Shortened attention spans, but the real damage is desensitization to immoral and self-destructive behaviors

By: Chris Johnson

Personal note:

One of the few individuals whom I know whose heart TRULY grieves and breaks over the misuse of social networking sites is Steve Ensley, President of American Family Online. He doesn’t just talk about this burden he puts his money where his mouth is with his actions.

“How can people be users of myspace.com and not come out sullied. It would be the same as a parent allowing their child to go into a Deja Vu (a porno outlet) and taking the young person’s word for it that they will just hang out at the front and not go into the peep show area or live entertainment area and trust that their young person will not be degraded, perhaps damaged for life.”

The above is my paraphrase of Steve.

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When I saw today’s email from Steve I felt compelled to share it with you. It is part of the fight that he fights day by day trying to be used of God to help people see and put away that which dishonors God.

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I’m sure most of you folks have already seen this, but thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth 🙂

Headline: Social web sites harm children’s brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html

Although this article headline states a probable fact, they completely miss the point as to why it does damage. They are concerned about shortened attention spans, but the real damage is desensitization to immoral and self-destructive behaviors. Also these social sites present a very real environmental danger (see this article):

Headline: Facebook has removed 5,500 sex offenders since May
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_bi_ge/sex_offenders_facebook

And it is important to remember that these are the pedophiles that are dumb enough to use their real names. Most serious pedophiles use an alias. It also does not include the entire gambit of sex offenders, just those targeting children. The site is not only a time waster, it is dangerous, as are most social sites.

A social site in itself is not the problem. Social sites could easily be monitored and limited to healthy activities, but the site owners chose not to do this, mostly because it costs them time and money and unlike what was said in the first article, these sites ARE NOT making money, most of them including Facebook (the largest) are losing money, they just have deep pockets backing them. So the question must be asked, if they are losing money why do they continue to push these popular but unprofitable sites? I believe it is part of a bigger agenda driven by secular and spiritual motives to capture the hearts and minds of our children and families. Dr. James Dobson said it extremely well when he served on President Reagan’s commission to address pornography. At that time the Internet and social sites did not exist, but the statement could not be more true. These social sites as they exist today are stealing our children!

God bless!

Steve Ensley
Executive Director
Cleanwww Inc – dba American Family Online
850-362-6180 x100
sensley@afo.net

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Lastly, below is the tag you see beneath my email alert every day.
It’s a straight forward promoter of Steve’s work. Our eyes and moral sensibilities are precious in God’s sight. Are they precious to you?

A SAFE INTERNET ALTERNATIVE FOR YOUR FAMILY
Millions of pornographic websites are open to everyone … 80% of e-mail is spam or worse! Does your Internet service provider (ISP) care about you or your family? Are you paying for Internet service that helps sponsor destructive and immoral behavior? You are if you use AOL, MSN, or Earthlink! For information on an ISP designed to protect the entire family, go to http://www.afo.net — it’s not too late to switch!

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American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050
https://americandecency.org

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