The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast 1KHO 668: How Much Uninterrupted Time Can You Get With The People You Love | Ben Gillenwater, Family IT Guy
Jan 3, 2026
Ben Gillenwater, a seasoned cybersecurity expert with over 30 years in IT, shares vital insights on family internet safety. He discusses the transformative impact of smartphones on childhood and reveals why traditional parental controls often fall short. Highlighting alarming statistics, he connects rising youth suicide rates to excessive smartphone use. Ben emphasizes teaching children digital literacy over just enforcing rules. He also introduces Tech-Free Tuesdays to cultivate family time, reminding listeners of the importance of setting boundaries in a tech-centric world.
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Safety Emerged With Interconnected Phones
- The internet became a safety problem when computers connected at global scale and anonymity entered children's pockets.
- That anonymous, global scale transformed stranger-danger into a pervasive, high-risk reality.
Gave My Son An iPad, Then Reversed Course
- Ben gave his son an iPad at five and later removed it after seeing negative effects.
- He learned parental controls and vendor defaults are not reliable and admitted his mistake publicly to his child.
Exploitation Grew As Phones Spread
- Child sexual exploitation and missing-child cases exploded after smartphones and apps spread.
- Ben links nearly all missing-child cases and rising tip-line reports to internet-enabled exploitation.