5 Ways for Parents to Stay Vigilant in Vetting Kids’ Shows

Vigilance in any discipline is always aided by clear and proper motivation. Therefore, before we can discuss how to stay vigilant, we must first address why we should be vigilant in vetting what shows our kids watch. Unfortunately, it has become far too common for parents to have little to no control over their child’s viewing habits. Many children are allowed to watch whatever they want whenever they want. As parents, it is our job to raise our children and bring them up to love the Lord (Proverbs 22:6). Part of that responsibility involves deciding who or what we allow to influence our children. That is especially relevant to what they see with their eyes and hear with their ears. Television has become a literal portal from the outside world into the home. Are we confident that what comes through that gate is good for our children; or have the doctrines of the world and lies of the enemy found the perfect unmanned entry point into the minds of our children? 

Jesus taught that “the eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23) Solomon also wrote in Proverbs to “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Until our children are able to discern right from wrong and the truth from Satan’s lies, we must labor to guard their hearts and protect their minds. If we allow the television to raise our children and be their primary source of instruction, inspiration, and influence, it’s only a matter of time before they begin to act, think, and talk like what they see and hear (Matthew 12:34-40). As the saying goes, if you surrender your kids to Caesar, don’t be surprised when they come back as Romans.

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You’ve made it this far, and I know what you may be thinking: how do I find time to vet or pre-screen everything my child watches? That is a great question and one I wholeheartedly understand as a parent. With all we have going on in our day-to-day lives, setting aside time to pre-screen our kids’ entertainment can be difficult. Is it important? Absolutely. However, we won’t always have hours in our day to devote to this kind of research or vetting process. So what can we do?

Let us look to the wisdom of the Bible for some guidance. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote that “there is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The right shows can have a place in the home. I am not arguing that parents must ditch their televisions outright, though I respect those who do. Where parents often get into trouble, however, is when they resort to putting their kids in front of the television as a fallback when they are stressed, tired, or have other things to do. Sporadic television at unscheduled times often opens the door for unvetted viewing. The easiest way to prevent this: designate times in the week for your kids to watch television. Plan ahead. If you don’t have time to vet hours and hours of new content, limit viewing time to what you have already seen and approved. Create a schedule and post that schedule in your home. That way, your child knows what they can watch and when. And stick to it. That way, you are never caught off guard by the content of a show you have not properly filtered. But don’t be afraid to limit television time in the home. Your children will never suffer from less TV.

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Years ago, when my wife and I moved into our new home, we had our flat-screen television mounted to a wall in our living room. However, as my wife was eight months pregnant and unable to do much heavy lifting, I was limited in what I could do with installation. As a result, we ended up mounting our television without connecting it to actual broadcast television or cable. For months, all we could watch were DVDs and the occasional television show from our phones. If someone picked up the remote, all they could access was the volume and the on and off button. That was it. Years later, we still have the same setup. 

What we quickly discovered when our kids came on the scene was that restricted access is the easiest way to safeguard our children’s viewing habits. Even today, my children cannot watch anything without going through my wife or me first. If they want to watch a DVD, they have to ask permission and get help since the DVD player is mounted where they cannot reach. If they want to watch something from our phones, they have to ask. We alone are the keepers of the remote, the phone, the DVD player, and the television. Your setup may not be as restrictive as ours. Who, however, has control over the television in your home? You or your children? Boundaries and safeguards exist for a reason. They’re not in place to exasperate or annoy our children, though it may feel that way to them sometimes (Colossians 3:21). We want our children to understand that it is our job to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). That means controlling what comes into our home and establishing that some things simply do not belong. Over time, some of these restrictions will be lifted as our children gain more discernment and we entrust them with more responsibility. Until then, boundaries exist. More importantly, my children are taught why they exist so they can learn to create spiritual boundaries for themselves as they grow older. 

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The ideal scenario for vetting kids’ shows will probably involve you as a parent pre-screening what your children watch. However, you may not have time to watch everything that comes out. Guess what? You may not have to. One of the great resources available to discerning parents happens to be the internet. Rather than spending hours watching a new television show to make sure it is appropriate for your children, you can start by asking a fellow parent who has seen the show or find a trusted Christian website or YouTube channel that posts television and movie reviews and read their review. Some of these sites now offer detailed plot breakdowns, a list of how many bad words are uttered, and what kinds of themes are presented in that show. There may be enough in someone else’s review for you to determine that a particular show is simply not good for your children. That’s great! You’ve just saved yourself hours of time and prevented your child from being exposed to potentially harmful content.

As a family, we know our values. My wife and I know our children better than anyone. Therefore, we know what kinds of things to look for in a show that will supplement and support our teaching versus one that works to undermine it. We don’t have to guess. We know what fits our criteria and what doesn’t. There are some shows other Christian parents may find appropriate for their children. Based on our values and the needs of our children, those things may not be appropriate for our family. That’s fine. The more we know about a show, the more informed our decision can be. Five minutes of research is a lot easier than two hours of viewing. And if we still aren’t sure or don’t have enough information from a review to make a decision, that’s when we set aside time to preview the show before showing it to our kids.

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If there’s one silver lining that has come from the depravity of film and television content littering our screens today, it’s that the creators and producers responsible for this content are no longer hiding their agenda. In fact, in many parts of our society, those seeking to undermine the family and wage war against the God of the Bible are fully exposed and out in the open. They are telling us what they believe in and plan to do. In many instances, children are the target of their agenda. They are not hiding it anymore. You don’t have to look very far to find interviews and social media posts from these artists and creators telling us exactly what they are committing to put into the shows they market to your children. Even brands we once thought safe have been overrun by ideologies and agendas that seek to undermine God’s design for the family and destroy the innocence of our children, one episode at a time. Therefore, when the stated goal of a show’s writer or producer is to celebrate and expose children to the kind of filth God clearly hates, we would be wise to steer our children far from the content they produce. 

When parents ask me what kind of shows I allow my own children to watch, I always start with ones that support the values I want to instill in them. Now, I recognize that not every television show will be produced by God-fearing Christians. Not every show will contain God-honoring, family values, or themes either. In fact, most won’t. As Christian parents, we know that our options are limited. But rather than complaining about the lack of quality television shows available for our kids watch, we should remember the words of the apostle John:

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

When it comes to our children and the shows they watch, it is always better to be more cautious than careless. We are the armed guards to the doorway of our child’s mind. It is imperative, therefore, that we stand at our post and guard that door with our lives. There is far too much at stake and far too much evil just waiting to break down these doors. What is inside, however, is far too precious for us to be anything but vigilant. 

Related Resource: Filmmaker Andy Erwin: Ordinary Angels Has a Powerful Message for the Church

"It's a miracle story," says producer Andy Erwin in this episode of Crosswalk Talk. The film, he said, "shows the gospel in action." "It puts kind of hands and feet to the gospel," he said. "This is just a great case study of how to get involved to do the next right thing as far as ministry, as far as outreach, as far as compassion towards people that are hurting in your community – you never know what somebody's going through next door.

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