A GENERATION IN WHICH NUDE MEN & WOMEN ARE THE NEWEST HOUSEHOLD COMMODITY
My wife just had a rough day at work. She comes home, puts her keys away, slips into something more comfortable and then walks into the living room to find me and the children hanging out with a half naked woman. As usual, she casually walks by, sits on the couch, puts her feet up, and asks what’s cooking. After dinner, we clean up, tell the children to get their homework and meet us in the study. By the time we get to the room our children are already there ready to begin their work. Sitting next to them are three fully nude models, they look up at us; we smile and prepare for one more great night of family bonding!
Please tell me the above paragraph was a bit off-color to you. Yet somehow, we as Americans –yet again- actually found a way to subject our-selves to this daily. Whether just for 20 seconds on a commercial or while watching our favorite T.V. show, flipping through a newspaper ad, or when trying to Google any female’s name we’ve somehow conceded to the idea that scantily clothed individuals is an acceptable and normal part of our day.
Prehistoric prude or not, I still think most would agree with me that some entertainment goes too far, and there should at least be tighter censorship of sexually explicit advertisement and media to protect the eyes of our youth. Right?
Consider this, the average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 yrs old1.
- “90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online1.”
- “The average teenager spends three to four hours per day watching television and 83% of the programming most frequently watched by adolescents contains some sexual content3.”
- “87% of university students are having sex over webcams, instant messenger or the telephone5.”
- “41 percent of surveyed adults admitted they felt less attractive due to their partner’s pornography use6
- “August 7,2006: 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography.
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Now, I understand the need for sexual education but truly do not believe this happens by putting a child in front of a naked individual and letting it work itself out.
If a man or women were to walk out into a public forum fully exposed, they would be arrested on the spot and cited for indecent exposure? In some cases, for this vary incident, individuals have to register as sex offenders. While the judicial system takes care of obvious perpetrators, the safety of our community is still compromised by the millions that are freely allowed to trespass (with or without my consent) through my home and public place via computer, phone, our children’s Sony PSP and T.V. To further frame this; if a person were to send a text or email to a bunch of random people fully or partially exposing them-self to the individual there would be legal repercussions. So. What’s the difference between a text and a picture on T.V. or the Internet? Is it not the same form of media?
Corporations strategically place sexually explicit photos to be stumbled upon, and when there are complaints they leave it up to the consumer to pay for the cleanup. I mean, try to Google the word milk without getting some sexually suggestive picture. They know children will stumble upon these images, yet they do it anyway. Just as I would want to protect my child of sexual exposure from a neighbor or teacher, I also desire to do the same over the Internet and T.V.
Now, obviously intent is everything, so there is a difference between a sexual predator and the average CEO, but I would still argue that both have equally adverse effects (especially considering the statistics). Corporations know “sex sells,” they understand the conditioning response of associating their product with sexual imagery, playing out Pavlov’s Bell to a textbook T. They sell sex because it produces results, long lasting results on consumer behavior that are time tested. If no results they would not continue to do it.
Every day individuals are victims of indecent exposure yet their voice is effortlessly drowned out by the sound of money being made. To sum it up, “It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as much as they spend attending professional sporting events, buying music or going out to the movies9.” I really believe the porn industry can afford their own clean up. As we all know, I’m sure they would be bitterly opposed to packing up and disbanding forever, but I believe we can at least agree that porn and other sexually explicit advertising should be done in a way that guarantees children will not be exposed to it. What about some good old fashioned Marketing Responsibility!
I’m extremely thankful for institutions like International Foundation For Online Responsibility, XXXChurch and Fred H. Cate’s ICM Registry but unfortunately there efforts are not enough. Until the pocket books and purses (for the ladies) of the companies that advertise in this way are affected, this situation statistically proves to only escalate.
WHAT SAY YOU?
PORN OR NO PORN, OR SHOULD THEIR BE TIGHTER RESTRICTIONS ON THE TELEVISION AND INTERNET FOR ANY TYPE OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MEDIA?
MORE STATISTICS:
- “Most girls who enter the porn industry do one video and quit. The experience is so painful, horrifying, embarrassing, humiliating for them that they never do it again4.”
- “39 million homes receive the adult channels in scrambled form, while the number of children with potential exposure to such images is about 29 million2.”
- “60% of men and 40% of women are involved in extramarital affair8.”
- http://familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html#anchor5
- Morality Continues to Decay. Barna Research Group, November 3, 2003 from http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
- Gary Rose, CEO of The Medical Institute, as reported by Focus on the Family 7/8/2005 from http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
- Luke Ford, quoted by CBS News from http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
- Reuters, Ontario Canada, February 16, 2006. From http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats)
- Marriage Related Research, Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D. Christian Counseling Today, 2004 Vol. 12 No. 1. From http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
- From the results of a ChristiaNet poll reported by Marketwire.com from http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstats
- http://www.womansavers.com
- http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/21/60minutes/main585049.shtml
ODE 2 VICTORY 