“Crash and Tell,” Liahona, June 2011, 64–66
Crash and Tell
“Be faithful, and yield to no temptation” (D&C 9:13).
Connor sat down at the family computer and typed in the website address his friend had given him. “You’ve got to check it out!” his friend had said.
But as soon as the website appeared, Connor felt awful. He quickly tried to close the page, but the more he clicked, the more bad pictures popped up. In a panic, Connor hit the off button on the computer and ran to his bedroom.
Connor felt sorry he had seen those pictures. Since his baptism a few months ago, he had started to feel the special peace of the Holy Ghost. But after seeing those pictures, Connor didn’t feel peace at all. He felt guilty and scared that someone would know what he had seen.
Connor was quiet during dinner. He tried to listen to his family’s conversation, but the pictures he had seen kept coming back into his mind. The sick feeling in his stomach wouldn’t go away.
When he said his prayer that night, Connor told Heavenly Father about the pictures he had seen. He said he was sorry and wouldn’t do it again. After the prayer he felt a little more peace, but he also had a feeling that he should go talk to Mom. Connor really didn’t want to tell her what had happened. What if she got angry or was disappointed?
Finally, Connor decided to talk to her. He went to Mom’s room and sat on her bed, where she was reading.
“Mom, can I talk to you?” he asked.
“Sure, honey,” Mom said. “What is it?”
He blurted it all out. He told her about what his friend said, and he told her about what he saw when he visited the site. Mom watched him closely, but she didn’t seem angry.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Connor said. “So I just turned off the computer and ran away. I’m so sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have typed in that address in the first place, but I didn’t know it was bad.”
Mom gave Connor a hug. “Connor, I am so sorry you saw those pictures,” she said. “Some people try to trick children into seeing bad things. But you did the right thing. If you see bad pictures on the computer, you need to ‘crash and tell.’ That means push the power button to turn off the computer and then come and tell me right away. You did exactly the right thing.”
Connor felt so relieved!
“Connor, I want you to know it is not your fault,” Mom said. “It was a mistake, and you don’t need to feel guilty about what happened.”
“But, Mom, if I did the right thing, why did I feel so bad inside?”
“The Holy Ghost lets us know when something is dangerous,” Mom explained. “That feeling you got was the Holy Ghost telling you to get away. I will put a filter on our computer that will block bad sites, but sometimes bad things still might get through. So if something like this ever happens again, you know what to do, right?”
“Crash the computer and tell you,” Connor said.
“Exactly!” Mom said.
Before he got back in bed, Connor said a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for the relief he felt. As he prayed, he felt peace from the Holy Ghost. He knew things would be OK.
Illustrations by Bryan Beach