By Rachel Rains, blogger: A Meaningful Journey
1) The question is not IF your teen has seen pornography but “How much and what kind?” The sad, sobering TRUTH is…
- 90% of teenagers have viewed porn.
- Nearly 80% of unwanted exposure to pornography is taking place in the home with the average age being 11.
- 37% of ALL internet content is pornographic.
In March of 2014, the World Wide Web turned 25 years old. Think about it? Since the birth of the web 25 years ago, a pornography consumer no longer has to suffer the humiliation of physically going to a brick-and-mortar establishment to make his or her purchase from a real-live human being. Due to the Net, he or she now has access to pornography 24/7 in the privacy of their homes for FREE.
We are living in the midst of an unprecedented uptick of more shocking and hardcore pornographic material being produced and consumed than EVER before. And society is only beginning to experience the devastating repercussions of the porn addict’s unchecked, decades’ old, free access to his or her drug of choice. Just like a six-pack can no longer satisfy a drunk, your father’s pornography can no longer satisfy today’s porn addict.
“Pornography is getting more violent and more deviant. When a young child or teen finds pornography online, he/she will find images that are more disgusting, shocking, and hardcore than EVER before.”
– Russ Warner of Content Watch
Hardcore pornography includes gagging, hog-tying, choking, gang-rapes, etc.. This is NOT over-dramatizing. Whether exposure is accidental or intentional, with just the click of a mouse, our children are being exposed to this monstrous evil.
2) It is no longer the twenty-something-year-old-girl that pornography users are SEARCHING for, it is your pre-pubescent daughter!
- Human trafficking is the second largest form of organized crime in the world.
- Facebook is the #1 place to trade child pornography.
- A landmark Free Speech case in 2002, defined child pornography as “only acts involving children” but not involving images made to look like children. Western culture is showing signs of a pedophilic drift, as well. The most popular category of porn searches made online by a very WIDE margin today are youth related terms. Terms such as teen porn, jail bait, barely legal, etc. My intent is not to scare you. But I have been naive. We all have been naive. For our children’s sake, we can no longer keep our heads in the sand. The ANONYMITY of the internet has unleashed the beast of anti-social behavior on western society as never seen before in our lifetimes.
- Sex trafficking is rampant, world-wide! Cultures lacking a basic right-and-wrong, moral compass are experiencing sex trafficking at pandemic levels as evidenced in recent news.
“We can no longer assume the only people who would stoop to prey on children are unemployed drifters.”
– -James T. Hayes, Jr., Homeland Security
The porn industry educates and drives consumers to demand product. The addict’s increasingly insatiable appetite for more shocking images has created a DEMAND for the “real deal” – our young children. We must take a stance and fight against the evil that is present and growing! Child pornography and sex trafficking is a REAL and growing problem.
3) Statistics don’t lie: An overwhelming majority of CHRISTIAN men are accessing and using porn.
- 5 out of 10 men in church are struggling with pornography.*
- 54% of pastors say they have viewed porn within the last year.
- 56% of divorce cases had one person who was hooked on porn.
Scientists agree the human brain doesn’t fully develop until around the age of 25. As a result, young people develop addictions at a much higher rate and since MOST addictions begin before the brain is fully developed, the porn industry targets our children in an attempt to develop life-long consumers. Our churches are filled with men, and women, suffering in silence from sexual issues they possibly developed or had very little control over as children.
The worst thing we can do is assume this couldn’t happen to us: our spouses, our children, etc. An attitude of dismissal is costing us our families, our communities, and–most importantly–our children’s precious innocence.
4) It is no longer just a ‘Guy’ problem, WOMEN are equally exposed to it and developing addictions at an alarming rate.
- Nearly half of young adult women today believe viewing pornography is acceptable behavior.
- More than 11,000 college-age women surveyed said they were exposed to sexually explicit material by the age of 14.
- 34% of church going women said they have intentionally visited porn sites online.
The lines between pornography and pop-culture have become amazingly blurred. Our daughters have grown up in a world of the “wardrobe malfunction,” Fifty Shades of Grey, Kardashian/Hilton sex-tape fame. The word “porn” has become so dangerously prevalent
As a harmless catch-phrase, Pinterest boards are callously being named shoe porn, decor porn, etc. Even if a girl has been lucky enough to have escaped such innocuous influence, the fact still remains: 70% of 18-24 year old men visit porn sites in a typical month. And we think this isn’t influencing our girls!?
A typical pornography problem often starts with an innocent curiosity about something seen or heard. When we understand pornography includes ALL depictions meant to incite sexual feelings, then we see mainstream media choices as actually working as gateway drugs to more secret, addictive forms of pornography.
Pornography objectifies people! Do we want our children regarding pornography as the gold standard for relationships, sex, or intimacy?
“Lurking behind every screen in your home is a portal of devastating potential.”
– Craig Gross
We must be vigilant in our homes. NOTHING good can come from pornography. What the EYE SEES, the mind wants! Further, the more pornography becomes NORMALIZED in our society, the more young women will be targeted as objects to be despised, violated, or even killed.
5) The ENEMY is not your spouse, your parents, your religious leader, political leaders, or anyone else who has ever hurt or disappointed you. Believe it or not, it’s not even the pornographer. It is the devil! And “the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10) He wants us to fight amongst ourselves so that we are distracted. If we want to fight this enemy, we MUST unite in purpose!
As Christ followers, we have to START by extending God’s amazing grace to others (as well as ourselves) in order to ignite such life-giving change. ‘For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ (Rom. 3:23) Further, we must remove the ‘taboo’ from talking about pornography and the stigma attached to those affected. Courage multiplies. Healing multiplies. CHANGE multiplies. Awareness is the doorway to action. For me, it is the CALL to action.
“Redeemed WOMEN OF GOD have tender, merciful hearts; backbones of steel; And hands that have been trained for battle.”
– Stasi Eldridge
Will you JOIN ME in this battle!?
* Some studies report as many as 55% of Christian men.
Saved at around the age of five, Rachel Rains is a wife and a mother who considers her family to be her heart’s deepest desire. (Psalm 37:4) Having been raised in a family deeply rooted in Christian values and religious beliefs, Rachel laughingly ‘prides’ herself in knowing a thing or two about what it means to have been ‘raised’ in church. A newcomer to the blogging scene, A Meaningful Journey, is the partial answer to an earnest prayer prayed one wintry morning in 2013. Rachel resides in Nashville with her loving husband, DeWayne, and her true pride and joy, her daughter, Stormy Rains.
A Meaningful Journey / This Side of Heaven
