I remember a time that it took work to find a dirty magazine. You either had to know a friend whose father had it, or you had to hope someone left an errant copy of a porn magazine on a shelf lower than where they were usually kept.

Not anymore. It’s available anywhere, anytime, and on virtually any digital medium available… even the ones our little kids are using.

I remember when I was a hormonal middle school student. I remember what I thought about. I remember the both the temptation and the peer pressure all around me. I can’t imagine what I would have done or the challenges I would have had to face with this kind of access!

And it is here for hormonally-charged teenagers right now and it is easily accessible!

Parents, you should think twice, then maybe a tenth time before you hand your teenager unfettered access to the internet when you are not around.

What do you think they are going to do with it?

Do you remember, or can you imagine, what you would have done with it?

We need to approach the conversation wisely and carefully, but there’s also some common sense here that doesn’t seem to be so common anymore. Just because all the other kids have this stuff, doesn’t mean your’s has to. Just because all the other kids’ parents don’t monitor their digital activity doesn’t mean you are depriving your teen some unspoken right to privacy. Minors, you know, those under the age of 18, are supposed to be guided and protected by their parents… you know, those people who are supposed to care about what it best for their children, not what is current, or in fashion with everyone else. Privacy doesn’t exist for a minor. Parents need to wisely help their teens make good decisions and healthy choices for themselves, not be their best friend on Facebook, or encourage the continued use of SnapChat (for what possible reason would you need a photo or video deleted after 10 seconds?).

If you’re still reading at this point and still want to know how to block some of these things on these fancy devices, here you go. These guys are also really helpful if you want some added help monitoring all the different social media channels your teenager is probably on.

You can do all of this on your own, but that would require active and nosy parenting… which, by the way, your teenagers are craving from you. How do I know this? I hear this from your teenagers all the time: “My parents let me do whatever I want, but I wish they were around to help me not do everything I want.” They don’t say it this exact way, but they desperately want someone to care enough to stop them from doing whatever they want.

So, please. Help stop them.