Instilling an Internal Filter

We live in a digital world. The Lord has truly blessed us in recent years by providing technology to move His work forward – from finding ancestors to submitting mission papers to preparing Sunday lessons – every aspect of sharing and teaching the Gospel has been improved by some use of technology.

As we learn in Nephi’s dream, however, the river of filth runs alongside the straight and narrow pathway that accompanies the iron rod. When our young adults are online filling out their mission papers, they are one click away from accessing material that would prevent them from serving that same mission. In order to prevent this, we need to be vigilant in helping our young children to understand how to appropriately navigate this digital world so they don’t get caught up in “the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe”.(2 Nephi 1:13).

Since the Lord has given us this technology, there must be a righteous use for it – even with all of the potentially evil uses that accompany technological advances. Teaching our children the doctrinal foundation behind technology advances is crucial to ensuring their digital safety. It is much more than making use of the helpful technologies, such as filters and monitoring software; what we are speaking of is helping our children to develop their own “internal filter”, or moral compass.

The internal filter is the one filter that will never fail – it is the filter that they will not bypass or disable. It consists of teaching them what is acceptable and what is not, and tuning their moral compass to listen to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

What we must do is to teach our children the basics upon which they can build that internal filter. President Boyd K. Packer said it in this way: “I have long believed that the study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than talking about behavior will improve behavior. The study of behavior is greatly improved when linked to standards and to values. Practical values, useful in everyday life, are found in the scriptures and the doctrines they reveal.”[i]

Doctrinal Foundation for Digital Responsibility

Technology has not introduced any new sins into the world, and the Lord has already provided us guidance regarding how we should act and what we should and should not do – we simply need to teach our children how His teachings apply to our digital world. It is our responsibility as parents in Zion to help our children understand the doctrine that provides the foundation to build upon as they strive to build, or strengthen, their own internal filter. This is more than avoiding online pornography – there are doctrinal foundations for all of the pitfalls that our children could come across today: spending too much time in virtual worlds or games, seeing too much violence on YouTube, befriending those who would do them harm on social networks, and even participating in cyberbullying.

For example, the Savior taught “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.   For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matt 12: 36 – 37). The Savior is not referring only to the words that we speak with our mouths, but all words that originate from us – which includes what we say online, when we mistakenly believe that we have anonymity.

This is the doctrinal foundation that our children need to understand as they participate in social networking and text messaging: we never have anonymity from the Lord, and we will one day have to give an accounting to Him of everything we said, or wrote, or posted, to or about another person. This is the foundation that will help them remember that they are not anonymous when posting potentially hurtful comments online. A clear understanding of this doctrine will help curb cyberbullying. Online behavior will change as a testimony is developed regarding this doctrinal truth.

Understanding Doctrine Reinforces Rules

It is important to have rules regarding technology usage in our homes, such as: what time of day is it appropriate to use the computer or cell phone? For how many hours a day can one be engaged in gaming? Filters should not be bypassed or turned off, etc. However, those rules will have much more impact if we tie them to their doctrinal foundation.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks has taught us that “Well-taught doctrines and principles have a more powerful influence on behavior than rules. When we teach gospel doctrine and principles, we can qualify for the witness and guidance of the Spirit to reinforce our teaching, and we enlist the faith of our students in seeking the guidance of that same Spirit in applying those teachings in their personal lives.”[ii]

As we teach the doctrinal foundation for the rules that we put in place in our homes, our children will feel more compelled to abide by those rules. Understanding the link between the rules that we define and the spiritual benefit that we gain from obedience to those rules will help create an environment where our children are less likely to use their technical expertise to bypass the filters and technological barriers that we employ to help enforce those rules.

In the end, it all comes down to the strength of the testimony of the individual sitting at the keyboard, or the understanding of the Gospel of the individual holding the cell phone. The best defense against the influence of the adversary in our children’s lives is for us to instill in them a knowledge and understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the all-encompassing nature of our relationship with Him whom we call Savior. Without this understanding, and in the absence of this foundation, it becomes very easy to rationalize just about any actions, words, comments, or other activities that might go against the guidelines we have set up for our children and taught them regarding safe technology usage.

Doctrinal Consistency and Constantly-Changing Technology

Technology is ever-changing, and technological barriers that we use to protect our families are, and always will be, lagging behind the technologies that Satan uses to bring his influence into our homes. That is just a fact of life in the physical world in which we live – technology to protect from evil influences is almost always reactionary, and is developed only after some new method of getting unwanted content into our homes has become popular. But, as Latter-Day Saints we have a constant, never-changing compass that can and will direct us if we but use it.

President Packer taught: “Brethren, do you understand that we emphasize the teaching of the scriptures because they are the constant? From them we learn the purposes of life, the gifts of the Spirit. From them we learn about personal revelation, how to discern good from evil, truth from error. The scriptures provide the pattern and the basis for correct doctrine. From doctrine, we learn principles of conduct, how to respond to problems of everyday living, even to failures, for they, too, are provided for in the doctrines.…Your responsibility as a father and a husband transcends any other interest in life…The Lord has ‘commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.’[iii]

Self-Discipline and the Spirit

Most of the dangers we find online or with other digital technologies have the same two solutions: attentiveness to the Spirit and self-discipline. If we can instill in our children the ability to discern right from wrong, to listen to the whisperings of the Spirit, and to employ a modicum of self-discipline, then many of the dangers they will find online are significantly reduced.

If they listen to the Spirit, they will not make disparaging comments about others online, they will not be seduced by the flattery of an online predator, and they will not be drawn to online pornography but rather will shun it as the Prophets have instructed us to do. These skills of listening to the still small voice and employing self-discipline are the same skills that Latter-day Saint parents have been teaching their children for decades. It is not new, and it is not limited to the technical world in which we find ourselves.

The Finest Generation

In 1995, long before the Internet was a popular hang-out for our children, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of a report that had recently been released detailing some of the problems that American youth were experiencing He said: “The report reached a shocking conclusion. It said: ‘The most basic cause of suffering … is profoundly self-destructive behavior. Drinking. Drugs. Violence. Promiscuity. A crisis of behavior and belief. A crisis of character’ (Imprimis, September 1991, page 1).

“When I read those statements, I said to myself, if that is the mainstream of American youth, then I want to do all in my power to persuade and encourage our young people to stay away from it.

“Now I know that there are millions of young people in every nation who live wholesome, good lives. But no one can blink at the fact that across the world there is an epidemic affecting millions of youth. It is a sickness that comes of a loss of values, of an abandonment of moral absolutes.”[iv]

The epidemic he refers to is not technological in nature – it is the effect of the natural man, which is an enemy to God. Remember the words of King Benjamin: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

This crisis of character is all too common in the world today – both in the physical world and the virtual one. Latter-Day Saint families have always been instructed to teach our children to put off the natural man and to be a “peculiar people”.

It is easy to see the bad things around us, and to get concerned about the world that our children are growing up in. It is easy to become depressed as we talk of the dangers that surround our children in this digital world, and to throw up our hands and wonder how they will survive the buffetings of Satan as he finds new ways to influence them in this digital world. But, we also need to remind ourselves that Satan has always been striving to draw us away from the light and truth.

While there is much to be concerned about in the world that our children are inheriting, they are the most well-equipped of our Fathers spirit children to handle these temptations – that is why they have been designated to come to the earth at this time. President Hinckley reminded us of this when he said:

“These are some of our young people of whom I am proud and concerning whom I have a great sense of gratitude and a compelling sense of optimism. In saying this, I do not wish to infer that all is well with all of them. There are many who have troubles, and many who live far beneath the high expectations we have concerning them. There are also those who waver in their faith and who are troubled and frustrated within themselves. There are some, I regret to say, who step over the line of acceptable moral behavior and suffer great tragedies in their lives. But even considering these, I have great confidence in our young people as a whole. I regard you as the finest generation in the history of the Church. I compliment you, and I have in my heart a great feeling of love and respect and appreciation for you.

“Each time I have stood before such a group, there has come into my mind the great and prophetic statement made by Peter of old. Said he: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9.)

“I know of no other statement which more aptly describes you, nor which sets before you a higher ideal by which to shape and guide your lives.”[v]

As we strive to raise children in this digital world, may we remember the sacred responsibility that is ours to teach our children the Gospel truths that underly these concepts, and strive to fulfill our sacred duty and stewardship which has been entrusted to us to raise this marvelous generation as a strong band of Latter-Day Saints with their internal filters intact and built upon a Gospel foundation. In so doing, the Lord will bless us and our children.

Notes

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