TAMING TECHNOLOGY IN THE HOME-Psalms 101:3 -I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
When I grew up in the 60's and 70's, children played with marbles, hot wheels, and baby dolls.  We all begged to stay outside till dark with our friends playing football, and riding our bikes!  Today, technology has driven kids inside for their entertainment, resulting in lower school grades and the national probem of obesity!  Remember when:  You only watched cartoons on saturday's from 8 till lunch....You only had 2 or 3 channels in black & White........or the party-line telephones....soundless video recording....life was physically more difficult, but simpler in many ways!  We all are guilty in some way of taking today's technology to the extreme:  The CAR is made to go 120, but the speed limit is 55!  The gun is designed to kill deer, but the bag limit is 2!  Dynamite can blow a tunnel through a mountain...but we keep taking it to the next level until Atomic explosives can level entire countries!
(1)-A CONSTRUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY-Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 
Of the billions of people who have lived and breathed on earth, YOU are a unique generation to be able to experience the level of knowledge that you do as a part of ordinary life!  (People can now not only fly in an aircraft, but in space can circle the entire globe in 45 minutes!  Untold MONTHS and YEARS were spent by explorers throughout history in ships and on foot; hundreds of thousands of entire LIFETIMES were imersed in study and research NEVER to even figure out the LIGHTBULB!!!!  Yet, young people will flip open their cell phone (which doubles as a digital camera with millions of lines of resolution, a video camera, calculator, calendar, endless rolodex, internet, bluetooth link technology).....AND THINK NOTHING OF IT!!!!
It still amazes me that I have recorded over 80 hours of my life...right now I can watch myself pedeling my tricycle down boulevard street in Statesville over 41 years ago by video!  What other generation can literally watch their life RE-PLAYED before their very eyes?  A civilization that relied on horses for travel since the days of Adam, now rides within horseless chariots that are airconditioned with music and global positioning systems!  Food is geneticly engineered to be more healthy to eat.....One farmer can pick 1000 acres of cotton in a single day without breaking a sweat with the new gleaning machines!  If your heart is failing, a doctor can now take the heart out of one man and put it in another!!!  We can both see and hear what is happening on the other side of the world in a moments notice!  We now have drones and robots on other planets collecting soil samples....and one spacecraft (The Voyager) that has entirely left our solar system...and is over 3 billion miles from earth taking pictures!!!    I said all of that to say this...YES, we are BLESSED to live in these LAST DAYS of refrigerators (My mom used to buy ice from the ice man and put it in a box under the house to keep meat from perishing), Vaccinations that build our immunities, Satellites to communicate and give us 100's of channels of clear information!!!  Cars that used to rattle and failed to start on cold mornings NOW are tightly made and computer-fuel injected-(Chrysler starting!-Hybrids).....YES, TODAYS TECHNOLOGY IS CONSTRUCTIVE!!!
(2)-A CONSUMER OF TIME-Romans 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.  Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 
A Google sponsored study most internet users spend an average of 164 minutes per day or 41 days per year online compared to TV where users spend an average of 148 minutes per day or 38 days per year.  So, the average person spends 5.2 hours of their waking day on the internet or in front of a TV!!!   What is interesting is that the survey found that men are spending longer on line than women!   The most popular activities online are shopping, and web surfing.  If these statistics are accurate, then the average person working 8 till 4pm would spend every waking minute thereafter online or in front of a TV until they go to bed!  If recent statistics are correct, the average father spends 45 minutes of quality time a week with his child/children!  Something is CONSUMING THAT TIME!
(3)-A CAUSE OF TEMPTATION-James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
The internet is almost totally unregulated. This is because it does not belong to one nation but is a world wide web. People in Hong Kong can email people in London. A web site can be developed in India and viewed in Kentucky. Therefore it is hard to stop many activities. It is also an impersonal and inexpensive way to communicate, do business, and post material.  Some people do not truly understand the seriousness of what they say or post on the web....(ex. What you post on MySpace, YouTube...Pictures you have looked at, comments you have made in chat rooms NEVER GO AWAY!  They are recorded by your computers ID number and registered to YOUR HOME ADDRESS or your EMPLOYERS OFFICE!!!  Things done online through teenage immaturity may come back to haunt their future marriage or career!!!
24 million children ages 10-17 use the Internet regularly....70% use the internet at home....56% use the internet at school....4.5 million children are sexually solicited each year....8% of all emails are pornographic in nature!--(In Nimrod's day in the book of Genesis, the WORLD BECAME ONE to defy God by building a tower to ascend to heaven....Their working together looked beneficial, but God confounded their language and scattered them across the face of the earth in judgment!  The WEB is the WORLD'S ATTEMPT TO BECOME ONE AGAIN without God; and for the most part, it will only accelerate His judgment upon mankind in the end!)-(The antichrist???)
The internet poses more dangers for children than television and video games combined. A short list of dangers would include inappropriate content, online predators and internet addiction....the confusion and lure of online flirtation and relationships.   *Just about everything good or bad you can find in the world, you can also find online.  And, sometimes it finds you — even when you are not looking for it! I would no sooner turn child loose on the internet unprotected or unsupervised than I would drop him off in the back streets of the city at night. How do you protect your child from the dangers of the internet? 
(4)-A CONTROLLER TO TAME-2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 
(Here are some pointers.)
•	Educate yourself:  If you don’t know what’s out there, how can you protect your child? The FBI Parent’s Guide is a good place to start. (Terms like IM's, ISP, Chat, E-mail, HTML code should be understood)
•	Talk with your children: Talk with your children about potential dangers on the internet. Don’t just warn them about the dangers. Share real life examples when you hear about them on the news. Sharing about an actual teen who had an online predator show up at her home is far more effective than just warning about things that might happen. Keep it public: As with the TV, keep the computer in a public place in the home. The screen should be visible to anyone who happens to enter the room. Visibility adds accountability and is a great protective measure. Monitor activity: Monitor your children’s online activities. You don’t have to snoop. Just let your children know that for their safety you will monitor all activity online. Share your child’s email account and password. Check history reports from time to time. Approve any chat rooms in advance. Find safe places and forums where your child may interact online. 
•	No personal information:  Your child should never give out their personal information to strangers or in a public forum. This would especially include name, address, phone number or school name. 
You can fight technology with technology:
•	Use filtering software: Filtering software will not only protect your children from going to bad sites. It will also protect them from accidentally accessing or being exposed to inappropriate materials. There is some bad stuff out there, and you cannot erase a shocking image from your child’s memory.