By Joel Persinger
The internet is a great tool and one which my family uses all the time. I use it for work, my wife uses it for research and fun and my son uses it to help with his school work. Let's face it; it’s a terrific tool most of the time. However, my wife and I agreed years ago that we would have every content filter known to man on our systems to keep the garbage out and we would never put our children's pictures on the internet. We've just heard too many horror stories about kids who have their faces and locations plastered all over the net for every nutcase in the world to see.
So what's the point Joel? After all this is a martial arts blog. What are you talking about the internet for?
The point is that you don’t “do” martial arts, you live them. The study of martial arts starts with humility. Humility teaches us that we cannot win every fight and that martial studies are not about fighting but learning not to fight. Fighting is done only as a last possible resort. Therefore, we take steps to avoid conflict where possible. Certainly there are conflicts and dangers we can reasonable avoid when it comes to our children.
Take my son for example. He is a teenager now and a 1st degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. He's also 6'1" and 205 lbs. He's a great kid with a good solid head on his shoulders and a good heart. Consequently, I don't worry about him quite like I used to.
Earlier today he helped me demonstrate some martial techniques while one of his friends took some pictures. I had received a number of emails with questions regarding an ongoing class that David Collins and I are teaching in the park and thought the answers would be easier to convey with images. So, I sent the pictures as part of my response to the friends who had asked the questions.
The pictures came out great. Since I got such a good response from friends about them I thought I might post them on the blog for you. I started to do so when a bell went off in my head and a loud voice shouted "what are you doing?!?!?!?!?"
Now look… my son is a big guy and he can take care of himself, but I'm still his dad and I would have to be a USDA prime grade idiot to put his picture on the web where every loony in the world can see it. He may be big and trained, but as my father used to say “any black belt can be beaten by any average kid with a gun and five minutes instruction”. So, I thought “No way Jose, I don’t put my kids in peril”. But even though that’s my attitude I almost slipped and forgot the first rule of self defense and defense of family. The very first thing I learned in my study of martial arts. Be aware of trouble and take steps to avoid it.
You may already have taken steps to protect you kids. You probably know all the parents of all their friends and have been to each parent’s home before your kids can go there. You my have given your teen a cell phone so he/she can call for help if need. You may have spent hours talking with your kids about the dangers of the world. You may even have made sure they were trained to fight as I have with my son and will with my daughter. But even if you’ve done all that and more, the minute you put a picture of your child on the internet you open a box that even Pandora would be terrified of.
So here’s my advice. If you're putting your child’s pictures on the web, I urge you to rethink that decision. At the heart of the martial arts is learning to be safe and keep your kids that way too.
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