Alma's advice on Internet Safety

In Alma 37, Alma is getting ready to pass the golden plates down to his son, Helaman. As he discusses with Helaman the beautiful and important records that are found on those plates and the various reasons for which Helaman should use them, he takes great care in instructing Helaman what to do with the records about those who had not been so righteous. In Alma's opinion, making Helaman aware of those records was vital so that he would know the potential problems and how to avoid them. However, Alma cautions Helaman quite zealously not to share all the same information with the people. Alma says, "I command you that ye retain all their oaths, and their covenants, and their agreements in their secret abominations; yea, and all their signs and their wonders ye shall keep from this people, that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed" (Alma 37:27). We can learn from this lesson that it is important to teach our children to be aware of evils, but also that we do not need to teach them everything about those evils. For example, when a parent leaves a child alone for a bit, he or she may say, "Do not eat the cookies while I'm gone." He or she would never say, "Do not pull a chair over to the counter, and climb up on it and reach your hand into the cookie jar and eat a cookie, ok?" Too much information may actually increase curiosity. We normally hear this idea in relation to teaching the law of chastity, but I believe it also applies to internet safety. Parents need to be especially aware of teaching their children safety techniques; they definitely need to set limits to internet use, but that does not mean that they explain in detail to their children the problems with everything they may ever possibly encounter in any situation. Children don't need to be shown every chatroom they should avoid, instead they need to be taught about appropriate behavior and what their options are. As we teach principles, people will be able to use their agency to govern their use of the internet and allow it to be the wonderful tool that God intended.