Raising Lions

The Internet is Raising Your Child

Episode Summary

Episode 009 examines how unrestricted phones, social media, and screen time are shaping children’s attention, behavior, awareness, and spiritual lives. Drawing from firsthand experience as a teacher and bus driver, Pastor Joseph challenges parents to take back authority over technology and stop letting an algorithm disciple their children.

Episode Notes

Episode 009 Notes — The Internet Is Raising Your Child

• Children are spending more time on phones, screens, and social media than ever before.
• Unrestricted internet access can affect attention, sleep, awareness, relationships, and behavior.
• As a teacher, I see students every day who struggle to put their phones down.
• As a bus driver, I see the contrast between children who are engaged with the world around them and those buried in a screen.
• Screens do more than take up time—they can replace conversation, boredom, creativity, observation, and real-world experiences.
• Research continues to raise concerns about excessive and problematic screen use in children and teenagers.
• Phones are not spiritually neutral. What children repeatedly watch and hear is shaping their thinking, values, and worldview.
• Parents cannot outsource discipleship to an algorithm.
• Scripture calls us to guard the heart, renew the mind, and refuse to be mastered by anything.
• Phones, social media, and internet access are privileges—not rights.
• Parents should set clear boundaries around apps, bedrooms, bedtime, meals, and daily screen use.
• Children need opportunities to be bored, talk, work, play, notice their surroundings, and live in the real world.
• The goal is not to eliminate technology—it is to put technology back in its proper place.

Key thought:
Don’t let your children scroll through the childhood they only get once.