Ministering to Sexual Brokenness: Internet Protection

Internet Protection
This is a huge question for everyone today. How do I protect myself and others against this bombardment of sexual-stimulating pictures and videos? Especially for someone who is having an addiction with porn. ''How do I ever get rid of it? How can I still use any media?'' Phone, TV & internet.

The answer is: YES. We can protect ourselves and others. There are actually many options. And best is to combine them. NO. There is unfortunately no 100% ideal solution to it all. So far I found a 99% one, maybe we will find one more perfect in the future.

Blockades
A computer without any protection is a huge danger. Two clicks and anyone can find anything. Including all stuff that is bad for you. So what to do? Well, if you don't want something to come in to your life or in that of others, raise a blockade. Build a wall, that is solid and strong. Unfortunately with internet there are many holes. So more than one wall is needed. But with a couple of blockades in place you will have less trouble with these leaks. Although you will still feel a bit of a draft coming through. But you can protect yourself against that as well. So let's start there. The inner protection.

Blockade I - God focus
The most vital thing is to protect your heart, your body, your soul. The best protection there is to walk with Christ. To love God above everything else. God loves you and is mercyful and forgiving. But He also corrects and disciplines. But it has little to do with the internet, right.. so you need more.

Blockade II - Accountability
You will need help from friends. Accountability. One way to do that is to give them insight in your life, including your internet use. 3xChurch developed a little tool called x3watch. When you put this program on your computer, it will monitor all the websites you visit and send a report once in a while to a friend you trust.

Is this working? Yes it is. Is it perfect? No, it is not. Sometimes it gives out a false alarm (I have no idea why) and it will not recognize every picture as dangerous. There are way too many websites and images. But it is working. Your friends will get reports and they can keep you accountable. Just make sure that they actually do keep you accountable. So kick their butts too.

Blockade III - Internet Filter
The next thing that is really good is to have an Internet filter. Your interprovider is the best place to find one. Check out what they offer you. So far this is the best blockade. It blocks all main sources, especially the main providers of internet porn. It will block about 70%.

Blockade IV - Family Safety
Your own computer can also bring a certain amount of blocks. Depending on which company made it there are programs already available on it. Windows has a program called: Family Safety. As a parent you can make a entry for your child (or for yourself) which can be monitored all over. Especially the curfew is a handy tool. It provides you with an extra protection of about 20%. Perfect to know what your children do. But as a parent you will have the full control, which makes it easier to tinker with as well. But changes are not made right away, because it is connected to the internet as well and can take a day. So misuse is reduced, although still possible. Still a great block. Controlling time on your computer is very useful.

Blockade V - SafeSearch
Another source of evil is Google. Of course any other search engine has the same evil. But Google also provides some protection. SafeSearch. You will need a membership to put it in action. When SafeSearch is activated it will even work when you are not logged in. It is not a perfect solution, but it does work. About 95% of your searches will be safe. Which makes it worth it have it on. Only negative side is that it too easy to put it off. That's why other blockades are important to keep yourself and others on track and on the safe path.

Blockade VI - Block Privacy Window
Next weak point is the browser you are using. It can be Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and others. The weak point is that it is easy to not leave any traces of your search history. To do that you just open another window with a function that by passes some of the blockades. It is a privacy window, although each browser has another name for this function. I also call it a "cheat window". It did frustrate me a lot, but after a long search I finally found how to prevent this window to open. Below you can find some pages to guide you. If these don't work deleting the whole browser is an option, but make sure you do download another browser that actually can be protected:


 * Block privacy window - Internet Explorer
 * Block privacy window - Mozilla Firefox Not working with Quantum

Blockade VII - Administrator account & Passwords
To make sure that it isn't too easy to undo one of these blocks I made for myself a few secury measures. First I created an administrator account and a normal users account on my laptop. This is certainly necessary to create blockade IV to put parental control on. But it is also needed to not undo blockade VI.

With the administrators account it was also needed to create an impossible password. I did something creative to make it impossible for myself to remember the password. I have an external harddrive, although a CD-rom can work as well, and on it I put a file with the password. I just hit the keyboard like this: nhjkmfhvoo and made it my password. There is no way I remember a code like this. The harddrive I plug out and put it in a secure place that I can't reach 24/7, in my case night time is my weak period, so I can't reach it at that time. I will still need the harddrive and the password to save other files and more importantly to update my computer once in while. Doing that in the safe hours will limit the chance of stumbling into temptation.

With those seven blockades a 99% security is reached. One more for a 100%.

Blockade VIII - Your responsibility
This is the last one which you will need to have in action. Your will and decisions. Everyone makes their own decisions and it is a matter of the mind of how you deal with temptations, weak moments and your own inner wellbeing. Putting up all the blockades is good, but you are responsible for every decision you make, regardless of how many walls are pulled up. So be wise. Last thing that always works is to run! Flee the temptations! Or.. if you hate the internet right now, throw your computer out.

We hope this is useful to you. Make sure you connect with others when you are dealing with this problem yourself. Or connect with the author of these pages: [mailto:adelaartjes@gmail.com adelaartjes@gmail.com]. Written by Arnoud van Dillewijn.

More Options
Here are some tips I got. I didn't test them yet, but they are certainly worth to check out. With the right combination of blockades any computer can be protected effectively.
 * www.k9webprotection.com - I like the honesty of this website about protecting yourself.
 * www.netnanny.com - For Windows, Mac, Android, etc.
 * www.kaspersky.com - Tons of security options.