The Dangers of Google Search

Dear Parents,

As with most curious elementary-age kids, there comes a point when they explore curse words. Sometimes it starts with writing a cuss word on a book cover, writing them in a note or in the case of my son, writing them on the leather seats of Grandma’s car! 😩

For most elementary-age kids, they do not know the meaning of most curse words, whether it's the S-word, the A-word, or the F-word.

But here comes the problem.

When you and I were growing up, if we wanted to know the meaning of a word where did we go to look it up? The family dictionary the school dictionary or maybe you had a set of Encyclopedia World Books.  Remember those?

The original Google Search was safely done by millions of kids using the Encyclopedia or World Book.

Remember doing geography reports and referencing the World Book?

The problem is that today most kids have access to some type of smart device, giving them a full and complete answer to ANY question including images and videos to SHOW the meaning of the word.

My 10-year old son wanted to know the meaning of the F-word.

We did not have any type of computer for him. So last semester when everybody went to distance learning, the school district gave him a Chromebook.  Most school districts are required to have filters and restrictions on student devices that limit certain mature/adult content.

I found out my son was doing some research on the F-word because, as a practice, I periodically check the history on his device to show me what sites he's visiting.

I want to stay informed about what he’s looking up and if he’s using the device for school work or to do other things.  In the Google history, I saw that he had done a search “what does the F word mean”. 

Upon further investigation, I could see what Google found to “help” him answer his question.

The ending of this story is OK because his search was on a school device and the pictures were fairly mild—albeit a little bit more explicit than I would have liked.

I talked with him about the F-word using appropriate terms for a 10-year old. And we talked about using the Internet to find information and how sometimes it can provide good information and sometimes it can provide bad information. The Google search doesn’t realize that a 10-year old is asking the question.

Parents, what if my son had decided to put that same search question into my personal cell phone or grandma's cell phone or a cousin's cell phone and device restrictions were not set-up?  What could have come up in the search?

You can test this if you like.  But you can also imagine it. 

What starts out as an innocent question, can lead your child to pornography at a very early age. 

The issue is that today kids use Google and their devices to learn about ANYTHING.

If devices don't have the proper restrictions kids will find anything and everything.

Without the proper controls, every device with Internet access has access to:

Pornography

Videos of Assault and Rape

Suicide

Child pornography

Child Predators

and much more….

Study after study shows that today, children are learning about SEX by watching porn. 

So what can you do?

Three Steps for Keeping Google Search Safe

 1. Teach your kids to come to you first.

If they have a question about a new subject or something they might be curious about, teach them to come to you first.  Model this behavior with your children.  For this to be successful, it does require that you and your child have a foundation of good communication and trust.  I know this is not easy sometimes, but it’s worth the effort. 

Wouldn’t you rather be your child’s teacher instead of Google search?

I recommend #SideBySideTime.  Spend 15 minutes with your child doing their favorite digital activity.  This shows that you are interested and involved in what they are doing online and it presents great opportunities to talk about what’s appropriate and allowed in your household. See my blog at the top about #SideBySideTime.

 2. Get Control of Your Home’s Wifi

That box that sits blinking in the corner of your house is your Router.  If you change the settings on the router, it will block porn and other adult sites from ANY device that is used in your household.  Your house will be known as the SAFE house!

This is actually a great conversation to have with your kids.  Make it a thing!

“The Ramirez house is the safest house in the neighborhood because we don’t allow kids to accidentally watch porn!”

How to change the settings on your Router requires you to change something called the DNS.  Yes, it can get a bit technical but your middle or high school kid can probably help you with it.  Just make sure that you change the password after you are finished. 

By involving your kids with this change to your home, you create more opportunities to talk about what’s appropriate and not allowed in your household.  You ultimately want their buy-in (even if you don’t get it right away). 

 Your child’s future self will thank you someday for protecting them.

 3. Change the settings on their device (and yours)

If your child is allowed to take their device outside of your house, it’s really important that you set adequate restrictions on the device.

Depending on if you have an Android or IOS device, there are lots of ways to set restrictions.

On many devices you can set restrictions on the following:

1. Use Movie ratings: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17

2. Use TV ratings: TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA

3. Set Time limits on social media apps. You can limit the number of hours they are allowed to spend on social media (or don’t allow social media at all—my recommendation).

4. Limit times when they can message contacts. For example, after 9:00 PM, they can only message Specific Contacts.

5. Web Content: Limit Adult Websites

In summary, I realize that parenting today presents so many more challenges than when we were kids. It’s never too late nor too early, to start talking with your kids about dangers online. You’ll be surprised how frequent and open communication is the best defense against dangers online.

You can do this!

-Lynette Brehm
Owner, Don’t Click! Consulting

Contact

lynette@dontclickconsutling.com for more information on how to book a talk at your school, church or group.