Re: Internet death: Funeral takes place for cyberbullying victim Hannah Smith

[Tom Oluwole]

Thank you sir for this wake up call. This has been one of the things on my mind  more so in recent times. And although our own children cannot quite browse the internet yet, this will be a good time to start gaining some more knowledge on how to handle this.

I would therefore like to make a humble request to all parents in the house to please share PRACTICAL TIPS on how to contain this matter. There is a spiritual war going on out there for the destiny of our kids, we need all the arsenal that we can get to fight!

So mummies and daddies, please over to you...

On Aug 17, 2013 8:39 AM, "Odogwu Celestine" <odog...@yahoo.com> wrote:

   

Children of God,

Lessons are always learnt when events unforeseen, begin to occur and we suddenly realize we do not actually have anything in place to have prevented them. That is exactly how I felt after following this story.

Who would have thought a few years ago that the cyber community with all its interactions, a lot of which are of course beneficial, would assume dimensions like this?

I see a lot of lessons to be learnt. As parent, I see some more responsibilities thrown at us parents by this technology; and there is not even any option to first, subscribe to it on need-to-have bases. And under the nose of the parents, a teenager interacts freely with a stranger, who bullied her and she committed suicide. Now, it is irresponsible to think that this suicide is non-preventable.

It’s more than providing these gadgets to our wards and kids, but parents on behalf of their kids should see this cyber technology with the whole risks inherent in it. And parents have to wake up.

In our various ways, parents need to prayerfully manage this. We need to begin to censor and gate-keep this technology for the sake of these impressionable ones. We should wake up because we do not know all that is in there. Terrible things in this word are free gifts on the net. Natural and Supernatural agents are readily available to interact with whoever come their way on the internet. Thousands of games, movies, which authors and teachings we cannot imagine, these children are already exposed to.

Should parents just fold their arms and watch??

 

May God help us in Jesus' name. Amen.

 

Internet death: Funeral takes place for cyberbullying victim Hannah Smith

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/internet-death-funeral-takes-place-2174628

 

 

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[Obindah Gershon]

Great comments!

Some Mummies and Daddies actually are addicted to social network and internet communities. So what would one expect from the kids? Sometimes, I feel my tab is a distraction. Sincerely, I am considering leaving it at home sometimes - at least just to give my mind some rest during the day. Mind you, some of such distraction (as I call them) are actually good, yet the time could be put for better use.

Perhaps, we ought to ask ourselves how to control our attachment to such things. Remember the mind is the battleground.

May God help us.

Greater works than these...

Obindah

Mobile: 33133873

Email: obi...@gmail.com

Skype Account: ObindahGershon

Follow me on twitter: @obindahgershon

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/obindah

Sent from my iPad

[Emmanuel Udo]

Greater works.

Well, I believe some practical steps can be taken to control internet access by minors. This would work only if both parents recognize the gravity of the danger and are equally committed to the safety of their children and wards. But one is increasingly worried by the mentally among us to 'show that we are enlightened expats' by adopting western lifestyles that have not served the west very well. Often one sees married, and not so young women in these very tight fittings trousers and tops showing every single line, fold and crease on their bodies. This is an obvious evidence of enlightenment! The children are also often kitted out in the same way. The provocative dressing of some children/ teenagers in our church has been the point of 'subterranean' discussion in recent times. My own children have come back home to complain as to why we are so restrictive.

So, for some of us giving the children unrestricted access to the internet might also be a sign of enlightenment. However, some of us have found the following steps to be helpful:

1. Playing the role of system administrator and assigning access rights (hours of the days and accessible sites) including log in name and password  to each child/ward. This ensures that the child cannot log on except at the assigned hours, and is automatically logged out once that time expires. This ensures they do not spend all the time on the computer.
2. As part of 1 above the sites that the child can access is defined. The built-in parental control features of Google is helpful although proprietary packages are available for this purpose. Does any one have a suggestion of a free or affordable parental control package. Or is there a software professional among us who can be of help?  
3. Periodic review of history of the sites that have been accessed and taking necessary measures to correct observed infraction.
4. As Bro. Tomiwa Oluwole advised during the Teens Retreat, the computer must be kept in the sitting room and facing a direction where everyone can see what is going on. This also applies to televisions in the light of the rapid move towards integration of internet with the TV. As I said sometime ago, TV should not be allowed in the children room. If the parents think they need TV privacy then they should put a TV in their own room and leave the one in the sitting room to the children. 

   Well, these suggestions assume that the parents have sufficient knowledge of IT to carry them out. It also assumes that he/ she is more knowledgeable than the children so that they do not develop their own work-arounds in order to bypass such restrictions.

We must recognize that we are in a war and that all fair measures must be taken to protect ourselves, stay safe in order to win.

Please, if any one has other practical tips that are working he/ she should share it.

I would also love to hear of areas where adults are victims of the internet/ communication and what we need to do about it. Bro. Obindah has mentioned the issue of 'Tab Distraction'. How are you coping with BB distraction? (I hope my room mate is not reading!!).

In my own case I make effort to check my mail only at set times of the day or during my idle times. If I am going any where and I suspect I might be delayed or made to wait, then I make sure I go with my tab. 

God bless you.

Have you read your bible today?

--

Emmanuel Udo PMP
Tel: +974-77884573 (Mobile)

Tel: +974-44370546 (Home)

Email: emmanu...@gmail.com, emma...@yahoo.com

"For with God all things (the impossible, the unimaginable, the unbelievable) are possible: " Matt. 19.26

[Eniedi Ebong]

Greater Works!

I have read the trailing comments and have learnt more from what is listed in addition to the few i have already tried to keep running. The truth about IT and Gadgets "menace" is that discipline including to ourselves as parents helps more than half the way.

I recall many times when Hephzibah will tell me straight to the face..."but daddy you are not putting on your shoes but you are always asking me to wear my shoes"; simply because i have asked them to always put on their foot wear due to the cold floor. Now this tell so much, because after explanations she will exclaim OK and cooperates. At times though she pulls out mine and hers together and say ..daddy you too. 

There are many "tiny" and "cubicle" like thoughts going through these developing minds and without seeing the wider range as we parents see, they want to read you and follow you even when you have not said a word. This is the most dangerous way for a child to learn especially when such things parents do have some inherent explanations which they do not have the opportunity to explain because the child was only watching and not asking. 

I and my siblings were very fortunate to be brought up by our "primitive" (as we normally say then) parent, who stood on their toes to see us through those early life choices with rods on their hands and knees on the floor. Today, as i speak most of my barrack friends are dead, some in the prisons and some roaming the streets of Port Harcourt, Nigeria with tags unfitting for humans. Life can never be the same. Thanks again to God for giving me my parents.

I have known that self discipline is the best thing that could ever happen to a Christian. Try stopping the use of BB decisively and you will realize that you can do without it. 

We should try to live life outside these "distractions" (borrowing the name from Dcn Obindah) - yes we can. It will follow that our children by God's grace will follow the same way by watching us. Even-though, we have decided to leave the TV on, recently i find myself persuading my kids to watch E/I (Smile of a Child) channel on TV, but they would not sit to watch because they do not see me sit in front of the TV set. 

As we practice to put ourselves to helping them cope with spiritual activities, limiting our activities on other phases of life especially on Internet will help them follow suit.

The suggestions below are of great learning, but just like Dcn Udo mentioned it is assumed that the parents have sufficient IT knowledge. How can we help parents who do not have 10% knowledge of IT issues? How can these parents help the teaming young who are more experience and outward than such parents? May God help us. 

 

Make time to read your BIBLE today!

Best Regards,

Eniedi Ebong

Mobile: +974 6692 8120 

Email:     ebong...@yahoo.com, eniedi...@gmail.com; 

LinkedIn: http://qa.linkedin.com/pub/eniedi-ebong/52/42a/561

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13) 

because i know that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Luke 1:37).

Today makes another day so close to the end. Where are u heading-Hell or Heaven?

---

From: Emmanuel Udo <emmanu...@gmail.com>
To: Obindah Gershon <obi...@gmail.com>
Cc: Tom Oluwole <iolu...@gmail.com>; "SOD201...@googlegroups.com" <SOD201...@googlegroups.com>; "sod-20...@googlegroups.com" <sod-20...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: Internet death: Funeral takes place for cyberbullying victim Hannah Smith