Internet Pornography is a Growing Danger to Families. 

More and more people are struggling with pornography, and it is adversely affecting families, including families in our church.  Viewing pornography is a sin issue that not only effects the individual, but those around him/her.  The lust leads to dissatisfaction with those who love them, the guilt leads to anger and resentment which builds walls and barriers between them and loved ones, and the fantasizing isolates them and steals time that should be spent with loved ones.

Unfortunately, the porn industry is targeting children.  They believe that if they can get the children hooked now, it will lead to more profit in the future.  Even 'safe' searches and inquiries on the internet needed to fulfill homework and other research requirements for school can open dangerous sites and pop-ups.  Once the images have been displayed it is too late.  Innocence cannot be regained.

To protect our families, it is only prudent that parents should install proper safe guards.  I believe that having virus protection (protection from programs that steal information or do damage to your computer), a firewall (to block intruders from entering your computer), pop-up blockers (small unrequested windows of information or images that appear), and web-filtering (blocking web-pages with offensive content) is essential.

Personally, I recommend installing two software packages to protect your family.  First, I highly recommend Trend Micro's Internet Suite for overall protection.  It has good web-filtering as well as the other protections necessary (virus, spam, pop-ups, firewall, spyware).  It will also allow you to enter your telephone, email and other sensitive contact information, and it will stop that information from being sent to the internet when it should not be sent.  Why?  Because there are predators out there who want to know where your kids are.  The software does a lot, but it is easy to use. 

However, Trend's web-filtering does not filter all content when you are doing searches.  I also urge you to use Computer Associates' K9 Web Protection.  Computer Associates have now made their web protection software available for free to families.  I have now installed this software on my computer.  This software is even more thorough than Trend Micro's web filtering, and it stops pop-ups, and eliminates dangerous sites and images that appear in search results.  It also allows you to set up specific times when the internet is available, and how long a user is allowed to be on the internet.  The report tools allow you to see what sites were being accessed, and which ones were blocked.  I highly recommend this software for families!  It is free!  This company makes profit from corporate sales, it is joining with others to fight internet pornography by offering the software for free to families. This software is now being endorsed by many, including numerous state PTA associations.

I hope that you will protect your family.  Please check out this software at the K9 Web Protection site.  Then, install the software, and explain to your family why you are installing it.  It is not to spy on them because you do not trust them.  It is a safe-guard, because you do not have to go looking for porn on the internet.  It is being targeted at you and your family.

Sincerely,

Pastor Mike 

Did you know...

• Pornography is a $57 billion a year industry. In comparison, the combined revenues of all teams in the NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL is $12 billion, and the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC is a mere $6.2 billion.
  • Internet Filter Review
• 1 in 4 youth have unwanted exposure to inappropriate pictures each year
  • The Internet Keep Safe Coalition
• Nine of 10 kids aged 8-16 have viewed pornography on the Internet, often in the process of doing homework.
  • London School of Economics January 2002
• Students were most at risk for cybersex compulsions due to a combination of increased access to computers, more private leisure time, & developmental stage characterized by increased sexual awareness & experimentation. Both computer classes & colleges might need to recognize this increased vulnerability and institute new primary prevention strategies.
  • Sexual Addiction and Compulsion: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention, March, 2000 (available by subscription)
• "Cyber-sex is the crack cocaine of sexual addiction"
  Jennifer P. Schneider, M.D., Ph.D
  • The New "Elephant in the Living Room" Effects of Compulsive Cybersex Behaviors on the Spouse, from the book Sex and the Internet, 2002
• "Cyber-sex reinforces and normalizes sexual disorders"
  • Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute
• One in five children ages 10-17 have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet
  • Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth, sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. See also UNH Study Finds Many Youth Exposed to Sexual Solicitation, Pornography and Harassment on Internet, 19 March, 2001.
• 74 percent of commercial pornography sites display free porn images on the homepage.
  • Child-Proofing on the World Wide Web: A Survey of Adult Webservers, 2001, Jurimetrics (abstract)
  • Summarized in Youth and the Internet (Chapter 3, The Adult Online Entertainment Industry), National Research Council, 2002.
• 45 percent of 1,000 surveyed teens admitted parents are the biggest influence in deciding whether or not to have sex
• 88 percent of teens say it would be easier to postpone sex if they could have more open, honest conversations with their parents
• Two-thirds of U.S. teenagers who have had sexual relations wish they had waited longer.
  • National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, September 2003.
    Brief
    Full survey