Posted on 02/03/2007 10:22:53 PM PST by freedomdefender
Pornography is a "dirty little secret" and people are logging on to look at it, more than ever. They're doing it at home and at work. For some, it's an obsession.
"It felt like a high. It felt like, just an uncontrollable urge," said Justin VanAntwerp.
On the outside, Justin Van Antwerp "appeared" to have great life. He was a minister, who had a wife and two little girls. No one knew he was addicted to porn. It all started when he looked a playboy magazine when he was a teenager. "Then, that wouldn't satisfy. Then I found a whole new world of videos and webcams and all those sorts of things," said Antwerp. “I never got caught. I got really good at covering things up."
Justin is among the growing number of men and women who are dealing with pornography addiction. You used to have to go to an adult video store to get it. Now, you can see it all online.
Pornography on the internet is a 57-billion dollar industry. It's larger than all professional sports. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites. Those who view it are 72% male.
Justin was looking at pornography at home and at work.
Looking at pornography while at work isn't all that uncommon. Computer company Trivalent says they've investigated cases of pornography use at work, most are kept private, but in the case of the Cutlerville Fire department, where pornographic images were found on computers, the case ended up catching the media's attention. Trivalent says businesses need to take a pro-active approach.
"What can we do to stop that from happening to begin with? We implement things like content filtering." Richard Reiffer, Chief Technical Officer for Trivalent.
Dr. Paul Critelli sees patients who have all kinds of addictions. He's not surprised that pornography addiction is becoming more common. He says Americans have a different view of sex and nudity compared to people in other countries. American beliefs that nudity and sex should be kept out of view, create an addictive urge for some to get their eyes on it.
Psychologists say viewing porn at work is a sign that you have a problem. Other questions to ask include: Frequency - Are you logging on more often? Intensity - Are the pictures becoming more graphic? Duration - Are the sessions online becoming longer?
"If those things are increasing by jumps or rather steadily, I would say you have a problem. Those attributes are a good measure of any kind of problem behavior," said Critelli.
Critelli believes there are cases where people can view porn and not have a problem. He doesn't think small amounts are morally wrong or necessarily dangerous for a relationship, but psychologist Tom Karel disagrees.
"It creates unrealistic expectations and unrealistic ideas to what normal really looks like," said Karel.
In Justin's case, pornography ruined his relationship with his wife. He says he hit rock bottom when he picked up a female hitchhiker. " Nothing happened, but had the opportunity arisen, I would have cheated on my wife that day. That was a scary place to be."
A few months later, Justin told his wife about his addiction.
“She was devastated, and she left the following weekend. The next morning, I met with the elders of the church and resigned my position."
Justin went into therapy and is now involved with a local anti-pornography group called XXX Church. Justin hopes, by coming out about his problem, he can show others, that they can overcome their addiction.
“By God's grace, people lifting me up, I've been able to get a hold on it."
Terabytes of porn are freely available, who pays for that? I guess the answer are the small minority who actually subscribe for something.
I see you never met my ex-wife.
L
And Ford knows exactly what the car will look like when it reaches the showrooms. It also knows the capability and features of the car. Why? Because it was designed and built in their plant to their specifications.
For all who believe God made man, we can't credut Him with less knowledge than the Ford Co., for sure!
The obvious difference is that human beings, unlike cars, have free will and use it to decide how they will live their life.
Neither the car nor the human being can easily change it's basic outward appearance.
That's what I was referring to. Not worth debating about it. Peace!
Even without that temptation, lazy people will still find a way shift work on the honest folks, while they "charm" their way into everyone's hearts, including the boss's!
This is simply a marketing ploy for those in the software industry that create tracking programs.
Yes. The bosses have rarely even spanked these guys on the hands for wrecking our computers because they can't control themselves. It's always our all night people.
One guy when caught said; "I was curious."
I can only hope that we will not sink to the depths of what has become permissible and accepted in some European and other foreign countries.
Hope will not solve the problem and for those who watch the trends, the fear is that we are headed that way.
Americans had better wake up soon or we won't be "Americans" in the future.
I hadn't thought of that. Man, that's incredible!
I only get Playboy for the pictures.
Mark
Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!
Porn in a fire station. Now it's really "stop the presses" time.
Actually, it's a HUGH problem. Do you remember the cases where female firefighters won multi-million $$$ sexual harassment law suits from cities because of playboy magazines in lockers?
A city government that I worked with had us monitor the web traffic going through their firewall before we installed the content filtering. It was pretty amazing.
Mark
That, and the little fact that congress doesn't "run" the Internet. Our congress doesn't have control over the Internet. Were they to pass a law, it could have effect over US based domains, but no control over foreign domains. So, unless you want to allow congress to control the Internet access in the same ways that China does, I'd do everything I can to keep congressional control out of the Internet.
Mark
I just got a raging soft-off.
I bet NONE of you can say you DIDN'T look at porn at least once this month.(Hey stop lying!)
That quote is probably oversimplified, but well-travelled friends of mine have noted that cultures that go topless tend not to sexualize breasts the same way Americans do.
Often, it is all about the mystery.
Funny, I don't seem to want to eat anything, either...
Thanks. Were I a man, my willy would be good for nothing but emptying my bladder now!
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