Keeping porn away from kids is a challenge these days. It’s not enough, apparently, that porn is accessible to anyone who wants it. Pornographers also buy up expired domain names and commonly misspelled domain names to trick people into viewing porn. They know that, just like with email spam, enough of a percentage of people will click that link and make their recruiting efforts worthwhile. This CBS News video has a few tips about keeping porn out of the hands of children.
Kathleen Parker’s article, Pigtails and Porn, explains why this is so important.
A new study reports that 42 percent of Internet users between the ages of 10 and 17 have viewed online porn.
…The multibillion-dollar mainstreaming of porn has distorted, among other things, our judgment. Other recent research shows that the more porn people watch, the lower their standards for protecting children.
Dr. Mary Ann Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania, tells of one study in which people were asked various questions before and after watching quantities of porn.
One question was whether we should restrict children’s access to XXX-rated material. Post-porn, the number of people answering “yes” was reduced by half.
…Like any stimulant, the effects of porn diminish with use.
Not only are our kids being exposed to more porn, as a society we are increasingly less likely to want to protect them from it. We’re acclimated to what 30 years ago would have been considered “soft porn” and 60 years ago unspeakably vulgar. Rosie O’Donnell’s recent sex scene on Nip/Tuck is a perfect example. Here is what we’re currently willing to accept, according to a 2005 study from SRBI:
We didn’t arrive at this place suddenly – the journey was incremental. Before the nudity, Steven Bochco and others were “pushing the envelope” with profanity. Most adults remember George Carlin’s “7 Dirty Words” monologue even if we’ve forgotten that he was actually arrested for indecency in 1972. Forget about the law, because cable TV is unrestricted (as it should be) and nearly everyone has cable TV. Just as it was noted in the University of Pennsylvania study, as a society we are increasingly numb to material that years ago would have been offensive. In Canada, pornography is shown on broadcast TV at night. Can the United States be far behind?
Adults over 35 for the most part grew up with the benefit of a real childhood, protected by our parents and by society. We were permitted to keep our innocence much longer than kids today. Kids today have seen and done so much that they seem quite sophisticated by comparison. However, that is a surface sophistication only – emotionally they are ill-equipped to deal with the adults topics to which they are exposed.
Viewing pornography is battering women by proxy. It’s harmful at any age, and we need to make it unacceptable in society’s eyes. That starts in the home. For parents who are interested in protecting their children, there is little option other than plenty of direct supervision. Don’t let your child have a computer in his bedroom. Utilize filtering software and pop-up blockers, but also make a point to be in the room while your child surfs the internet. Before you turn on the TV, check to see if the show is suitable. Go with your child to the library, where adults regularly view porn at public computers. Most importantly, we need to censor our own media intake so that we do not become desensitized to it and lower our standards for what is acceptable for our children. New legislation, petitions, and marches will not be necessary if we just police ourselves, one household at a time. Start today.
Thank you for sharing these statistics. It is sad how quickly we get acclimated to sin…