Internet Porn – A New Form of Home Invasion
The internet is one of the greatest forms of communication and access to information mankind has ever created or had access to. The amount of information that can be acquired in such a short period of time is mind boggling and even overwhelming at times. But not all information is good, particularly information that is unsolicited and unwanted. The biggest culprit of unwanted and unsolicited information on the internet is by far pornography and our children are becoming their victims.
The multi-billion-dollar pornography industry is proliferating at an alarming rate and at least 30 million people log onto a porn site each day. This is literally causing a porn epidemic and a “porn addiction” for many, and the industry is taking no prisoners. They don’t care who watches, or who the viewers are. They don’t care if it causes problems for the home, marriages, or children, they just want their money. And the newest market to tap into for them with absolutely no remorse or shame is the sanctity of the home. No one is safe, particularly our children. Let’s be honest whether you hate or condone porn no parent wants their child having access to this type of material.
Many homes and marriages are already in shambles and are being wrecked everyday as a result of the continual and uncontrolled lust, urges, and viewing habits of one or both of the married spouses. This is true for church going people as well as non church goers. Porn is infiltrating everywhere. Surprisingly more and more women also seem to be lured into porn, and onto the porn websites to the tune of about 9.4 million per month. Women are also more likely to keep this a secret so the number is probably much higher. In addition to the vast number of homes that are experiencing problems due to internet pornography it is taking its toll on the worklplace as well with reports indicating that 75% of people at work have visited pornographic websites accidentally or deliberately, and 15% have visited them more than 10 times.
These figures are alarming when it comes to adult viewers. But the porn indusry is targeting our children as well. And if the porn industry’s targeting of our children isn’t bad enough there are also countless pedophiles and predators roaming the internet trying to find ways to access our children. If you have a child that has regular access to a computer and the internet then this should be of considerable interest to you. Our children are a treasure and they are our future. The things that they are exposed at young and tender ages can have a lasting and long-term impact. It is up to us as parents and adults to protect our children from physical as well as psychological influences threats. If we don’t then who will?
One in four children who use the Internet ae exposed to unwanted sexual material. Twenty percent of youths that use the Internet have received sexual solicitations. Eighty-nine percent of sexual solicitations of youths were made in chat rooms. At least 26 Children’s character names (including Pokemon and Action Man) are linked to thousands of porn links. One in five children ages 10 – 17 have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet and 70% of sexual advances over the Internet happened while youngsters were on a home computer. The average age of of first exposure to porn is 11 years old and 14% of 7 – 17 year olds would freely give out email addresses to unknown solicitors.
Chat rooms by far are probably the most dangerous places for children. The reason is because an Internet predator is actually capable of having real time contact with your child. The predator is also able in many cases to extract highly personal and sensitive information from your child. They are looking for ways to get your child to trust them, and believe me some of these shady online hunters are very good at this and should not be taken lightly. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children incidents of child sexual exploitation have risen from 4,573 in 1998 to 112,083 in 2004.
Our homes and our children are no longer safe from the onslaught of internet pornography and internet predators attempting to gain access to our children. They will, it seems, stop at nothing to realize profits and achieve financial gain and/or corrupt a child. This is one issue and one time where their efforts can be stopped and you can by being a little proactive eliminate this from happening to you. Don’t wait until it is a problem take measures to stop it before it becomes a problem. This is your Home, your Family, and you Child we are talking about here, and the Boogey Man is real.