Pornography on the Internet is a blight. In this post I asked for feedback on what people are doing in their homes to educate and protect. The comments are worth a read.

I believe, however, that in many homes the Internet isn’t the worst portal for inappropriate content.

For some, the TV is even worse–and many don’t know it.

Movie channels like HBO have content you’d be horrified to see your kids watching. Nudity, inappropriate language, violence. It’s all there in abundance. Even stations that come with the basic packages (like MTV) have content I’m not comfortable with my kids watching. Pay-per-view channels are awful. If you’re not careful, your kids can order movies which not only ring up your monthly bill but, much worse, bring content into your home that you don’t want there. Commercials can be the worst. I’m embarrassed at some of the commercials I see in prime time.

What can you do? First, be careful ordering movie channels like HBO and Showtime. We don’t order them at all. Second, block channels you don’t want the kids to see. You can use the parental controls on most cable and satellite services to completely remove certain channels from the list of channels that your family can even see in the channel guide. We do this with MTV and others which have content that we don’t like and we also do it with the channels that allow pay-per-view movies. If you want to allow pay-per-view movies then make sure they’re password-protected. Most importantly, P-A-Y  A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N. My kids have friends whose parents don’t have any idea when the kids watch TV. I don’t allow my kids to go their houses. And we always try to pay attention when the kids are watching TV. It may sound severe, but if the kids (even the teenagers) want to watch TV, they have to ask permission first. And if they don’t, they lose TV priveleges. This helps us gauge how much TV they’re watching. Many have chosen the solution to disallow TV in their homes altogether. If your family has a problem, it’s a thought. We’re not big TV watchers in our family, and when we do watch it’s typically as a family. But occasionally we just pull the plug altogether for a few months and we notice a difference.

It’s easy to think that your kids “don’t have a problem.” But ask the Bishop in your ward how many kids are able to see inappropriate content on TVs in their homes. He’ll tell you that most of them can. Most couples I talk to feel like their kids don’t have a problem. Most of them are wrong.

Take the time to protect your kids!

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