Digital Health and Cyber Security Workshop
The audio recording of our digital health and cyber security seminar for parents is now available to purchase from CHEA here: https://cheaofca.org/product_description/297
This was a live session delivered to a group of parents (and some children) about the general topic of digital health and cyber security. Through it I present to you a snapshot of the widespread use of Internet connected tech and how our teens are participating in online activities, and a summary of the measured negative affects this is having on our kids. Then I pivot to share insights about the nature and scope (and threat) that is generally pervasive on the Internet in my attempt to help the audience understand that the Internet itself is weaponized—it is dangerous in nature. Following that I review the common tech solutions offered to parents to counter this today and present my opinion as to why these are not enough. My recommendation to solve this problem is to adopt a different posture in our homes and to take up the role of being shepherds that I believe all parents are called to. As a tool in this effort, I offer several strategies including the integration of a Media Ecology course or intentional discipleship in the home. I offer several books to help guide families through deeper exploration of the dangers, while examining their own core values and making sure their use of technology never undermine or overrides who they want to be and how they want to live, from a first principles point of view.
You can download our workshop presentation slides using the button below. This presentation relied heavily on the displayed materials, so it would be best to view the presentation material while listening along.
We are also available to present workshops like this for your community, family, business, church, school etc. You can reach us via the Contact page to begin planning an engagement today.
Reflections from CHEA Conference 2026
The CHEA 2026 conference is now behind us. What a weekend! We hope you returned home safely and have rested from a very busy weekend. On behalf of the Johnston family, I’d like to thank each of you again for coming by and learning about Practive Security. I would also like to thank everyone again who attended the workshop I gave. I hope and pray that we provided you information that leads you and your family closer to realizing your goals and living your values.
For those who missed it or would like to review it again, CHEA should be making an audio recording of our workshop available for purchase through their website, and we will post the presentation material on ours at https://www.practivesecurity.com/chea. Check with CHEA to find out how to purchase the live recording.
Congratulations again to the two winners of our raffle. We hope the gifts are well enjoyed.
We had many wonderful conversations through the weekend and have taken note of several themes that kept surfacing throughout our time together. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of those and how I believe Practive Security can serve you by helping you build the best shield you can to protect your family from the wide range of threats and harms that come from participation in the online world.
You can also visit our website to learn more about all we offer, preview videos and content on our Featured Content page, or find links to other places where we publish work that is available in preview and sometimes for free including Substack, X/Twitter, Spotify, and YouTube.
Website: https://www.practivesecurity.com
Substack: https://practivesecurity.substack.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@practivesec
X/Twitter: https://x.com/PractiveSec
Overview of Practive Security
We believe everyone has inherent dignity; an intrinsic value that should be honored, protected, and defended. We knowthat anyone can express anything via the Internet, and we understand that many will use that digital space to maliciously enrich their lives at the expense of others. We deliver essential knowledge enriched with practical & effective strategies and tactics for building and maintaining a safe, secure, and healthy life or business in this digital age. We are here as a trusted advisor to help you forge the most effective shield possible to protect and defend what matters the most to you from online threats and harm.
We provide individuals, parents, communities, and businesses with information about online threats to ensure they are aware of the dangers that come with using Internet-connected technology & participating online and are also equipped with strategies and practices to properly counter those threats and manage the risks in life, family, and business.
Traditionally when we think about online safety and security, we think of protecting our data, our identity, and our computers. However, at Practive Security we see threats from the online world that target all that we are: our hearts, minds, bodies, souls, and our property. We seek to enable you to protect all that you are by forging the best shield you can to protect what matters the most in your life context.
We provide this through published work including articles, books, presentations, videos, and podcasts. Our analysis and recommendations come through technical and philosophical research, through our Christian faith and worldview, through our understanding of history and traditions, and from multiple decades of practicing cyber security in the highest professional contexts of that industry.
While we have a large library of material that covers the core threats and dangers we know of and have analyzed, we are also constantly monitoring for new developments in the world of technology and online threats and will produce advisories and new analysis to our customers as new topics of interest and threats emerge.
You can learn about who we are and all that we do by visiting our website, https://www.practivesecurity.com
All of our core resources and services (except books) are available to purchase on our sign-up page at https://www.practivesecurity.com/signup
You can also find a summary to our books and links for ordering at https://www.practivesecurity.com/books
That’s not all. We also publish written and podcast content to Substack as well as through Spotify, videos through YouTube and daily situational awareness and analysis through X/Twitter. Links to all of these places are above and available on the homepage of our website.
Our website also has a featured content page which contains links to articles and videos that we have made available for free or that describe some of our services in more detail.
All of this is made available to you at prices that we believe are reasonable and accessible to everyone in our community. With our Essentials Membership just $15 / month, we believe everyone can access and make use of our service, though we also offer a condensed and simplified version through Substack for just $8 / month.
Key Resource Highlights
Our primary method for delivering our content to our customers is through subscriptions to our website. Our Essentials Membership provides you access to our library of content that is grouped and presented based on topic or the nature of the content. Customers can sign-in and then browse to individual pages based on topics of interest, to find answers to common questions, or search the entire site for content that matches key terms of interest to them. Some of our content categories include: 101, Parents, Personal Security, AI, Strategic Analysis, Tips & FAQs, Advisories, and more.
For the month of July, we are offering a 10% discount on your first month for the Essentials Membership. Use discount code CHEA10 to receive that discount and checkout.
One of the categories of content we provide through our Essentials Membership is what we call Practive Security 101. This is a collection of articles and presentations that establish a foundation for the safe and secure use of online technology and participation in the digital spaces. We have also published this material in book format, available in both paperback and Kindle through Amazon.com at this link here. You can use your Essentials Membership to read the 101 content one subject at a time based on your interests, or you can purchase the paperback and read all the material as one collection. You can also use the paperback as part of your homeschool curriculum or home discipleship of your children.
We also have a collection of articles analyzing AI in philosophical, technical, theological, cultural, and practical contexts. This collection of works has been consolidated and enriched with additional material in book format as well. This book is called Countering the AI Revolution as is available from our publisher, WestBow Press (a division of Zondervan) as well as from all major online book sellers (including Amazon). Check out WestBow for a description of the book.
We also provide a Self-Assessment tool and service which is a 90+ point review of your use of Internet connected technology across a wide domain of every day uses and common tools. The goal of this assessment is to help you identify where you can improve your personal security and online safety, and also to affirm what you are doing well.
We provide Seminars and Workshops, both in recorded format and through live presentations just as we did at CHEA. Currently we have two different online workshops available to purchase access to:
· Digital Health and Cyber Security Essentials for Parents
· AI Workshop for Parents
For the month of July we are offering 50% off our Digital Health and Cyber Security Essentials seminar. Use discount code KIDS to gain access to the video series for half the normal price.
We can also deliver these same workshops live online or in-person for your community, and we can develop a custom workshop or seminar for any topic that we cover. Contact us to begin planning an event.
In addition to all this, we provide dynamic consulting and advisory services to you as individuals, as a community, or for your business or organization. Let us know what you need and we can work out a way to provide it to you.
You can learn more about all of this and sign-up for access through our website, https://www.practivesecurity.com
Key Themes for Follow-Up
Our conversations at CHEA also highlighted some recurring themes that seem to be top of mind for many people, and we would like to offer you our perspective as we wrestle with these issues as well.
Wrestling with AI
A common conversation I had over the weekend with many of you was centered on our general wrestling with the proper integration of AI into our lives and wondering if and how we incorporate it into our homeschooling to prepare our children for the future. At our exhibitor table, many people asked our opinion of their use of AI and whether it is right or wrong, good or bad.
This is a very large topic, but it is exactly why I wrote Countering the AI Revolution. In that book you will find chapters that describe what the technology was designed to do, what it is capable of, and where you might cross the line into misuse among many other things. In fact, one of the most detailed chapters is an examination of the ethical use of AI through which I attempt to provide you a framework you can use to decide for yourself. It is a framework built upon our Christian faith and our greater Western traditions and our own American values. I have also worked to directly address the questions many parents are asking, “how do I prepare my kids for the AI world, and should I be including AI in my homeschooling?” Here is an article that served as the basis for one of the book’s chapters that addresses that question directly: https://practivesecurity.substack.com/p/preparing-our-children-for-the-ai
But I hear you. AI is everywhere and it is offering us many powers and benefits. As I mentioned in the workshop I delivered and as John Dyer writes of extensively in his book, Fram the Garden to the City, we need to understand and weigh the consequences of choosing to use technology, because doing so is always an exchange: we gain and we lose. To paraphrase something John Dyer recently said, whatever we use AI to do today, we will lose the capability to do tomorrow. I think that’s a good way to start thinking about AI. I would offer in addition to that, that we should pay attention to how we are making AI an authority in our life by what we ask it to be for us, what powers we are trying to capture and make our own, and who we are serving by using AI. As I presented in the workshop, AI is more than “just a tool,” and we should never limit our moral considerations to that factor alone. There is far more at play with this technology and the revolution surrounding it, and it is especially important that as Christians we understand the origins of this revolution, the mindset of those behind it, and the outcomes they hope to produce in mankind through it.
But all of this I address in the book as well as through separate articles available on our website for Essentials Members and available on our Substack.
The Problem Seems Too Big
A sentiment I often hear from people I talk to about online threats is that this problem seems simultaneously too big to ignore and also too big to do anything about it. There is a sense that danger is imminent, but our world and lives are so interdependent on the use of technology it can seem like those threats are simply unavoidable. I also often hear a sentiment that assumes bad things are always imminent and we can take them as they come rather than trying to counter them before they happen, because trying to solve everything is an impossibility anyway.
As a parent and fellow human being living in this digital age, I completely sympathize with both points of view. We don’t need to live in fear, but Proverbs 22:3 tells us that we do need to manage the risk of harm: “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly and suffers the consequences.” NLT
The threats we face online are very real and they are a very big problem, but they are not beyond our ability to manage, and you don’t need to simply unplug everything to protect yourself or your family to stay safe. Being prudent and protecting what matters the most in life is not living in fear but is rather simply the wise thing to do. You can do this.
And I do not think you can simply wait and manage the fallout of whatever may come. I have heard and witnessed far too many horror stories that happened to well-intentioned and faithful Christians, who later lamented that “if I had only known,” or “if someone had only warned me ahead of time.”
That’s why we are putting our efforts into Practive Security. We are here to help by providing Practical and Effective strategies and practices you can use every day. But as I covered in the workshop, you will need to think deeply about the formation of your family, your core values, and your first principles. You will need to shepherd your family with intentionality and diligence.
I would encourage you to start small. This article title, “The Foundations of Online Safety and Security,” is an overview written to help you see what you can do and how to get started. With our Essentials Membership, you can access articles on topics that are of highest importance to you and take simple steps to address those. You can also take our Practive Security 101 book one chapter at a time. You can also use our Self Assessment tool as a checklist and guide. Choose a few strategies and put them into practice. Make a few changes at a time and build as you go. You can do this and if you get stuck or have questions along the way, we are here to help.
Thank you again. It was wonderful to share a moment in life with all of you. Please let us know how we can support you, your family, your community, or your business.
-Matt Johnston