Who is teaching your children (and who is teaching you)?

Tragic stories in the News
Not many months pass by without news of yet another teenager who has lost their way or even lost their lives due to influences unknown to their parents.

A child disappears to some militant group and the parents are absolutely shocked and totally unaware of how radicalisation took place.

Another teenager commits suicide and it is discovered that they took how-to "advice" from a website. Once again the inconsolable parents are totally mystified.

Less noticed, but just as tragic are sceptical doubts and philosophies placed in the minds of vulnerable teenagers through watching YouTube and the like.

Who teaches our children?
The question every parent must ask is "Who is teaching my child?" Or, perhaps before that, "Who do I believe is responsible for teaching my children?" If the answer to the second question is that parents bear the primary responsibility (not YouTube or the state) for the education for their children, serious action needs to be taken.

Christian parents are responsible for their children
There is no doubt, from a Christian point of view that parents are responsible for the training and education of their children, with the overall responsibility resting squarely, if not politically-incorrectly, on the shoulders of fathers:

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4)

We may delegate the task of education to the state, but never the responsibility: that is always ultimately always the prerogative and responsibility of the parent.

That being the case, we are responsible, as parents, for knowing who is teaching our children, and this is where the smartphone comes into court.

FACT: It is impossible to know what our children are looking at, reading, or watching without some kind of accountability software on their phones.

Parents who trust their kids to watch only what is suitable, out of a menu of infinite, are kidding themselves if they think their child will only go where it is safe. A child is born curious and there is a big wide world out there with good and evil both equally available.

A Pastor's Advice
My advice is to encourage parents to have an open conversation with their kids about the blessings and dangers of the Internet. Then come up with clear guidelines which arise out of good reasons, well-explained and sensible.  And make sure that one of those guidelines is accountability software such as Accountable2You or CovenantEyes or the like.

But - of course - a parent that insists on accountability software on their kids' phones must load the app on their own phone.  It would be hypocrisy to demand the one and overlook the other.

Who teaches you?
The problem of who teaches our children is not limited to children, there is a much wider discussion to be had in the churches, as to who teaches adults. It is now possible for a Christian to gather around himself or herself "a great number of (Internet) teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." (2 Timothy 4:3). This will lead to folk turning "their ears away from the truth (through local pastors and churches) and turn aside to myths." (verse 4).

The local church alone is the pillar and ground of truth. The Lord has appointed shepherds to watch over the local flock, and to feed it and care for it. It is our local pastors and elders - and brothers and sisters around  -  we should listen to and pay heed to, not internet preachers who are unknown, distant and potentially - for all we know - dangerous.