How to tell if your child is using the "Satanic" Internet

It boggles my mind when people are so ignorant of anything that differs from the Status Quo that they would immediately disclose it as "Satanic". Apparently the day that women started wearing trousers, pants were "Satanic". The day that people started getting tattoos, tattoos were "Satanic". The day that people started to listen to that new-fangled Rock-n-Roll, then Rock-n-Roll was "Satanic". It shouldn't therefore come as any surprise that these Xenophobic Luddites would consider the Internet to be "Satanic" too.

However, the part that surprises me is that this comes a.) 13 years after the mass adoption of the Internet upon the invention of the WWW, and b.) from a Law Enforcement statement linking the Internet with Satanism! What rock has this Law Enforcement Agency been living under for these past 13 years?

Thurston County Sheriff's Department: Children and Computers - The Hidden Dangers

Warning Signs

# Use of a new, unusual vocabulary, heavy with computer terms, satanic phrases, sexual references or a sudden interest in related hard rock or satanic oriented posters, music, etc.

# Look for related doodling or writing using of words such as: Hacking, Phreaking, or any words with "ph" replacing 'f"

# Lack of interest in self and appearance, grooming and hygiene, or indications of lack of sleep, sudden drop in school grades, and unauthorized absences from classes.

# Computer files ending in GIF, JPG, BMP, TIF, PCX, DL, GL, FLI, MPG, AVI, MOV - these are picture or graphic files and parents should know what they illustrate. Image files may be pictures of a sexual nature and can be of very high quality, moving pictures, and even include sound.

# Names on communication programs that seem satanic, pornographic, rude, or vulgar in nature

# An obsession with fantasy adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Trade Wars

Oh noes! My child texts in "1337-5p34k"! They are clearly involved in Satanism!
Oh noes! They have image and movie files on their computer (Windows comes with several thousand as part of a clean/new install)! They are clearly involved in Satanism!
Oh noes! My child plays games! They are clearly involved in Satanism!
Oh noes! My teenager is skipping class and has become rude to me! They are clearly involved in Satanism!
Oh noes! My child uses the Internet! They are clearly involved in Satanism!

Oh plz!

When will the madness end?

If ever I saw a clear-cut example of why there should be a Wall of Separation between Religion and Government, this would be it. Public Offices should never be used as pulpits to commit Acts of Religious Terrorism, scaring people into subscribing to the narrow-mindedness of a particular sect.

Shame on you Thurston County for spreading Religious Propaganda that was debunked over a decade ago by the FBI's Lanning and Lanning 2 Reports! Grow up and buy yourself a Clue!

(Not to mention, Prodigy and Compuserve haven't been around for almost a decade. You might want to update your Website to reflect the times!)

Nothing in the article you linked indicates Satanic reasons behind any of the behavior listed. It appeared to me to be a well written article about on-line safety for children.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish by implying the article has any basis what so ever on religious beliefs? You are indicating the article is something that it is not. I hate to say it, but I wish in cases like this I can give someone negative stars.

lol yeah phreaking. That is what satanists are doing these days, they are all stuck in the early 90's. They use home made linemans handsets (that they learned from the Anarchist cook book) to call satan over a fraudulent AOL dial-up connection.
They also watch saved by the bell, melrose place and 90210.

Originally posted by zaiger
lol yeah phreaking. That is what satanists are doing these days, they are all stuck in the early 90's. They use home made linemans handsets (that they learned from the Anarchist cook book) to call satan over a fraudulent AOL dial-up connection.
They also watch saved by the bell, melrose place and 90210.

Duuuudddeee you're giving way our secretttts.

I didn't see anything out right religious about the tone, and it only had one satanic reference.

I also didn't think it was that well written or even that good of an article. When it comes to my kids and "internet safety" those are the ways I plan on going about it.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


Well I thank god i was better with a computer at 8 than my parents were. I looked up all kinds of crap like the anarchist cookbook among other things and i turned out fine and never became a devil worshiper. But anykid that runs around yelling internet memes probably deserves to get grounded because THAT leads to retardation not satan.

Wow, this almost pissed me off. And then I laughed

Prenote: I am a believer in a Christian faith although I side with Evolutionists.

Is this for real? I cannot beleive that even the most devout Christians would feed into this. You can find the entire bible online as an open source document yet the whole thing is satanic?

Kids look at porn therefore the worship the devil? Perhaps they are curious about sexuality instead? Nope must be devil worshipers....

They use 1337 5p34k therefore they worship the devil?

LOL!

I think the only real evidence of devil worship would be this link in the browsing history...

The Church of Satan. Offical Site - Disclaimer: these guys are EBIL!

I love how it says, "We are looking for a few outstanding individuals" right on the main page.



[edit on 16-11-2009 by DaMod]

I read through the article written. Now some of what is written is a good thing as parents should monitor what their children are doing on the internet, though the questionable parts I find is about the mention of Satanic references. All children go through a rebellious phase, and it is a part of life. The other part and it reeks of someone who is heavily Christian in beliefe is the part on Dungeons and Dragons, that I have seen on other Christian web sites linking such to satanism.

Years ago I knew a lady who professed to be a real satanists... her and her friends even had weekly meetings... She made the best blueberry muffins...

She and her friends were very old school... anti technology hippy hold outs... I doubt she and her friends would know a word like "phreaking" "Leet Speak" However one of her friends did play Dungeons and Dragons...

OF course I could be wrong I mean I was dating her niece some 20+ years ago... lot of things change in a couple of decades... Look at Timothy Leary From Psychedelics to Cybernetics...

Naw this sounds more like your normal teen behaviour...Especially in an age where parents let TV and video games raise their kids...

“"Turn on, Tune in, Drop out."” oh wait wrong decade ""DoNt Bz PoEnEd""

I wonder when the Religious Parental Controls come out?

Originally posted by OpenYourHead
Wow, this almost pissed me off. And then I laughed

And that is probably the healthiest way of looking at it.

I realize I may have come across as "incensed" in my OP, but really my disbelief is one of humor.

I remember the "Satanism" Scare of the 1980s when my playing Dungeons and Dragons, collecting Baseball Cards, watching Television, listening to Rock Music, dressing in Black clothes, using a computer, and gasp...reading Classic Literature were all condemned weekly on the Geraldo Rivera show as "Satanic" activities. Not a week went by that I wasn't confronted by my parents (who weren't even Christian!) questioning whether I was a Satanist. (Thankfully, answering questions with questions were my saving grace..."Do Satanists devote their time to charitable works such as serving on the City Council, volunteering at clinics, and working for the Sheriff's Department? Do Satanists take the time to become Eagle and Explorer Scouts? Do Satanists have a stronger sense of morality than their Christian anti-thesis? Think about it!)"

How little changes as time goes on...

Further proof that Technological Advancement does not necessarily equate with Cultural Advancement contrary to what Anthropologists may posit otherwise.

Perhaps laughter is the best way to respond to such silly fear-mongering.

Your link does not work and there is nothing on the Sheriff's web site that refers to your quoted passage. This only one hour after your OP.

I did find a cached page, dated 18 Oct 2009, by doing a search in Google.

Most of the page was perfectly good advice for non-computer-literate parents, though I agree that some of it is rather dated. That may explain why it is no longer up.

It is not warning parents of the dangers of Satanism. It is pointing out that changes in behavior could be signs of a developing problem. If your kid has just discovered Ozzy and Black Sabbath, I wouldn't be overly concerned. If he/she is spending all their time on the computer and putting up posters and drawings of disturbing images, you just might want to check the sites they are going to.

An interest in the occult or D&D shouldn't be worrisome. An obsession, with anything, to the exclusion of what they used to really like might be.

reply to post by fraterormus


Well well well, another day in the life of stereotypical religious folk huh?

The internet? As a whole is Satanic? Wow. JPEG files? Hahaha.

Dungeons and Dragons? Ohh yes a pen and paper game has never been so dangerous.

In any case you are right, these people are living under a rock and should gear up for the times. If they want to point to something that is Satanic, perhaps they should turn their heads and see what kind of marketing is being done to children on television and in movies.

They should show how toy companies are continually influencing our children to keep up with gender roles and tell them how to be "cool" and "hip". That's the real satanism in today's world.

Sick

~Keeper

My main concern with my kids' net use was impairment of written language skills. I've got nothing against leet or txt but I did also want them to get a decent vocabulary early. Another problem in this regard was both of them caught on to the idea that they could simply copy & paste bits of articles into their schoolwork & just change a few words/phrases to avoid being busted for plagiarism by their teachers.
I really didn't see how getting all authoritarian about it could help tho, it'd have just undermined the trust between us. Their mother & I set about a concerted effort to email them links to interesting stuff that was long on well written & short on pictures; New Scientist, et al. We'd then make a point of asking them what they thought of the articles. It got them interested in learning a bit. I'm just glad that YouTube didn't exist when they were young teenagers!
Porn was always going to be an issue. Neither my ex nor I object to porn per se, but there's a certain type of exploitative porn, where women being to a greater or lesser extent degraded seems integral to it. That cant be good for teenagers of either gender to get into, but then again, what can you do? If you try to aggressively police their browsing, they'll just find ways to go around you. We decided to let them have free reign & talked to them about various types of porn, doing our best to put it into context & explain some of the psychology behind the things they would see, if they visited adult sites, which is not such an easy conversation to initiate, but seemed essential. Other than that, limiting their time allowed online to a few hours a day occasionally & talking to them about their lives seemed to do the job. They're happy & doing ok. Best of all, we all still talk openly, even tho their mother & I have split up.
As for "Satanic" - bollocks! If people aren't going to trust that their kids are sensible people, just young & in need of a little guidance, what was the point of having them? Its exactly this type of thing that makes rebels.

Originally posted by erwalker
Your link does not work and there is nothing on the Sheriff's web site that refers to your quoted passage. This only one hour after your OP.

I did find a cached page, dated 18 Oct 2009, by doing a search in Google.

Most of the page was perfectly good advice for non-computer-literate parents, though I agree that some of it is rather dated. That may explain why it is no longer up.

I got the news item from a very popular Tech News Site. They were probably inundated with Traffic from both them as well as ATS.

It will be interesting to see if it makes a re-appearance with updated information and without the 4 references to "Satanism" along with the innuendo that other Internet and non-Internet Activities (such as Dungeons & Dragons) are "Satanic".

You are right though. If you stripped the Religious Undertones, vague warnings, and ignored the grievously outdated information on that page, it did contain some Common Sense advice for parents in regards to their Children's Internet Usage. However, only after you looked past the ignorant scare tactics.

i've only got one question for them....what the heck is trade wars?

reply to post by fraterormus


Ok they're actually mentioning Dungeons and Dragons as a dangerous thing? Have they ever seen the people that play dungeons and dragons? Hell i used to play that game (yes yes laugh away) and i never met anyone satanic whilst doing it lol. Although tbh i played it as it was classed as a club, which gave us passes to skip waiting in the lunch line

Hacking also isn't bad or even illegal depending on what you are hacking and if you have permission or not.

I just don't get these people.

EDIT

Just to add that i've broken out my old character sheet for my neutral chaotic warrior human and i'm going to use it to summon up some demons...........yep they'll be here any minute.

[edit on 17-11-2009 by ImaginaryReality1984]

reply to post by fraterormus


You mean all this time I've been using the 'Christian Internet'- man I can't get away from them Christians.
Can you give me the http of that one?

Seriously though; the Net itself is totally arbitrary in regards to the information that may be accessed. If you fell that strongly about it (in a religious sense), I guess I wouldn't allow my children to use it.
For that matter don't let them watch T.V either; I suppose going out-doors should be a consideration also.

This is one of the funniest threads I've read in a long time!!

Not only is the tech they're describing at least 10 years out of date, but they are totally ignoring the rebellious nature of teenagers in general.

Hell, when I was a teen, watching internet porn and playing with the anarchist's cookbook was the least of my parent's worries, lol. Hacking was a part of every day life for me and I wasn't happy only watching porn, I had a thriving business at school selling it by the disk (3.5 floppy, remember them??). I also had a nice line in hacks and cracks to order.

TBH, I think they were more worried about the long hair, tattoos and peircings, black clothes and a constant desire to listen to Metallica and GnR.

Roll forward 10 years and I'm an upstanding member of society with a family, honors degree and a decent job in IT, although I do still have the tattoos and peircings

reply to post by fraterormus


If Satan (or evil, which is probably the better name) wants someone, it will happen.

Regardless of computers and anything else.

They have to be people who are basically bad - I don't mean kids doing a few wrong things - I mean kids that torture animals etc.