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Is the Apple iPhone Taking A Bite Out Of Childhood?

Source: Dolgachov

My husband Robert frequently points out the correlation between Apple’s age-old logo, the apple with the bite out of it, and how the first bite of apple represents the fall of man. The other day he was listening to the Catholic channel on Sirius XM and they were talking about how parents bemoan the loss of innocence in their children, only to turn around and put mobile phones in their hands that provide them with screenway passageways to the darkest parts of the world.

 Is the Apple iPhone taking a bite out of childhood?

Is the Apple iPhone taking a bite out of childhood?

 Apple iPhone Takes A Bite Out of Childhood

To me, the Apple’s apple now represents the end of childhood. Once you give your child unfettered access to the Internet, childhood is effectively over. What I can’t believe is that Generation X is the guilty party. The generation that has widely been described as unprotected in childhood has been the first generation of parents to oversee distribution of these devices to their kids.

The generation of parents that made the cover of Time magazine for being helicopter parents has done a great disservice to their kids. One sad takeaway is this: Being a helicopter parent does not make you a watchman. 

Throughout Scripture, there are many references to the watchman, a key figure in ancient, agrarian society. Atop watchtowers they overlooked the fields and guarded the food supply of the townspeople against animals and thieves. They mounted city walls to survey potential invasions. If they spotted threats, they sounded alarms and ordered the city gates closed.

What are Gen-Xers doing to protect their kids from unfettered access to the Internet? Of late, I’ve seen a lot of articles about how parents should ask if there is a gun where your child visits or plays like this commentary from Jo Frost of The Nanny fame. I think this is a great idea, but I think we also need to be asking the following:

  • Does your child have an iPhone?
  • Do you monitor what sites they visit?
  • Do you have parental controls on your television, computer?
  • Is there any chance my child will be exposed to sexually explicit content while visiting your home?

These are tough questions to ask, but childhood is worth preserving for as long as possible. According to a 2012 article in Psychology Today, early exposure to sexual content leads to premature or early sexual activity.

‘They grow up so fast,’ parents often lament. Today, children are being sexualized earlier and earlier, in part because they are exposed to sexual material in movies, television, music and other media earlier than ever. With widespread access to the Internet, curious teens may accidentally or intentionally be exposed to millions of pages of material that is uncensored, sexually explicit, often inaccurate and potentially harmful…

“In another study, boys who were exposed to sexually explicit media were three times more likely to engage in oral sex and intercourse two years after exposure than non-exposed boys. Young girls exposed to sexual content in the media were twice as likely to engage in oral sex and one and a half times more likely to have intercourse…”

The article is really good. Click here to finish reading it.

What age do you think it’s acceptable to give a child a mobile phone?

Gen X Blog Jennifer Chronicles

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