1) Does the use of filters (audio or visual) instill an idea that I can now watch anything? — I suppose this could be a potential pitfall, but it has worked the opposite way for us. It has made the kids aware of how serious we are about language in the home, especially the misuse of God’s name. Plus, we are always careful about the non-filtered content, i.e. the message being presented. There are plenty of junk movies/shows that aren’t worth watching with or without filters.

2) We have found that we cannot even watch “Extreme Makeover:Home Edition” without having the remote available to switch off the objectionable Ads/content. — Commercials can be really bad, even when you are just relaxing watching a ballgame. This is where we have found the DVR helpful. We can fast-forward past the commercials saving time and skipping the questionable content. And when we watch shows on DVD we don’t even have to fast-forward!

3) When speaking of a movie/show that you watched in conversation to others, they do not know that you have watched it using various filters. They assume that you have watched it with scenes and language included. — This has happened to us before, and so now we try to remember to tell people that we use the filters. I remember seeing a movie on TV (Cousin Vinnie) before we had any filtering equipment. We thought, “What a good, clean, fun comedy without any bad language or objectionable scenes.” So we got the video. What we didn’t know was that the TV version had been edited for language and content. What a shocker when we put the video in and heard the actual language used in the movie! We had to turn it off. Now we can watch and enjoy it with the filter.

Our family also limits TV and computer usage, although, computer usage has definitely been on the rise as the age of our children increases and the information and entertainment available on the internet increases.

2 quick thoughts/questions…
Does the use of filters (audio or visual) instill an idea that I can now watch anything…the filter will take care of it?

We have found that we cannot even watch “Extreme Makeover:Home Edition” without having the remote available to switch off the objectionable Ads/content.

When speaking of a movie/show that you watched in conversation to others, they do not know that you have watched it using various filters. They assume that you have watched it with scenes and language included. This may cause them to make certain judgements about you and that if it is OK for you to watch, it is OK for them to watch too. (not that either is good reasoning)

I’ll be watching other posts here, just interested in how christian families approach technology in general.