Parents have worried over their children getting their hands on pornography for decades, but the widespread availability of explicit content online has heightened these fears over the last several years, and for good reason! The New York Times reports that children have their first encounter with online pornography as early as the age of six, often as a result of accidentally clicking inappropriate links.

As if that’s not disturbing enough, the article implies what we’ve suspected for a while now—that parents are giving up the fight to protect their kids from these harmful images. Why? Not because they don’t care of course, but because they feel completely helpless. The growing sentiment is that there are so many devices to monitor and so much content on the Web to filter through that there’s simply nothing parents can do to shield their kids from encountering online porn at some point, whether by accident or intentionally.

While executive director of Answer, a sex education organization, may be correct when she says that it’s inevitable that kids will look at porn eventually, there’s certainly no reason why a parent can’t protect their school-aged child’s innocence with smart monitoring and management tools.

Of course, that’s not to say that parents shouldn’t prepare their children for the worst. Establishing open communication early on is still the best way to protect kids from online dangers. Even so, savvy parents can prevent children from uncomfortable and potentially harmful experiences online with the right software. Qustodio allows moms and dads to filter porn sites while monitoring or blocking social networks, violent content, and so much more across multiple devices. Download the app today, and keep up the good fight to prevent your child from accessing explicit content online.