Is your kid at risk of exposure to porn in their google drive?

Episode 30: 

Is your kid using a google drive for virtual learning? If so, your kid(s) may have a direct and unfiltered path for predators to send them sexually explicit material. This is not a new issue and apparently there is no way to prevent this or remove it once it has been sent. Listen in for a few options to help you navigate this threat!! 

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Other options if you are considering a first phone (or need to backtrack on this decision):

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Listen to it now here or click HERE for your favorite podcast platform!

FULL TRANSCRIPTION:

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Alrighty here we are for another episode. I think I say that phrase every single time I do one of these episodes. Maybe I need to come up with a new phrase. I'm not sure what that will be, but I'll think about it. So today I want to talk about something that I think you so need to know about, and it's maddening. It's truly maddening.

Speaker 2: (00:16)
So stay tuned. Welcome to your source for tips, tools, and support to help you be that mom that is tuned in and proactive for yourself, your family, and for the wild ride of raising kids in this digital age, inspired by a mother's love with a relatable, real life. Proud to be that mom flair. This is the bead that mom movement with your host Dolly Denson.

Speaker 1: (00:43)
Alrighty. So your kiddo is probably sitting at home on a computer. Maybe not some of my local, uh, school districts where I live are back to in-person schooling. So maybe not, but a lot of them are still like, you know, kid on computer, even if they're at an in person school. So I want to give you a heads up on this. That is a very real possibility that your kiddo will be exposed to this. And it's something I just heard about the other day and I'm like, Oh my God, is it not exhausting? Trying to keep up with all of the tech and digital stuff, protecting our kids, like really can these tech companies not do more to keep all of these like predators and people with bad intentions out of the inboxes of our kids. Like Holy cow, if they can scrub the internet, have some video that someone deems as inappropriate or, you know, deems is false information, then why can't they scrub the internet of all of these people that are trying to do harm to her kids?

Speaker 1: (01:42)
And I know the argument here is that they're, they're very savvy and they keep changing things and they'll make new accounts and all of that. So I get it. There's a lot that has to be tackled here, but sometimes it is just maddening. It's maddening and, Oh, I'm so glad I can be here in this space to help you with this and that we can do this together. I always want you to know that when you leave listening to my show, I hope that I have brought you in awareness, but I haven't brought you to a place of just like deer in the headlights. Frozen don't know what to do. I hope I am providing you tangible tips and things to move forward to do this proactively instead of reactively, like I talked about in the other episode that I did with Ashley Carol and her podcast.

Speaker 1: (02:25)
So she grows, but I want to come from a proactive stance. So I'm sharing this information, not to just scare you, but to help you navigate this, just like I'm having to navigate it with my kids. Okay. So what I'm talking about today is the fact that now somebody sending pornography through Google drive, like, are you kidding me? Have you heard about this? So basically, I don't know if you're familiar with Google drive, but Google drive is a way for you to share files with people. I use it a lot for my wellness coaching business, where I help people with their fitness, nutrition, wellness journey. It is an offshoot of my past and as a nurse practitioner to help people be healthy. And so that is how I stay connected with other people that are in that space that are also coaches. And then also with my clients that are working with me virtually to, you know, navigate their wellness journey.

Speaker 1: (03:14)
That is how I communicate with them. And I never ever thought to, you know, that this would be something I need to worry about with my kids, but basically you create a file. As, as long as you have a Google account, you can create a file and you can share it with whoever you want to share it with. So what these predators are doing is they are sending these like folders or files with pornography in them. And they're landing in the inbox inboxes of our kids, because a lot of schools are using Google drive and things like that to share documents and information and homework and all of the things. And honestly, I think the world now with all of these things where I can easily share something with someone in another, you know, city, state country around on the other side of the world is just amazing.

Speaker 1: (04:02)
And I'm so very thankful for it, but in the hands of our kids, Holy cow, what a thing we are dealing with, right? So today I just want to talk about that. If you're not familiar with the Google drive, you may not, you know, you must not be in something that you're on your computer a lot, but, um, the Google drive is very versatile. You just have a Google account, you have a Google drive, you can make Google docs, Google sheets, Google forms, Google presentations, all of this stuff you can make and you can share between account. So how do we manage not having this stuff land into the inbox of our kiddos? Let me tell you, there's not much you can do. And Google is supposedly aware of this and supposed to have been working on it since 2019, but they're actually on the list of platforms that are like the most dangerous.

Speaker 1: (04:52)
Can you believe that I had no idea, but they're like on the list of the most dangerous apps or platforms for our kids. So we need to be very aware of what our kids are on. Check out to their shared with me folder and make sure that all of the senders are people that you know, or that you want them to be communicating with and then put bark on their, on their devices and on their computer and, and connect it to their Google drive. There's also a thing called Google family link that you can set up and that will help to filter it. But honestly, nothing is going to be completely foolproof. So definitely be aware of that, but you can have these things put in place to help stop that. And hopefully it won't get past that. Okay. The thing with pornography is quite disturbing.

Speaker 1: (05:40)
If you look at it, they actually say that 46% of kids are exposed to porn by accident. And nine to 11 years old is the average age of first exposure to porn. Like, Oh my God. And then 50% of teens are exposed to porn every single month in the recent childhood 2.0 movie that I shared in one of the other episodes, they said that on average, a child is exposed to porn by seventh grade. And that we need to leave the land of ignorance of if, and embrace the reality of when, just like I've talked about in other episodes, if your child is online, they are most likely going to be exposed in it's normal for them to be curious. But what happens when they are consuming pornography, is that it distorts the image of what sex is. It distorts the image of how to treat your partner.

Speaker 1: (06:36)
And it leads to addiction and other things to promiscuity. Uh, I think I'm pronouncing that wrong, but, um, more promiscuous and then sexting where they send like sex type texts and messages to other people. And they accept it as normal to talk to and treat people like that. Not that sex is a bad thing, not that sex is dirty or anything like that, but it's just the exposure at such a young age. And then the other thing that I've learned, because when I was starting to learn about this, you know, what I thought was when I was growing up and it was specifically in the middle school years that I remember this, we lived in a house that was like on a corner and across the street from us was vacant land and past that it was just all of this like undeveloped land. And so naturally as kids, we liked to go over there and explore, well, there was this like pipe thing that was not too far away from our house, but you know, a little ways off that, uh, you know, it was like one of the, one of the things they put in the ground for like a drainage system.

Speaker 1: (07:39)
And it was sitting on the land. Well, one time we went over there to just play in there and we found a magazine like Playboy or something. And so we got curious and we looked at it. And so it had pictures of women that were naked and in different positions. And this was when I was in seventh grade, but here's the difference. Number one, it's much more prevalent. Like we had that one magazine, we didn't even take it with us. We were just like, Oh my God, what is this? Why is she sitting like that? You know, but it's much more prevalent now. There's lots more that they can get with just a couple of clicks. They say that on YouTube, that pornography is usually about three clicks away from wherever you are. So there's a ton more that they can consume. And the nature of pornography being produced now is much more drastic and graphic and things like that.

Speaker 1: (08:27)
Then when we were younger. So regardless of what your opinion is on pornography and whether or not it's harmful or not, the nature of it is addicting. And it's not necessarily the best thing for a child. It is nine to 11 years old to be exposed to. Am I right? So this is definitely a topic that we need to be aware of and we need to be talking about. So I do want to share with you that there is besides know what I always talk about with bark or using a phone that doesn't have internet like gab wireless, but there's also this organization called covenant eyes. It's basically an organization that is supposed to help to protect our kids, our family, from exposure to porn. And then if you should have someone who, even child, even children are saying that they are addicted to looking at porn, you can set up an account with covenant eyes and it's kind of like a filter.

Speaker 1: (09:21)
It can be installed on different devices and can help detect pictures and videos and pages that are pornographic so that you can see if there's an addiction there, it can help to stop it and provide accountability for that. And, you know, if you're just not wanting your kid exposed to it, besides bark, you can use covenant eyes to help to manage that. So I have a link in the show notes for covenant eyes, with more information, they have a 30 day free trial, so you can check them out and see if it's something that you want to continue with. Uh, but definitely something to think about. And especially if pornography is landing in the inbox of our kids, Google drives because they're, if they're doing the, you know, the virtual schooling, then they're on their computers and likely Google drives. Okay. So this is definitely something that we need to do look at and consider and have a conversation with our kids about, about not opening something from someone that they're not, uh, familiar with, someone that they don't know, but also look into your setup, look into layering protection.

Speaker 1: (10:31)
If they have a Chromebook, what I highly recommend is the Google family link. Look at what wifi router you are using and look at different ones that have parental controls in them. There are several of them. The only one that comes to mind is the Griffon or Griffin router, G R Y P H O N, but basically take a proactive stance with this and just figuring out if your child has had that happen, or, you know, if you have the setup to protect them from it. And then the other thing is that you can, if you do find anything in their folders, you can report the content to Google. You can report a [inaudible]. So you go into the computer, into their drive, right click file that you want to report and click report abuse, and then you can choose the type of abuse and submit it.

Speaker 1: (11:20)
So at least they're aware of it, but from what I hear, not much happens when you do that, but at least you have reported it so that, you know, they can be aware of it. So let me know if you have any questions about that. And as always, you know, I have a community for you to connect with so we can navigate this wild ride together, do check out my links for bark use code, be that mom, if you want to avoid, um, giving them a smartphone, gab wireless is a great option and you can use be that mom for $10 off, and then check out covenant eyes in a 30 day free trial with a link in the show notes, have a great one. I will

Speaker 2: (11:55)
With you next time. Thanks for tuning in being that mom isn't easy, but together we can be that mom's strong. Don't forget to leave a review, connect on social and join Dolly's free community till next time

Speaker 1: (12:12)
Either before you go, I want to just give you a heads up on something. When things have been hardest in my role as a mom, the thing that was so very helpful for me was having a routine to take care of myself each day. I know that this whole thing around raising kids in a digital world is so very overwhelming. But if you have a place where you are taking care of yourself every single day with a simple routine that works despite where you are or what your schedule is, you will be able to be more present for your family and handle all of the ups and downs of this most amazing role that we could ever play in this world. So connect with me and let's get you connected to fitness and nutrition tools made by experts that will help you simplify this and then connect you with my fit club community that will support you, guide you and give you momentum and motivation to show up everyday, take care of yourself first so that you could be better present for our digital native kids.