Protecing children's innocence

My kids are still very young. One thing I love about children is their innocence and purity. When I first hold my newborn babies I can't help think of where they came from. They are so sweet and pure. I treasure that because unfortunately we don't remain as innocent throughout our life. It seems like the world wants our children to grow up way too fast. Children in grade school are walking around with cell phones, watching adult shows, talking with attitude and vulgarity, and much more. It worries me. I think children need to develop some maturity before being introduced to certain things. I don't want to put blinders on and pretend my children aren't going to be exposed to things. So we definitely need talk about things to help them avoid and recognize evil. But I want my home to be a place they can be protected from the garbage that is out there.

One really simple thing we have consciously done is to be careful about the movies and television show the kids watch. Have you noticed that once a child starts watching more mature shows, they aren't satisfied in watching Sesame Street (our older cousins call them baby shows) anymore. I say let them watch those "baby shows" as long as they will!

Rating can be difficult. I found this online which was really interesting:

The movie rating system is a voluntary system sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theatre Owners to provide parents with advance information on films, enabling parents to make judgments on movies they want or do not want their children to see. Parental Guidance Suggested. Some Material May Not Be Suitable For Children.

A PG-rated motion picture should be investigated by parents before they let their younger children attend. The PG rating indicates, in the view of the Rating Board, that parents may consider some material unsuitable for their children, and parents should make that decision.
The more mature themes in some PG-rated motion pictures may call for parental guidance. There may be some profanity and some depictions of violence or brief nudity. But these elements are not deemed so intense as to require that parents be strongly cautioned beyond the suggestion of parental guidance. There is no drug use content in a PG-rated motion picture. I don't think we can just assume that PG's are going to be fine. There is a great website called: http://www.kidsinmind.com/ This website will rate a movie in the categories of Sex and Nudity, violence and gore, and profanity. This has been so helpful in determining if we want to watch a certain movie.

My husband had a really great idea, he told the kids if a PG movie is made from a book they have to read the book before they watch the movie.

This can be difficult especially if they watch a movie at a friends house. After some learning lessons we learned to tell our kids they have to check with us first before they watch a movie at a friends house if it is PG.

I know how sensitive those little minds are. Those scary, violent, or bad words in a movie can effect them for a long time.

My brother shared with me a time when we was invited over to babysit for a neighbor when he was 12. He turned on a movie they had after the kids went to bed that he can still remember a bad image he saw from that movie.

That made me really think about the things that I have in my house that my babysitters, and kids could get access to when I'm not home and I would have no idea. For that reason we have put a security password to get onto our computer and really are careful about the movies we own on DVD.

I have really struggled with the wording of this. I hope this makes sense and does not offend. If anyone has any ideas of what they have done that has helped with protecting their children please share.

I found this short article that I thought was enlightening.

Music, movies, and magazines have a lot in common with mushrooms. For example, they come in countless varieties. Just as some mushrooms are edible and desirable and nutritious, certain kinds of music, movies, and magazines provide nutrition for the soul as they edify, entertain, and uplift.

And just as there are different kinds of poisonous mushrooms, so are there different kinds of music, movies, and magazines that poison the spirits of men and women. Some of these poisons are very much like jack-o’-lantern mushrooms because their impact is so repulsive and objectionable that we immediately reject them.

But there are other kinds of music, movies, and magazines that work very much like the “destroying angel”; that is, at first we have no idea that what we are listening to or watching or reading is slowly and surely poisoning our very souls.

Often we hear people comment on different entertainments, and we will hear something like, “This tape by the Dirty Gym Sox has ten good songs and only two bad ones.” Or, “It was a great movie (or video), with only two or three bad scenes.” Or, “Most of the articles in this magazine are very interesting and insightful.” But in 1988, only a few toxic mushrooms in a whole dishful put five Oregon people in the hospital on the verge of death Just as mushroom hunters develop safety checklists regarding the color, size, and shape of edible and poisonous mushrooms, our loving and protective Heavenly Father has provided us with several checklists to determine whether the things we view, listen to, and read are poisonous or wholesome.

1. The thirteenth article of faith [A of F 1:13]. Just ask yourself, Is this virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy? If so, “seek after these things.”

2. In Doctrine and Covenants 45:32 the Lord says: “But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved” [D&C 45:32] (emphasis added). With the music you play, the videos and TV programs you watch, and the magazines you have lying around, is your home a holy place? Would you feel comfortable if the bishop or stake president were to walk into your family room while you were listening to music or watching TV or a video? Would they feel comfortable in your home?

3. In his Sermon on the Mount, the Savior admonishes us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matt. 6:33). He did not suggest that we just keep the gospel in the “top ten.” He lovingly encourages us to make the gospel the top priority in our lives.

4. In the very closing verses of the Book of Mormon, Moroni extends the invitation to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moro. 10:32; emphasis added). The real question is not whether heavy metal is worse than hard rock or whether certain TV programs are worse than certain movies. If we wish to avoid being poisoned spiritually, we must ask: Is this music, movie, TV show, or literature ungodly? For example, does it leave me feeling unworthy to approach my Heavenly Father in sincere prayer?

5. The Apostle Paul gave the Thessalonians some great counsel that would protect them, and us, from the poisons of the world. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thes. 5:21–22

By: Elder Spencer J. Condie of the Second Quorum of the Seventy