Scenarios marked with a * aren’t real, but they could be.

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” — Genesis 1:27

When Algorithms Think Your Child is Just a Number

Remember the Digital Discipleship Audit you completed after our last post? (If you’re just joining us on this journey, welcome! You might want to check out Part 1 on Digital Discipleship first.)

That exercise revealed something profound — the digital voices influencing our children aren’t neutral. They’re either reinforcing or undermining the truth that our children are fearfully and wonderfully made image-bearers of God.

Honoring human worth in digital spaces means recognizing and protecting the God-given value of people online. It’s the first essential principle of biblical digital discipleship, because every technological choice either honors or diminishes someone created in God’s image.

Let me share a story that still breaks my heart about worth being undermined online.

During research for my work on digital discipleship, I met Caleb, a bright-eyed 7-year-old with an incredible gift for storytelling. Caleb struggled with traditional academics because of his dyslexia, but his creativity and emotional intelligence were off the charts. His school had recently implemented an “AI-powered personalized learning system” that promised to optimize each child’s educational journey.

Within weeks, Caleb came home in tears. The AI had classified him as “low potential” based on his reading metrics and restricted his access to creative projects until he improved his “core competencies [4] This algorithm didn’t see Caleb’s God-given uniqueness — it saw a data point that didn’t fit its predefined model of success.

Sound familiar? This erosion of human value is happening in ways big and small across our children’s digital landscape.

Silicon Valley vs. Sacred Valley: The Divine Download Under Attack

Here’s the raw truth: We’re witnessing the greatest assault on human dignity since the Tower of Babel.

At Babel, humans tried to reach God’s level through their own technological achievement. Today’s tech giants aren’t just building towers — they’re reshaping what it means to be human, undermining sacred worth at every turn.

Genesis 1:27 tells us that every person is created in God’s image. This isn’t just nice theology; it’s the foundation of all human value. Your child isn’t valuable because of what they produce, how they perform, or what metrics they generate — they’re valuable because they reflect their Creator.

But the digital world often operates on a completely different value system:

• Social media measures worth in likes, follows, and engagement
• Educational AI reduces children to test scores and completion rates
• Gaming environments value skill, status, and in-app purchases
• Content algorithms see children as data sources to be monetized

When we allow these systems unrestricted access to our children’s hearts and minds, we’re essentially saying, “Go ahead and redefine their value according to your metrics, not God’s.” We surrender their God-given worth to the highest bidder.

The Image-Bearer Destroyers: Unmasking the Three-Headed Monster

Through my extensive research as a Christian homeschooling mother studying the Principle Approach, America’s historic Christian method of biblical reasoning, alongside deep exploration of the hymns, I’ve uncovered three critical ways modern technology can challenge our children’s God-given identity and worth. While guiding families toward faith-integrated tech balance, these spiritual tech challenges have become increasingly apparent:

1. The Algorithm Cage: When Children Become Categories, Not Image-Bearers

Remember when Jesus encountered the blind man in John 9? His disciples asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” They were looking for a category to place him in — a data point to explain his condition.

Jesus rejected this dehumanizing categorization, saying, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus restored the man’s full humanity by seeing his true worth.

Today’s algorithms are the new Pharisees — constantly categorizing, sorting, and limiting children based on narrow metrics while missing the divine spark within them.

Caleb’s story is just one example. We see this in:

• College admissions algorithms that exclude qualified applicants based on hidden metrics
• Content recommendation systems that push children into ever-narrower interest bubbles
• Educational software that determines a child’s “learning style” and then limits their exposure to other approaches

Image-Bearer Check: Is your child beginning to define themselves by the categories technology assigns them? “I’m a visual learner.” “I’m not a math person.” “I’m just a gamer.”

2. The Digital Funhouse Mirrors: When Image Trumps Substance

In 1 Samuel 16:7, God reminds us that “people look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Social media flips this divine priority on its head, teaching our children that image is everything and authenticity is optional — a direct attack on their identity as image-bearers.

Over half of Americans (60%) take selfies at least once a week, with Gen Z leading the trend (84%).[1]. They’re being trained to curate a “personal brand” rather than develop godly character. They learn to ask “How will this look?” before “Is this true?” or “Is this kind?”

*My heart broke when a 14-year-old girl in our digital discipleship group confessed she maintains three separate Instagram accounts:

• Her “real” account for close friends
• Her “parent-approved” account that adults can see [2]
• Her “aesthetic” account where she pretends to live a completely different life l[3]

This isn’t just normal teenage behavior — it’s a fracturing of identity that Scripture explicitly warns against. “Woe to you… you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead” (Matthew 23:27-28).

True online integrity requires wholeness between our online and offline selves.

Image-Bearer Check: Is your child developing a “split personality” between their online and offline selves?

3. The Human Data Farms: When Children Become Products, Not People

“You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). As Christians, we understand this means we belong to God, who values us infinitely.

The digital economy perverts this truth. Tech companies effectively tell our children, “You are not your own; we acquired you at the cost of a ‘free’ app.” Your children’s attention, data, preferences, and even biometric information are harvested and monetized, often without meaningful consent.

The average child will appear in over 1,300 online photos before they turn 13 [2]. Their digital footprint begins before they can even speak, and by the time they’re teens, thousands of data points about them have been collected, analyzed, and sold.

This isn’t just a privacy issue; it’s a fundamental matter of human worth. Being made in God’s image means having agency and purpose. The surveillance economy treats children as passive data sources to be exploited rather than active agents with God-given purposes.

Image-Bearer Check: Do you know which apps are collecting data from your children and what they’re doing with it?

Image-Bearer Defenders: Your 3-Step Family Plan

So what do we do? Throw every device into the sea and move to a cabin in the woods? (Tempting some days, I know!)

Remember, digital discipleship isn’t about fleeing the digital world, but transforming it through biblical wisdom. Here’s your practical roadmap for protecting your child’s worth online:

1. For Parents: Model Online Integrity (The Digital Mirror Test)

Our children are watching how we treat ourselves and others in digital spaces. We can’t expect them to honor others online if we don’t.

Start Here: The 48-Hour Image-Bearer Challenge

For the next 48 hours, try these four simple practices:

• Ask permission before posting photos of anyone, including your children
• Speak about people online exactly as you would if they were standing next to you
• When reaching for your phone, pause and ask, “Am I choosing this device over someone made in God’s image?”
• Notice how you talk about yourself online—are you honoring the image of God in you?

Remember James 3:9-10: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness… this should not be.”

Protecting human worth online starts with our own habits.

2. For Children: Develop Digital Empathy (The Human Behind the Username)

Children need help recognizing that real people exist behind every avatar, username, and digital interaction.

Try This: The Image-Bearer Recognition Exercise

Next time your child is using a digital platform, ask:

• “Who made this game/app/video?” (Look up the actual creators together)
• “How do you think the person who receives your message/comment might feel?”
• “Is there someone who might be hurt by this content?”

For older children, introduce Philippians 2:3-4 as their “digital filter”: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

This isn’t just good digital citizenship; it’s biblical digital discipleship that protects human worth.

3. For Your Family: Implement Worth-Affirming Digital Practices

Now it’s time to build new family habits that honor the image of God online.

Start With: The Image-Bearer Audit

Choose one digital tool your family uses regularly and evaluate it together:

• Does this technology help us see the full humanity of others?
• Does it reduce people to numbers, metrics, or stereotypes?
• Does it encourage authentic relationships or performative ones?
• Would Jesus use this? How might He use it differently than we do?

Based on your answers, decide together on one change to make in how your family uses this tool to better honor human worth.

Matthew 25:40 offers a powerful lens: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” This applies to our digital interactions too!

Your Image-Bearer Action Step

Before our next post on Digital Stewardship, complete this simple but powerful exercise with your family:

The Image-Bearer Profile Refresh: Putting Principles into Action

Together with your child:

1. Look at their profile or avatar on one digital platform they use
2. Ask: “Does this represent you as someone made in God’s image?”
3. Discuss what honoring God’s image might look like online (not just avoiding negative content, but actively reflecting qualities like truth, creativity, kindness)
4. Help them refresh their profile to better reflect their identity as God’s image-bearer
5. For younger children without social profiles, apply this to a game avatar or character they create

This isn’t about creating a “holier-than-thou” online presence. It’s about aligning digital expression with divine truth. Small shifts in how we present ourselves online can profoundly impact how we and others see our true identity.

The Foundation of Faithful Tech Use

Protecting human worth online isn’t just about avoiding harmful content—it’s about actively affirming that every person online is made in God’s image and deserves to be treated accordingly.

In a world where technology increasingly treats humans as mere data points, Christians have a profound counter-cultural opportunity to demonstrate what honoring image-bearers looks like in practice. We can show that true digital discipleship begins with seeing the image of God in everyone we encounter online—and in ourselves.

Coming Up Next: Digital Stewardship

In our next post, we’ll explore the second principle of digital discipleship: how to steward digital resources (time, attention, creativity) in ways that glorify God rather than deplete your family’s spiritual vitality.

Until then, remember: before your child was ever categorized by an algorithm, they were fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of the universe. No digital system can define what God has already declared precious.