YouTube or GodTube?

You or God Tube?

If you are like most parents and grandparents who watch entertaining or educational videos online, you’re probably very accustomed to using YouTube. More than likely, so are your children. According to The Journal, a website that claims to be “transforming education through technology,” 73% of teachers say their students now use mobile phones for learning.[1] Many children access YouTube on their phones when they want to learn how to perform a task on their computer or use a new smartphone application they’ve just downloaded. Others use YouTube to view educational videos on a wide variety of scholastic topics, such as geography, zoology, science, math, etc….

Provided there is proper supervision, YouTube can be a great educational resource for your children. But as great as YouTube is, there is a wonderful Christian alternative to it called GodTube.com. GodTube defines itself as “a sharing platform offering online Christian videos with faith-based, family-friendly content.”[2] I have personally perused their offerings and was quite impressed by them! They have a wide array of entertaining, educational, and also faith-based videos that you and your child are sure to enjoy. If you haven’t already, I’d highly recommend checking out some of their content.

Whether your children watch videos on YouTube or on GodTube, though, always be vigilant about what your children access and view online. According to a recent study, 40% of Millennials are now parents. Of these, 80% name their child as one of their best friends while 75% say that they choose to involve their child in household decisions.[3] The culture has radically changed from when I was a child—and even from when I was raising my children. We must never forget that our young children are not our best friends. It is vitally important that we remember, first and foremost, to parent our children. Part of parenting them means making sure, as best as possible, that everything they view online is approved and filtered out by us first.

Colossians 3:2 instructs us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Encourage and teach your children to watch only the videos online that are edifying and godly. Proverbs 15:21 admonishes us, “Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.”