Protect Young Minds™ Blog
The best way to keep your family safe from pornography is to stay up-to-date with the latest news, resources, tips, and threats. Our blog will help you do just that.
Parent Alert: Worried about Alexa? 4 Tips to Protect Your Kids
Every couple of months, I see a new article being shared around my social networks about the possible dangers of voice assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa. But many of these articles contain a lot of speculation without a lot of experience, especially in the area of kids...
Helping the Kid Who Doesn’t Want Help
The Power Struggle Nothing has caused me to feel more powerless than my little toddler. You’ve had those situations, right? Like the car seat. It’s time to buckle in and she planks. A full-grown man hunched over a tiny girl, with no chance of success. I’m a big bad...
3 Scary Things Haunting Your Kids Online
Parent Alert: 3 Scary Things Haunting Your Kids Online Halloween is just around the corner, which means that you may be carving pumpkins, getting costumes ready, buying candy, and thinking about how to keep your kids safe while they’re out and about...
![What 10 Parents Learned When Their Child Was Caught in the Porn Trap [Part 2]](https://www.protectyoungminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2019_10_22_Feature_my-child-is-looking-at-inappropriate-things-400x250.jpg)
What 10 Parents Learned When Their Child Was Caught in the Porn Trap [Part 2]
In this 3-part series, follow along as 10 parents describe when they discovered their child looking at inappropriate things and their journey of helping a child overcome the addictive pull of pornography—and the advice they hope to pass along. Today, we’ll examine the...
Should You Give Your Kid a Phone? Easy Guide with 3 Great Options: Relay, Gabb and ClearPhone
We agonize over when to give our kids their first phone, but what kind of cell phone to give them is becoming just as big of a question. Retailers are swooping in with phones directed at this new “first phone” market, like Relay, Gabb Wireless, and ClearPhone. But...
3 Ways Grandparents CAN Help Kids Reject Pornography
This week, one of my best friends asked me how she could talk to her daughter about pornography. The catch is, her daughter is a grown woman with children of her own. And it’s her grandkids she’s worried about. My friend (we’ll call her Frances for fun) adores these...
Schools Turn Cell Phones Off to Turn Learning On
Great News! Schools are helping kids get off their phones! There’s a growing trend that’s making waves this year in classrooms around Canada and the United States: mobile phone bans in classrooms! San Mateo High School in California is using a novel approach to limit...
Growing Up With Smartphones: Millennials Warn Parents
Young adults today straddle the line between Millennials and the upcoming Gen Z, myself included. We dimly remember the screech of dial-up, and spent adolescence transitioning from chunky flip phones to sleek smartphones. As the first generation to grow up with cell...
Parent Alert! A Timely Tech-Check for Your Kid’s Back-to-School Safety
A Tech-Check is Essential for Back-to-School Safety Have you finished your back-to-school preparations yet? While you are taking care of new backpacks, clothes, and haircuts, consider doing this: a tech-check to help your family start off the year with good digital...
4 Ways to Help Kids Deal with Discomfort: Life Skills that Build Emotional Resilience
I recently surveyed a group of parents to discover the reasons they avoid discussions about pornography with children. One of the top responses was, “I’m afraid I’ll make my child uncomfortable.” This surprised me at first! But as I reflected on my own parenting, I...
Parent Alert: Is Roblox Safe for Kids? Watch Out for These 4 Dangers
Our regular Parent Alert! news updates help parents stay ahead of the trends affecting kids in our hypersexualized culture. 4 Dangers of Roblox Do your kids enjoy Roblox? It can be creative fun, but you also need to understand and guard against some significant risks...
4 Misunderstood Signs of Child Abuse: A Sexual Assault Nurse Speaks Up
People naturally want to see evidence of damage done from an accident or a crime. Whether it’s the smashed front end of a car from a wreck, or a bruised eye after an argument, we want to see the wound, the stitches, the blood. We want proof. We are socialized to...
Explicit Content in 7 Top Music Apps – A Parent’s Guide
Chances are, your kids love to listen to music and share it with friends. With so many music apps out there, which one is right for your family? Especially since so much music has explicit lyrics that you don’t want your kids boppin’ to! The American Academy of...
Parent Alert! Strangers Can Cyber Flash Lewd Photos to Kids on iPhones
Our regular Parent Alert! news updates help parents stay ahead of the trends affecting kids in our hypersexualized culture. This month we’re talking about two sources of danger for children - and what you can do to protect kids! Read on to learn how to prevent cyber...
Dad Power: How One Man Changed Everything to Save Himself and His Family
Coby Mitchell is passionate about helping his kids be safe in our sexualized society. He is passionate because this is personal for him. Coby, like many fathers, knows what it is like to be exposed to pornography as a child. But this is one dad determined not to let...
![What 10 Parents Learned When Their Child Was Caught in a Porn Trap [Part 1]](https://www.protectyoungminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2019_06_04_Feature_child-looking-at-inappropriate-things-400x250.jpg)
What 10 Parents Learned When Their Child Was Caught in a Porn Trap [Part 1]
In this 3-part series, follow along as 10 parents describe their journey of helping a child overcome the addictive pull of pornography—and the advice they hope to pass along. You can read Part 2 of the series here. Over the past three months, I’ve listened to the...
Parent Alert! Is TikTok Safe for Kids?
What Parents Need to Know About TikTok and Social Media Challenge Videos Eleven-year-old Sarah opened up her TikTok app and saw a video of her favorite vlogger (video blogger) acting out a challenge that had gone viral: grab some common ingredients, including bleach...
Can Mama Bears Make a Difference? 10 Fierce Women Who Defend Kids Online
Moms all over the world are fighting tooth and nail to protect their kids from the threats technology poses today. From overuse of tech, to access to dangerous pornography and predators, there are so many opportunities for families to prepare to be safe and strong!...
6 Things Parents of Resilient Kids Do Well (and You Can Too!)
If your child begged to go out to play on a cold, rainy day, what would you be sure they were wearing? How about a warm sweater, woolly socks, a sturdy raincoat, tall rubber boots, and big umbrella? Those items are protective factors that will keep you child cozy and...
5 Easy Tricks to Manage Screen Time and Get a Happier Family, Too
A lot of parents worry about the amount of time their child spends using screens. In fact, a recent survey of 3,000 Americans reported that the number one concern of parents of teens is overuse of technology. Wendy Christensen, a mom of six kids, told the Deseret...
Parent Alert! Now Parents Are Making Porn for Their Kids?!
“Mums Make Porn” - British Reality TV Shocker Try to wrap your mind around this one. A group of five presumably well-meaning moms in the UK are disgusted by the violence they discover when researching the porn film industry. They are rightly concerned about how easy...
Sexual Behavior in Children: What’s Normal? What’s Harmful?
This post was originally published on April 27, 2017 and updated on April 4, 2019. Playing “doctor” is a common sign of normal curiosity in children. Little girls and little boys want to see each other’s private parts. That’s pretty harmless when you’re dealing with...
Social Media App Ratings: Can Parents Trust Them?
If your 13 year old wants to download Snapchat or Instagram, how do you know if these apps are age-appropriate? In the App Store, both Snapchat and Instagram are rated “12+.” But who's doing the rating? (Good question!) Do Snapchat and Instagram allow harmful content?...
Your Daughter’s Body Image – Healthy or Shameful? 4 Ways to Counteract Toxic Media
Both of my daughters dance. They have an incredible ability (that I don’t share!) to communicate their emotions and ideas through the power of movement. They practice hours on end at home and the studio to push their bodies to new levels. They celebrate their growth...
Parent Alert! YouTube’s Pedophile Problem + How Clever Kids Misuse Google Docs
Our regular Parent Alert! news updates help parents stay ahead of the trends affecting kids in our hypersexualized culture. Here’s what’s going on in March 2019. YouTube caught enabling child sexual exploitation! Eleven-year-old Corie loved to share her gymnastics...
5 Body Safety Rules Every 5-Year-Old Should Know
It seems like the number of things you need to talk to your children about in order to keep them safe just keeps growing! One issue that should be at the top of your list is protecting kids from sexual abuse. Why? The CDC reports that 1 in every 5 children will...
Social Media and FOMO: What the Fear of Missing Out is Doing to Your Family
There were a few times over this past holiday season where I seriously debated about whether or not to post pictures of our family’s adventures. It’s not that they were extravagant or unique, but my thoughts kept returning to the people who would see my pictures and...
About Us
Led by Kristen A. Jenson, author of the best-selling children’s book Good Pictures Bad Pictures, Protect Young Minds™ (PYM) seeks to help parents “porn-proof” their kids before they come across highly addictive and easily accessible internet pornography.