Internet porn and sexting is about power and control in the realm of hearts and minds; it is about human exploitation which is glorified on and off line in popular culture and in cyber-powered peer communities. These are adult issues because they evoke primal emotion that can be challenging to tame at any age, and our job as the primary teachers is to help children learn how to discipline their own thinking so they can overcome responses to such worldly images and experiences that can make us feel powerless. Moreover, historically, parenting is viewed as a prevention only exercise. Conventional wisdom of popular parenting culture suggests that if we are good parents our children will become model citizens beyond reproach. And yet, the physical and cyber realms of our world introduce the pressure to surrender personal power (i.e, the free will to choose what to believe and then how to respond) with very seductive, convincing, addictive and exploitative agendas of others that disturb the peace and can disrupt our capacity to think with the mind of our greater selves -the divinity within.

Return to Table of Contents: 2013 Winter Edition of Family Business Quarterly

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