“I recently spoke with a youth leader whose opinion was that ‘putting a cell phone with an internet connection into the pocket of a young person is like placing a hot coal in their pocket—they will get burned,’” said Sister Jones. She suggested that every phone have safeguards, even those that belong to teens and adults.4
Experts recommend creating a family media plan and setting standards and boundaries together. This could include:
Establishing set times for use of technology.
Limiting online contacts to family and close friends.
Establishing technology-free zones, like bedrooms.
Establishing a designated media room in a high-traffic area.
Creating a charging station where digital devices are left at night.
Blocking inappropriate applications and websites through filters and safe-mode settings.
Following family members on social media.
Deciding the types and ratings of video games to be allowed.
Discussing how to respond to cyberbullying or inappropriate images or texts.
Setting consequences for the breaking of family standards.5
Regarding rules, Elder Bednar said: “Be careful to not regiment excessively the use of technology or proliferate endless rules and restrictions. Desired attitudes and righteous behavior cannot flourish in the soil of constantly constraining control and coercion. Your love, patience, teaching, and ministering will provide vital spiritual support as [children] press forward on the strait and narrow path.”...
“Use a computer, mobile device, or phone for specific purposes. Decide beforehand what you intend to do and how much time you will spend. Experience shows that people are more likely to encounter inappropriate content on the internet when they are casually surfing the web without a specific purpose in mind.
“Limit the use of technology when you are feeling bored, lonely, angry, anxious, stressed, or tired or when you feel any other emotion that makes you vulnerable or susceptible.
“Select a background screen image that reminds you of your commitment to follow Jesus Christ.”9
Join the Battle
A few years ago, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles made this observation (especially poignant in light of COVID-19): “If this moral plague [of pornography] could catch our imagination the way a medical epidemic does, we would be calling out every available member of the health care industry, every doctor and nurse and technician and orderly; we would have the attention of every father and mother, every grandparent and aunt and uncle asking what they could do; we would see educators and businessmen, lawyers and scientists, PTA organizations and welfare agencies lining up to send out flyers, to flood the airwaves, to give immunization shots. … Yes, this ought to be seen like a public health crisis; like an infectious, fatal epidemic.”
