FYI: What to Look For: Signs of Youth and Pornography

Here are some “red flags” that could be indicative that your youth is looking at pornography or participating in inappropriate internet behavior. (Taken from Sex, Lies and the Media: What Your Kids Know and Aren’t Telling You by Eva Marie Everson & Jessica Everson)

• If your child spends a lot of time in chat rooms. Summer months and school vacations are times of higher risk.
• If you find porn on your computer. Don’t forget to check CDs and diskettes.
• If your phone records show that your child is making calls, especially long-distance calls, to numbers you don’t recognize.
• If, when you enter the room, your child turns off the computer monitor or x’s out the page being visited.
• If you see your child communicating via IMs in a “hidden language” (POS=Parents Over Shoulder; :0x=Shhh; PA= Parent Alert). When this happens, quickly ask what it means.
• If your child becomes withdrawn, preferring the cyber world to the real world.