42 percent of Internet users ages 10 to 14 have viewed sexual images

By: American Decency Staff

I asked Steve Ensley, president of American Family Online to comment upon a story that is being reported “42 percent of Internet users ages 10 to 14 have viewed sexual images.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16981028/from/ET/

Here is Steve’s commentary upon reading the account at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16981028/from/ET/ After having reviewed the article in the above link and based on our own studies of Internet usage, I would agree with many of the conclusions. I must also state that I think their numbers are a bit low. Basically any child that has visited myspace.com has seen pornography as defined in this article. Our research indicates that the number is closer to 85% and that is in the last thirty days, not the last year. As the article states, a lot of it is unintentional but the results are still the same, exposure to something harmful! In fact, the most revealing commentary in the entire article is the comment by one young lady that at first it was a shock and now it is just annoying! Therein is the tragedy. Material that should shock and offend has been reduced to annoying in their young minds. Mosquitoes are annoying, pornography is dangerous! There is no longer any debate about the impact of pornography. Study after study has concluded that it interferes with normal human relationships! The results are always the same when viewing pornography. Young men think of women as objects and young women get a destructive impression of how they have to look and behave in order to be “attractive”! The parent who is not aware of this danger is setting up their family for some significant hardship. The article mentions filtering and that is good. Filtering may not be perfect but it does work, especially in protecting the child from unwanted exposures. The filtering technology available today will protect your child from more than 99.8% of the accidental exposure. If there was a cancer preventative that was 99% effective, we would not even think twice about insuring our children are protected. This material is even more dangerous than cancer because it threatens the eternal spiritual life of our children and not just the temporary physical life we live. One more important statistic not mentioned in the article is that this material is not only dangerous for children, but also adults. In fact, our research indicates that 3 out of 5 people harmed by the Internet are ADULTS! Not only children are the victims! Please protect your family! Internet filters do work! Steve Ensley Executive Director Cleanwww Inc. dba/ AFO.net 850-897-3842 sensley@afo.net

====================== I encourage you to take seriously the article and the comments by Steve Ensley. Are you doing all that you can and should do to protect your children and family from pornography over the Internet. Filters do work!! Pornography does destroy! May it not damage you or yours. God bless you dear friend. Sincerely, Bill Johnson ========================================== Let’s encourage one another and strengthen one another to be more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 PH: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org

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