Editor's note:This is first in a seven-part anti-pornography series reported by the LDS Church News staff.
Part 1: March 3, 2007 — In your family?
Part 2: March 10, 2007 — Protecting homes from pornography
Part 3: March 17, 2007 — Young and trapped
Part 4: March 24, 2007 — Dual relationship with family, fantasy
Part 5: March 31, 2007 — Finding recovery from porn addiction
Part 6: April 14, 2007 — Fight to stop porn
Part 7: April 21, 2007 — Defending the home against pornography
Special report: Nov. 29, 2003 — The silent sin: enslavement of pornography
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Bad enough in its day, the old issues of pornography have been reinvented in their worst forms and proliferated on the Internet like fungus spores in a windstorm.
The $40-60 billion industry worldwide now includes literally billions of pages on the Internet. The United States is the leading producer and consumer of this debasing product. Even otherwise respectable major corporations, including prominent hotel chains, are profiting from it.
"Every technological means has pushed barriers back," said Jill C. Manning, a clinician and BYU graduate who testified against pornography to a U.S. Senate subcommitte in 2005. "There is nothing in the foreseeable future that will hinder" the continual explosion of pornography.
This engulfing fantasy typically draws males into the late-night shadows, damaging relationships and esteem.
The technology of pornography includes anything with a screen that can access the Internet or show pictures, from cell phones to wireless play stations, from HD downloads to DVDs.
Much of the pornography involves perversions and violence. Retired FBI agent Roger Young has said that the worst stuff he saw in his 30-year career is now available to children on the Internet.
One survey of children ages 7-17 indicated that 90 percent of them had seen online pornography, most while doing homework. In another survey of 16-17 year-olds, 48 percent said their parents knew little or nothing about what they looked at online. The average age for an addict's first exposure is 11 years old. Studies also say that all male high school students have viewed it at one time or another.
"It is so disgusting and vile that we don't want to think about it," Sister Manning said, noting the last federal commission on the subject ended in 1986. "But we definitely need to update the debate."
Because of its nature, pornography thrives when good people turn their heads away from the problem.
Much of the problem stems from the speed with which the Internet developed, she said. The Internet began in 1993 and proliferated so rapidly that most senior policy makers were oblivious to what was being posted and who was seeing it.
She described pornography as "the most successfully marketed insult to our humanity, our divine nature and our sexuality." Pornography is "weakening the already weak culture of marriage and families in this country." It leads to potential job loss, and reduced commitment to child-rearing. Youth who view pornography are more likely to engage in perversions.
In addition, many experts claim that rape, the only violent crime in America that is increasing, has some causative factor in pornography. Rapists are 15 times as likely as non-offenders to have had exposure to "hard-core" pornography during childhood or between 6 and 10 years of age, according to the National Law Center for Children and Families. This does not even include debilitating child pornography, another subject.
Church leaders have consistently raised warning voices against pornography. The Church has also taken significant steps to help families and individuals who have been impacted.
Fred M. Riley, commissioner of LDS Family Services, said their counseling experience indicates that men who view pornography can become addicted, and addicts acquire emotional issues that require professional counseling, as well as spiritual counseling through a bishop.
"What we are finding is that it is at least as addictive as drugs and alcohol," he said. "And there are some that say there are chemical changes in the brain that cause addiction. With drugs and alcohol, you actually can get the chemicals out of your body, but with pornography, it is very difficult to get the images out of your brain.
"In order for an addict to go back to drugs, he has to find the drugs. For pornography addicts, all they have to do is go to their memories and recall pictures or scenes and they have just been re-exposed to their addiction."
To combat this, the Church has produced the pamphlet "Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts," a help for youth and others to stay focused on spiritual subjects. A recent booklet, "Addiction Recovery Program," is a gospel-based recovery plan that was compiled by LDS Family Services and expert counselors across the United States.
In LDS Family Services, well-trained counselors deal with the challenge of pornography addiction, and groups are sponsored for addicts, as well as support groups for spouses. One of their most important missions is to save marriages threatened by pornography addiction.
Community activist Pamela Atkinson, chairman of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography, who is a Presbyterian, said that families in Utah are particularly susceptible because extensive control of adult bookstores has led to an attitude that "it can't happen here." Yet Utah now has one of the higher national rates of accessing Internet pornography sites. Utah is also a leader in organizations working together to fight the problem.
"We know younger kids — teens — use the Internet for social interaction," she said. "Sixty-one percent of youth from 13 to 17 have personal profiles, and have posted pictures of themselves online." When teens receive a call on their cell phones, "40 percent reply to unknown callers and share personal information."
"Teens really need to be monitored," she said. "Parents aren't checking."
She said that when parents do look through the list of sites accessed by their children, often innocent-sounding names show up. Yet a few pages into these children's game sites are links to pornography pages.
"This is more pervasive than people realize. People may think it is quite harmless and are shocked at some of the pictures they see."
Her coalition is promoting showing a powerful anti-pornography video to high school students in Utah, accompanied by expert speakers. The video, "Pornography — the Great Lie," illustrates the fantasy of pornography and warns parents of its presence in their homes.
The video was produced by a coalition led by D. Fraser Bullock, Area Seventy, former president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002, and managing director of Sorenson Capital.
An anti-pornography address by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve motivated Elder Bullock to form a committee, Citizens Against Pornography. This group, in partnership with Community for Decency and Deseret Book, produced an LDS and a non-sectarian version of this video. Some 5,000 copies of the 20-minute presentation have been sold. The video also has chapters featuring expert counselors. It is available at deseretbook.com.
"It is very much a plague — a hidden plague," said Elder Bullock of pornography. "Parents need to know their children are at risk. Children (exposed to pornography) fail to develop full communications as well as a healthy sexuality. Youth want answers and they can be curious. We need to bring it out in the open. We need to realize that it is harming our own children.
"Technology is always going to be ahead of us, but the most important thing for parents to do is open up communication with their children."
Next: How to protect your home and inoculate your children against pornography
E-mail to: jhart@desnews.com