Q&A with Ron DeHaas

Internet filters don’t work for most people over the age of 13. They are easy to circumvent and actually tempt people to get around them. And when they successfully circumvent the filter, nobody knows—so the user may be trapped by the predatory porn culture.

When I started Covenant Eyes 16 years ago, I had two teenage sons. Instead of legalistically blocking them, I wanted something that would start a conversation, an accountability record. A filter was fine for my seven-year-old daughter, but I wanted to train my sons in the disciplined use of the Internet. So I started Covenant Eyes Internet Accountability. We have a filter for those who need it, but accountability is the best. The data from The Porn Phenomenon bears this out. Twenty-nine percent of general-population adults seek out pornography at least monthly. However, 39 percent of those who use a filter to block pornography seek it out at least monthly. More alarming, 54 percent of U.S. adults say they never seek out porn—but 0 percent of filter-users say they never seek it out!

That’s why I started Covenant Eyes: Filters can’t replace relationships for keeping people accountable.

Both, but it’s deeper than that. The majority of Covenant Eyes users are families—and every family has its own history and unique set of needs.

Many families have parents who do not use porn and don’t want their kids to use it. Some have no children, but one or both spouses do use porn and are struggling to stop. Others who are struggling have kids and want both accountability for themselves and protection for their children.

The one thing they have in common is that they are “accountable families.” Barna did a separate study on long-time (more than five years) Covenant Eyes users, comparing them to the data in The Porn Phenomenon. It’s clear from the study of the general population that older generations have not been successful, for the most part, in passing on their values to the next generation.

However, Barna found that “accountable families”—those from the Covenant Eyes cohort— who take the spiritual formation of their family seriously are successful in passing their values on to the next generation.

Guess what? Good parenting works!