Drug of The Rising Generation

  I get asked a lot about the posts I make on Facebook and especially the articles that I share about pornography. It's a topic that I feel more people should talk about and take more seriously. I go to a private LDS University up in Idaho and we talk about dating a lot up here and when I say a lot I mean it's part of the curriculum in some classes. I remember going to church for the first time at the University and participating in a Q&A session with our clergy about dating. The very first question that came up was how to deal with pornography whether it's with yourself or the opposite sex. My bishop answered by saying "It's not a matter of IF you have seen pornography anymore, it's a matter of WHEN was the last time and what the young man did when he did see it."

   Just like many others in my generation, I struggled with pornography in high school and found the temptation to view it when I was up at college. The first time I came across it was late at night at my Aunt's house where I ventured into the paper-views. The dark side of Direct TV.  From then on it was occasional on my iPod touch or my laptop. I was never addicted and it wasn't like I couldn't go without it. You just scroll through your Facebook and things pop up, it sparks curiosity and you keep watching. At first I felt like I was the only girl who ever watched pornography but that same Sunday my bishop said that out of 3 years up at the University he found that it was pretty even between the genders who came to him for help. The point I'm trying to make is that pornography is everywhere now, it's more accessible and it doesn't discriminate. Like my bishop said, it's not if anymore and the most important thing is how we react in those situations.

  After that church that day, I actually stumbled upon something positive. It's a movement called Fight The New Drug (FTND), which is an organization dedicated to fighting the porn industry and educating the public about the effects of pornography. This website not only brought so much comfort to me in teaching me that I was not alone but that it is a world wide issue. The graph shows the growth rate of sexual related crimes just in the United States. It has increases 275% since 1980.

   The launch year of the internet was 1990 and 1991 and since then sexual crime rates have been consistently on the rise. Although a lot of variables can go into these statistics, one cannot deny the times and technology that line up with the different data. Even Ted Bundy, one of the most known serial killers of our time, warned us about the effects of pornography and how accessible it was even back when he was interviewed. The amazing thing about this video is that he talks about things that wasn't backed up with science at that time. If this doesn't turn you away from porn than I don't know what will. He said that all the men that he talked to that were like him, "without exception, were deeply involved with pornography." According to a serial killer, crime like rape and murder are rooted back to their involvement with porn.

   There are many types of pornography including child porn, anime porn, bestiality porn and many more. In child pornography the children are as young as an infant and in some cases still have their umbilical cord attached. Some mix bestiality and child porn together and other porn uses violence and near death scenes to arouse. If you think that sex trafficking isn't happening near your, for my American readers, Super Bowl weekend is the largest sex trafficking event IN THE WORLD. It's time we all get educated here in the states. We see all these sex trafficking documentaries on TV filmed in Nepal, India and Cambodia but yet we are ignorant to the fact that it's happening in our own neighborhoods.

   I could write articles and articles about the negative effects that the porn industry has had on our world as we know it today. If you would like to know more, I would strongly suggest that you check out fightthenewdrug.org. If you think that you don't need to educate yourself on this topic than you are naive to the world around you. If you have a son or daughter that is 10-12 years old then chances are they have already seen pornography because they are the average age of someone who views porn for the first time. If they don't learn from you, they will learn it from their friends and our society. This is an issue and a menace that affects every family and individual in the world.

  I have seen in my own life and in the life of those I know, how damaging and destructive pornography can be. It tears families apart and leave individuals broken in it's wakes. It is directly like to sexual assault, rape, sex trafficking and many other wrongs done to others. It destroys love, humanity and compassion. It can become an addiction just like heroin or meth and can lead people to do things they never would have seen themselves doing. It destroys the heart, brain and soul of an individual. It is the most evil thing that could have happened to humanity in my perspective. We need to raise awareness, prepare the next generation, learn from our mistakes and build a better future. Sex was a God-given gift to enjoy between husband and wife and a tool to create families. It should be kept that way. I agree with FTND when they say, "Porn kills love." May we fight to protect that sacred human emotion and use it against porn.

Sources: fightthenewdrug.com and the book The Growth of Incarceration in the United States (graph is found on page 44)