A Parent's Guide to Difficult Conversations With Children |
Encourage your child to engage in critical thinking about sexual content.
Having conversations about sexual health is part of healthy parenting.
Children need to be educated about safety risks in the digital sphere.
For most families, shielding children in a digital world from access to porn will be impossible. Complete prevention is challenging and would require constant oversight: the use of parental control software; setting up safe search filters and monitoring internet usage, and many more actions. Once children leave a home environment, they will likely have access to digital porn on their screens. According to a recent survey from nonprofit child advocacy organization Common Sense Media, most children have seen porn before age 13. Starting conversations with children about the existence of pornography early on will be an important intervention. Each child is different; some will vocalize questions readily while others may retreat at the topic. Launching conversations that set the tone that you are a person who can discuss human sexuality in an educated and open space is step one.
Your discussion can help prepare a child to respond to peer pressure. Conversations designed to be educational set a stage for kids to prepare for complex emotions and offer them a safe place to have questions answered. It will also build trust. Early intervention discussions can soften rough edges that emerge in the........