Before I check out some new website or even a book or magazine, I pray to the Holy Ghost and Mary to protect my mind and heart and to grant me wisdom. It takes only a few seconds. I started this years ago before the internet existed. I worked in a university library and had access to all manner of printed material. Very innocently, out of curiosity, I read a few accounts of people who had joined and left cults such as the Moonies, Jim Jones, Jehovah's Witnesses...What began as idle curiosity turned into an obsession, trying to analyze why the people joined, and how, in the Jim Jones sect, a seemingly legitimate "church" turned into the idolatrous worship of a sɛҳuąƖ deviant, brainwashing, and mass ѕυιcιdє. I realized it had gotten out of control when I began to fear people at work were agents of Satan, out to get me and who were doomed to hell unless I could warn them in time. Totally irrational thoughts! The fact was, Satan WAS out to get me, not my colleagues. After that, I began to strictly monitor what I read. I wasn't Catholic, so asking Mary's protection came later on, although I now recognize my Mother was there all along. The same goes for TV, movies, internet. I turn on my mental filter.
Parents, yes, trad-parents need to wake up regarding the internet. Children are exposed very young to the internet, the bells and whistles. Most of the time, the contact is via a tablet or smart phone, no longer a stationary desktop computer with all the filters that supposedly make it "safe." Just because your children don't own these devices doesn't mean that they are "safe," either. Another child can borrow a parent's phone and download just about anything in a matter of seconds, and show it to your child. A six year-old girl in my class lost her innocence in this manner. A 12 year old boy showed a pornographic scene on YouTube to several children in the parish hall of his church. The phone was his mothers, and he had her permission to use it to make a call. Where had he seen the site? On a friend's phone after school. Lest anyone think I'm exaggerating the danger, please listen to Fr. Pfeiffer's sermon, The Devil Unchained. It explains a lot.