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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. Kevin Leman 
 
 
Question: 
 
How do I protect my child from Internet predators? Is it okay for him 
to surf the Internet unsupervised? 
 
Answer:  
 
You know, standing up to the new Goliath isn’t easy. That Goliath is 
the Internet. 
 
Now, notice I’m saying “standing up to,” not “knock over” or “defeat” 
the internet. I’ve got news for you. The internet is here to stay. It ain’t 
going away—not proper English, but you get the message, don’t you? 
 
You know, parents, if your kid has a computer, my question is, “Do 
you know your child’s password? Do you know where the history 
button is on your computer? You’d better.” You know why? Because, 
as I speak this moment, there are 1.5 million predators online. They’re 
looking for your son or daughter. 
 
Yes, your fourteen-year-old daughter is talking to this other fourteen-
year-old. The problem is, the other fourteen-year-old is forty-one, 
bald, has a pot-belly, smokes pot, and is a sexual pervert. 
 
And you say, “How is that guy. . . . My daughter knows better than 
that!”  
 
No, your daughter doesn’t know better, quite frankly, and here’s the 
problem: the forty-one-year old pervert knows every song on the top 
40. He knows every sitcom that kids like to watch. And as soon as he 
hears anything negative about the family, the dad or mom being unfair 
 
 
to the fourteen-year-old daughter, he’s right there. He’s sympathetic, 
and he wins her trust.   
 
That’s how those things happen, folks. 1.5 million predators—think 
about it—right now, have access to your son or daughter.  
 
So, it’s important to keep a couple of things in mind. That computer, I 
mean, they’re great. They’re a wonderful resource for all of us. My 
fourteen-year-old daughter does her homework on the computer every 
night. Again, great and wonderful, but there’s got to be limitations. 
Again, you’re the parent, okay? 
 
Where does that computer belong? In your child’s bedroom? No. It 
belongs in a public room in the home. The dining room table’s a great 
place, the living room. Some place where everybody has access to it. 
 
By the way, do you know what POS means? Parent Over Shoulder. You 
walk in, and all of a sudden your kid wipes off the screen, or your son 
or daughter begins to get gifts from people in the mail that you’re 
unfamiliar with. Or maybe there’s money in their hand that came out 
of nowhere. These are signs. 
 
The FBI gives parents all kinds of guidelines of what to look for when 
your kid’s in trouble on the internet, and those are just a couple of 
them. But let me recommend to every parent: BSAFE. It’s one of those 
Internet sites that protect. You can’t even download stuff that’s 
inappropriate on the computer using those kinds things. And there are 
other things besides BSAFE—you can do the research yourself—but be 
sure you put those safeguards in your kid’s computer. 
(http://www.bsafehome.com) 
 
The researchers tell us this, that 90% of kids between eleven and 
seventeen years of age will stumble upon a pornographic site. Those of 
Leman -2- 
 
 
you as adults who have seen pornography, you tell me if you can wipe 
those images out of your mind. That’s the problem with pornography. 
 
The Internet is the doorway into the most sleazy part of your town—
that place you would never allow your son or daughter to walk through 
at night—and down that dark street, down that alley, into that sleaze 
shop, it’s all there with just a simple click.  
 
So, you learn to be involved. And, parent, if you’re one of those people 
who stick their heads in the sand and say, “Well, our child was a child 
of faith,” you get your head out of that sand—I’m going to say that 
nicely—and get with it and find out what your kids are up to. 
 
And by the way, why don’t you visit MySpace? In fact, I’ve got it 
better than that. Why don’t you log on to MySpace? It only takes a 
couple of minutes. And read their privacy policy. Oh, is that a kick! 
They have a privacy policy. There’s nothing private about it! 
 
So, remind your kids never to divulge individual information about you 
or them or any family member on that Internet. It can be a great 
friend, but it can also be a devastating foe. 
 
 
 
 
Leman -3- 
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