According to a recent report in USA Today and also reported in Leadership Journal pornographic images are being accessed now by younger and younger children.

Despite the latest in filters, children can still find everything on the internet, from nudity to sites featuring violent sex acts.

“Kids are exposed to pornography at incredibly early ages, when their brains are going through profound developmental changes,” says Philadelphia psychologist Michael Bradley. “This has caught parents off guard. (Porn) has always been there, but it’s always been in a lower volume.” In recent years, he says, “It’s been like a tidal wave that has swept over kids.”

Regardless of what the internet companies and government does in protecting minors from harmful effects, experts agree that parents need to take matters into their own hands by using content filters, monitoring their children’s use of the internet and, most importantly, talking with their children about online pornography.

“You have to sit down with kids at ages 6, 7, 8 and start to inoculate them against this insanity by having these awkward conversations about what they might see,” Bradley says. “Parents have to get to these kids first—not last.”

A question that youth leaders and parents should ask their kids is not are they being bombard with pornographic images, but when do they first see one and what affect it had on them?

Hey .. you can’t keep a bird from flyer over your head, but you sure can keep it from build a nest on your head!

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