suitable for them, and inform you freely about any incidents.
5.Model good behavior
Children are mirror images of their parents, especially in habits and personalities. It has been said repeatedly that the parents’ behavior primarily impacts the skills children develop from an early age. The same applies to viewing explicit sexual content as well.
If you are continuously teaching your child about how harmful adult content is, but your child can also observe you consuming similar content, then all your hard work is going down the drain, and you will be standing back on square one.
Children view this as, why is my dad or mom watching it if it is inappropriate? Meaning that there is something good in this content that even my parents are indulging in, so I might as well do the same sometimes quietly.
While as a parent and as an adult, you have the right to privacy, understand how crucial it is to model good behavior to protect your child from sex video and pornography. Have a zero-tolerance policy for any sexually explicit content, online porn, including magazine, social media, language, or disrespectful behavior.
As a countermeasure against pornography, teach your children about consent, healthy relationships, and respecting boundaries.
In addition, spend time with your children to understand them better and build a closer bond with them. This way, your children will also observe you closely and replicate the good behavior that you project.
Get Help, if needed:
Sometimes, you can do your best, but it isn’t enough to protect your child from pornography. In such cases, look for the following signs and seek professional Help.
- Your child is developing an addiction to adult content, even after corrective measures
- Your child is consuming bizarre and illegal pornography
- Your child’s behavior is getting more aggressive and sexually provocative
- Your child is engaging in sexual activities alone or with strangers online
- Your child is concerned about their mental status and asks for Help
Conclusion
Talking about pornography and sex video may seem arduous for a parent. Still, with the right mindset and tools, you can empower your children to stand against sexually explicit content and understand that indulging in pornography is harmful.
While having a safe internet connection, parental controls, a monitored router, and clean media access are all necessary; they do not guarantee your child’s safety from pornography 100 percent.
So, a smarter approach would be to prepare your child for this exposure and set up yourself as the best source of information to reduce the inevitable shame and shock your child may experience.