Protecting Kids From Porn with Sean Clifford

Guys, we all have a story about the first time we saw pornography. 

For me (and maybe you too), it involved finding a Playboy in the woods.  Or someone snagged one of their dad’s or uncle’s magazines and brought it to guys’ night when you were in high school.

It might’ve felt pretty harmless at the time–but for our kids, things are VERY different.

How different? I read recently that 50% of kids have seen pornography by the time they’re between the ages of 11 and 13, and that twice as many adolescents have seen porn of some kind than their parents realize. Of those kids, more than half saw pornography unintentionally.

As someone with a 12 year old boy, this is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot–and it’s why I needed to chat with Sean Clifford.

Sean’s the CEO of Canopy, an online parenting app designed to help kids lead a safer existence online. Installed on over 2 million devices worldwide, it uses AI to identify nudity and pornography, can help prevent sexting, and makes it easier for parents to keep tabs on their kids’ screen time without rendering the internet unusable. He’s also a father of four, so he’s deeply invested in all of this.

In our chat today, Sean and I talk not just about protecting our kids from pornography, but how to raise children who can make sense of (and resist) all the addictive content out there in our modern world. 

Sean Clifford Podcast Highlights

• What is Canopy, and why should parents care about it?
• Why is content (including pornography) more addictive than ever before–and only getting more addictive?
• Why Sean mostly doesn’t let his kids use devices as home–and how he and his wife are trying to model acceptable device usage.
• At what age should we start talking about pornography and problematic content with our kids?
• Why is it so dangerous to completely disengage from what our kids do online?
• Why Canopy is not a silver bullet–and why that’s okay. What happens when you take screens away from your kids?
• What we learned from taking screens away on our six week road trip.
• How do we deal with dopamine hits, serotonin, and feeling fulfilled?
• How can you do a digital reset for yourself and your family?

Get the Full Show Notes

Want access to the full show notes, including links to all resources mentioned during today's conversation? Visit FrontRowDads.com/284

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