What if the device you handed your child to keep them quiet at dinner was, at that very moment, being used to target them? That’s not a hypothetical — it’s a reality that Chris McKenna, founder of Protect Young Eyes, has spent more than a decade documenting, speaking about, and warning parents against.
In a recent conversation with Pastor Jack Hibbs, McKenna laid out a sobering picture of the digital landscape that most parents are dangerously unprepared for.
McKenna was quick to challenge the common defense that technology is simply a neutral tool. It isn’t, he argued — and the distinction matters enormously.
“It is engineered. It is crafted to extract human attention. And that was the benign version of technology — meaning social media. With artificial intelligence, we’re in a whole different country,” he said.
He drew a sharp line between what social media did and what AI is now doing. Social media competes for your minutes. AI, he warned, is competing for something far more intimate.
“Social media was coming after my attention. Artificial intelligence is coming after my affection,” he stated.
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McKenna described what he calls the defining difference of childhood today: the near-complete collapse of the distance between children and life-altering harm.
“When you and I were growing up, the places that were good for us versus the places that were harmful were often separated by relationship, distance, something. That doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.
He was equally blunt about the false comfort many parents take from digital filters and safety toggles. Every locked-down iPad, he said, still has roughly 10 exploitable pathways to content parents would never approve.
McKenna singled out Roblox — used by 120 million people daily, 40 million of them under age 13 — as his single greatest concern for young children. Parents picture one game.
In reality, Roblox is a universe of millions of user-generated games, some of which have simulated actual school shootings on U.S. soil, a revelation that helped prompt a congressional investigation.
“If I could snap my fingers and erase one game from childhood, it would be Roblox. It’s the number one spot that I don’t want parents letting their kids go into,” McKenna said.
YouTube, he added, is just as underestimated. It is a mixed-content destination — not a children’s platform — and even YouTube Kids does not guarantee age-appropriate content. His rule is simple: no child in elementary school should be on YouTube without a parent alongside.
The battle for the next generation is no longer confined to classrooms, culture wars or Hollywood. Scripture warns believers to be sober-minded and watchful because the enemy prowls like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Today, that pursuit often arrives not through obvious evil, but through entertainment, algorithms and digital systems engineered to capture hearts and shape minds. What begins as a distraction can quickly become desensitization, isolation and deception.
Parents cannot afford passive Christianity in the digital age. Discernment is no longer optional — it is essential. The call is not merely to fear technology, but to steward it wisely, prayerfully and intentionally. Children need more than restrictions; they need present parents, spiritual covering and homes where truth is louder than the voices competing for their attention online.
You can watch the full interview by clicking here.
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
