How do you talk to your kids about pornography before the internet does it for them? Chris McKenna founded Protect Young Eyes to help parents answer exactly that, and his approach surprises most people: the fix is not a better filter. It is a braver and more frequent conversation.
Most of us are scared of this talk, so we put it off, and putting it off is the one move that leaves a kid alone with whatever they find. Chris makes the case for the opposite. Make the conversation normal. Start early, keep it casual, have it often, so your kid runs to you when something feels wrong instead of hiding it. Shine light on the topic.
We get into the number that stopped me cold. In every child-on-child case the counselors Chris interviewed had handled that year, the child who had harmed another had been exposed to pornography early in childhood. We talk about why a young brain has no "file" for what it is seeing, then we get practical: ten conversations before age 10, the porn talk you can have in the car without ever saying the word "porn", and how to make yourself the person your kid comes to.
MORE FROM CHRIS McKENNA
Order his book, 5 Habits of the Tech-Ready Family (out June 16 2026): https://www.techreadyfamily.com
Protect Young Eyes: https://protectyoungeyes.com
Digital parenting coaching, The Table: https://protectyoungeyes.com/the-table
The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Routers: https://www.protectyoungeyes.com/devices/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-routers
CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome
1:05 How Chris got into this
10:39 The realities of porn today
20:04 Young brains can't process it
21:28 The 100% statistic
24:00 Make Porn the Norm (the reframe)
28:14 10 before 10
30:28 Where kids really see it
35:11 How to actually have the talk
43:42 Porn isn't real sex
57:31 The one fix at Apple
SOURCES
The 100% figure is from Chris McKenna's interviews with counselors at Children's Assessment Centers, which work with both the child who was harmed and the child who caused harm. More on his research at https://protectyoungeyes.com
ABOUT CHRIS McKENNA
Chris is the founder of Protect Young Eyes and president of The Better Tech Project. He testified before the U.S. Senate in 2019, co-authored the Child Device Protection Bill that is now law in Utah and Alabama, and is featured in the documentary Childhood 2.0. Publishers Weekly calls his new book "comprehensive," "illuminating," and "an informative resource for parents eager to establish digital safety nets for their children."
ABOUT FAMILY IT GUY
Ben Gillenwater is a cybersecurity expert and dad who helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication.
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