October 30, 2013

What's the Big Deal About Pornography?
 

 

W.R.A.P.  Week

October 27 – November 3

 

 

Pornography 101 Excerpts

W.R.A.P. stands for White Ribbon Against Pornography. W.R.A.P. week’s purpose is to educate the public about the dangers associated with pornography.  In recent years, numerous studies and research have been conducted and disseminated, showing the indisputable harm of pornography on children, women, men, health and the culture.  The pornography is getting worse, children are getting exposed at younger ages and the negative impact on the generations growing up with a steady diet of hardcore extreme pornography is staggering. By wearing a White Ribbon you join in the movement to protect our families, friends and communities from pornography’s devastating effects.
Consider the following from recent studies and surveys:
  • 36% of the Internet industry is hard-core pornography. (businessinsider.com )
  • American children begin consuming hardcore pornography at an average age of 11.
  • Nine out of ten children (ages eight to sixteen) have viewed pornography online.
  • A study in the southeastern U.S. found that 53 percent of boys and 28 percent of girls (ages 12-15) reported use of sexually explicit pornography. The Internet was the most popular forum for viewing.(Brown, J. & L'Engle, K. 2009, Communications Research,  X-Rated: Sexual attitudes and behaviors associated with U.S. early adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit media.)
  • 97 percent of boys and 80 percent of girls who responded to the survey said they had viewed porn. Nearly a quarter of boys and eight percent of girls said they have tried to stop watching pornography but could not kick the habit. The study involved a survey of 177 young people between the ages of 16 and 20.(LifeSiteNews.com )
  • 70 percent of 18-to-24-year-old men visit pornographic sites in a typical month. 66 percent of men in their 20s and 30s also report being regular users of pornography. (First-person: the culture of pornography, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Baptist Press, 28 December 2005.)
  • 56 percent of divorces involve one party having “an obsessive interest in pornographic websites. (The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community. Marriage & Religious Inst., Family Research Council, Love & Responsibility Project: Center for Study of Catholic Higher Ed. Scribd. Web. 11 Dec. 2009.)
  • When a child is exposed to pornography, their underdeveloped brain becomes psycho-pharmacologically altered. (The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech; Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D. The Institute for Media Education.)
  • The online porn industry makes over $3,000 per second. (http://www.businessinsider.com)
  • Of the 304 scenes analyzed, 88.2% contained physical aggression, principally spanking, gagging, and slapping, while 48.7% of scenes contained verbal aggression, primarily name-calling. Perpetrators of aggression were usually male, whereas targets of aggression were overwhelmingly female. (Ana Bridges, et al., Violence Against Women, October 2010 vol. 16 no. 10, 1065-1085)
  • Youth who look at violent x-rated material are six times more likely to report forcing someone to do something sexual online or in-person versus youth not exposed to x-rated material. (Internet Solutions for Kids, Center for Disease & Control, November, 2010)
  • According to UK statistics released earlier this year, pornography and depictions of sexuality turned more than 4,500 British children – some of them as young as five – into sexual offenders between 2009-2012.(LifeSiteNews.com )

What is Pornography?   (Excerpted from Internet Safety 101 Program)
Pornography can be thought of as all sexually explicit material intended primarily to arouse the reader, viewer, or listener. The United States Supreme Court has said that there are four categories of pornography that can be determined illegal, which include: indecency, material harmful to minors, obscenity, and child pornography.
A) Indecent material includes messages or pictures on telephone, radio, or broadcast TV that are patently offensive descriptions or depictions of sexual or excretory organs or activities. It is often referred to as “sexual nudity” and “dirty words.”
B) Material harmful to minors (HTM ) represents nudity or sex that has prurient appeal for minors, is offensive and unsuitable for minors, and lacks serious value for minors. There are “harmful to minors” laws in every state. 
C) Obscenity (“hard-core pornography”) is graphic material that focuses on sex and/or sexual violence. It includes close-ups of graphic sex acts, lewd exhibition of the genitals, and deviant activities such as group sex, bestiality, torture, incest, and excretory functions.
NOTE: There are federal obscenity laws that criminalize distribution of obscenity on the Internet, but they have not been vigorously enforced. As a result, this “illegal” content is the most pervasive form of pornography on the Internet.
D) Child pornography is material that visually depicts children under the age of 18 engaged in actual or simulated sexual activity, including lewd exhibition of the genitals. 

It is ALWAYS illegal to produce, distribute, or possess child pornography in the United States!

She’s Somebody’s Daughter, is a movement started by parents, grandparents and organizations working together to be voices for daughters everywhere, raising awareness about the connections of pornography to sex trafficking, sexual abuse and our over-sexualized culture, and to encourage others to honor women. 
We are joining with our partners such as the 
National Salvation Army and hundreds of other groups asking the millions of citizens across the nation to raise awareness about the pornography danger and be pro-active in protecting children from the dangers of the Internet. Together we can make the Internet safer for children and families. Please show your support by participating this week to take action against pornography once and for all.
To download this year's WRAP flyer from the National Salvation Army, 
click here.
To create your own WRAP promotional cards, 
click here. We suggest printing them out on card stock and pinning a white ribbon on your clothes.