Pornography

Pornography is tearing apart the very fabric of our society. Yet Christians are often ignorant of its impact and apathetic about the need to control this menace. Pornography is an $8 billion a year business with close ties to organized crime.(1) The wages of sin are enormous when pornography is involved Pornography involves books, magazines, videos, and devices and has moved from the periphery of society into the mainstream through the renting of video cassettes, sales of so-called "soft-porn" magazines, and the airing of sexually explicit movies on cable television. To some, pornography is nothing more than a few pictures of scantily-clad women in seductive poses. But pornography has become much more than just photographs of nude women. Nearly 900 theaters show pornographic films and more than 15,000 "adult" bookstores and video stores offer pornographic material. Adult bookstores outnumber McDonald's restaurants in the United States these days which is telling us that it’s starting to take over people’s everyday life.

More and more Internet sites are portraying pornography. Playboy.com gets about 5 million hits or visitors daily. More than 266 new pornography sites are created every day. With the help of technology pornography has become more and more accessible regardless of the age of the viewers. Since pornography never actually makes physical contact with viewers, some might think it is innocuous. Yet, there are many people who view pornography as a scourge on society that needs to be strictly censored. Thus the question arises: what harm if any does pornography do to viewers and to what extent? Pornography affects viewers mentally and has been known to be a factor in sexual violence. In the U.S. 87% of convicted molesters of girls, and 77% of convicted molesters of boys, admit to the use of pornography, most often in the commission of their crimes. Many people who are affected by pornography were exposed to it while they were in their adolescent stage. Many steps can be taken to stop this. For one parent should teach their children about the harms of pornography. They should also evaluate the access to media (cable TV, magazines, Internet). There are also many programs available for parents to block pornography on PC s. These steps can cut back the amount of pornography. In this society, pornography is becoming more and more prevalent in society. It has become a plague that is affecting people mentally. When there is a high circulation of pornography there are more and more cases of rape. Pornography also degrades women and tends to make men view women as inferior.

There is a lot of controversy over whether pornography should be on the Internet or not. Personally I could care less whether it was on the Web or not. I do not look at any of it nor will I ever care to. There are some people out there who do choose to look at pornography. I feel that is their personal choice. As long as the person is 18 or over they should be able to stare at pornography on the screen till their eyes cross if they want to. The only real problem I see is how a user can be so easily misdirected to a pornography site and trying to get out of one of these sites after you have accidentally been sent there can be annoying. I am sure we have all had this problem, you somehow get sent to a porn site and all these little boxes start popping up to go to other sites, to look at pictures, and to buy things. Trying to click your way out can be crazy. Every time you finally get rid of one box another one pops up. If you try to use the back button to get out, you