Posted on 03/28/2010 4:17:31 PM PDT by Colofornian
About 1,000 Utahns were told to join the "war on pornography" Saturday at a conference aimed at teaching them how to protect themselves and their children against it or how to get help if they are addicted.
"Internet pornography is the sexual revolution times 1,000," said Patrick Trueman, former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section Criminal Division under President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush.
At the Utah Coalition Against Pornography's ninth annual conference at Little America Hotel, Trueman said porn leads to sex parties and prostitution and "hijacks our brain" to make users never satisfied, always seeking more deviant images.
He urged listeners to lobby politicians to enforce the federal laws that already exist against hotels, cable and satellite companies providing hard-core pornography. And he told parents to use computer filters.
Without one, "you might as well say to your kids, 'Anything goes. We don't love you enough to protect you.'
"What's more damaging to a child, a handgun or a computer?" he rhetorically asked. "A handgun may not be loaded. The computer is loaded; it's loaded to the hilt."
With sessions on repairing relationships harmed by porn, helping teens who view porn and aiding parents in a "digital world," the conference attracted parents, youth church leaders and families. The coalition's board includes Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, the Utah Catholic Diocese, LDS Church members and companies that offer counseling and Internet filters.
"It's one of the big problems affecting the youth in the church" said Peter Barlow, an LDS leader from Draper, who said church leaders urged members to attend the conference. "We need to figure out how to help them."
He attended a session that offered warning signs of teen porn use, including using vulgar and sexual language, extreme religiosity or avoidance of church activities.
"I have little kids," said Amy Horspool, from Plain City. "I figure it's out there, I might as well learn how to protect my family."
Gov. Gary Herbert, another conference speaker, called porn a "growing scourge."
"We view ourselves as a very moral community. ... But we have every evil here in Utah that's found in any inner city in America."
Last year, a study published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives showed Utah had the nation's highest online porn subscription rate per thousand home broadband users, at 5.47, from 2006 to 2008.
"This is a huge problem. It's destroying families," said Jonathan Taylor, who was at a booth promoting the group Sons of Helaman. It provides group therapy to Mormon men struggling with pornography addiction.
The 24-year-old from Riverdale said he is now recovering. Before, he would wake up anticipating and dreading when he would see the graphic images. "I felt out of control. It was dark."
Yes, porn is "everywhere"...its market knows few bounds...but some regions -- and surprising ones at that, sanction it & supply the porn industry with more $ than others in distinct ways.
It’s even easier to get hooked on FR than porn.
Yes porn is bad, but I think the Government should but out. It is up to the parents to monitor the Internet activity..
Thanks funny.
The sexual revolution drove the spread of STDs and out-of-wedlock births. Internet porn just drove up the sale of Jergens and Kleenex.
Here we go. Now we are going to have a Porn Czar, department of porn, porn commissioners, porn agencies etc
Stay out of bedroom and wallet already!
Here we go. Now we are going to have a Porn Czar, department of porn, porn commissioners, porn agencies etc
Stay out of bedroom and wallet already!
Here we go. Now we are going to have a Porn Czar, department of porn, porn commissioners, porn agencies etc
Stay out of bedroom and wallet already!
Here we go. Now we are going to have a Porn Czar, department of porn, porn commissioners, porn agencies etc
Stay out of bedroom and wallet already!
Since when does it have to be either-or??? Your latter statement doesn't negate the first. Both are to be vigilant.
I agree, but part of the problem is that you can be subjected to porn while trying to find something that’s completely unrelated to porn.
Very much true, but at least FR yields positive results! : )
Sorry the Government should not be in internet regulating business.
False assumption that all keep their addiction "indoors."
For a small %, it's helped to fuel sex crimes.
Certainly studies have shown, that at the very least it's effected how people view rapists...one study showed that people who have had extended porn saturation were more lenient in recommending lengthy jail sentences for sex perps than those who has less contact w/porn.
IOW, attitudes absorbed in the privacy of homes aren't necessarily "quieted away" -- not to be revealed in 'tudes on, let's say, a future jury that a citizen may serve on.
When the history books are written about the decline and death of western civilization, internet porn will be on page one.
A survey said 70% of all males go to porn sites. In the same survey, 30% of all males lie on surveys.
Every hardcore porn "media shooting" essentially involves the exact same thing that goes on in prostitution-john cases...somebody's getting paid for sex...IOW we already have a structure for dealing with prostitution...the only thing law enforcement officials need to do is to extend the same ordinances & statutes to the porn industry.
Good point, Never thought os that.
I can be innocently on-line or even on Skype to relatives and I get these come on messages. Usually, I ignore or block them, but sometimes I feel wicked and send a reply like “Sorry, honey, you’d have to pay ME to look at YOU!”
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