Internet Safety

Much is written and spoken about the good and the evil of social media such as facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

As someone who until recently worked in software research and computer related education I am often surprised by the material that people chose to release to the world via social media.

Jesus lived in a part of the world that was characterised by what is known as an Advanced Agrarian Society. In this society the people who worked the land were peasants with few rights. Their employers, wealthy land owners advised the local government and acted as envoys to distant kingdoms or cities. If a farm worker fell out of favour or was unable to work through ill health it is most unlikely that there would be any welfare support and without work the farm worker would be unable to feed himself and his family and would lose his home. Cast out on the street the chances of him surviving more than a few months would be very low.

Today many people expect society, the government and others to protect them from the evils of the world and dare I say it from their own foolishness.

It is true that a common virtue of many faiths, not just Christianity is that we should protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Thus in Jesus day a good Jew would take care of his parents, his unmarried sisters, widows and a good man would help widows who had no family to support them by allowing them to collect the grain left in the margin’s of the field (See the book of Ruth).

Caring for others was a matter of life and death, not protection against inconvenience or foolishness.

In this day and age we need to be careful when we go on-line and not to publish pictures of ourselves or those we know in situations that might be miss-represented by others; We should think carefully before publishing family pictures. It would be easy to browse for holiday snaps on the internet and to spot someone on holiday, find their address and for an unscrupulous person to take advantage of that. In many companies staff are advised not provide automatic responses to say that they are away from their desk from 23^rd December to 4 January but to write that they are on Christmas leave and will respond to the enquiry as soon as possible.

The advice as ever is to be wise and to take all reasonable measures to protect ourselves and those whom we love.

We need to be prudent, like the wise men. There are also those who need to be ready to repent as John the Baptist called people to repent in his baptism of repentance. This means not seeking to make quick money. Seeking to make quick money is often a high risk venture. It is better that we focus on the prompting of the God’s Holy Spirit to do good to others. The Holy Spirit was revealed as a Dove at the Baptism of Jesus, bringing peace to the world.

Perhaps we should resolve to be more careful in how we use social media, to be responsible and not take unnecessary risks for ourselves and others.

Social media is not evil but there are those who will use any tool or information for unsavoury purposes.

Have a peaceful, happy and prosperous year held in the loving embrace of our Heavenly Father.

 

PS  If you doubt the dangers of the internet here are some
       pictures that I turned up when I searched for images of
       “Digital Priest” These are some of the less disturbing
       images. They were, no doubt,generated for every good
       reason; but they could easily be miss-used.  None of these are representations of the blogger.

For further information on keeping children safe on the internet here are a couple of places where you might wish to look.
    

     The NSPCC has many tips for keeping children safe on the internet.

The Mothers Union also has information on keeping children safe on the internet.