Porn Culture Infiltrating Schools
December 11, 2014
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Computers
are now commonly used in schools, colleges and most other educational
centers. School students have a wide variety of choice for educational
material available online. What parents and guardians may not however
expect is the alarming finding that in some cases, students in schools
also have access to pornographic websites via school computers. This is
usually possible where computer site access controls are weak or poorly
enforced, enabling mischievous students to deliberately bypass whatever
controls may be in place.
In Great Britain, for example, a new Internet service provider-commissioned poll of 1,000 children of secondary-school age has found that one in six students has accessed pornographic websites on school computers. Children aged as young as 11 to 16 admitted to side-stepping teachers' safeguards designed to prevent access to websites containing inappropriate content, such as pornography and violence. These revelations, recently reported on by Charisma News, are said to follow widespread concern about the number of young people sending sexually explicit messages by phone and social media.
Only 25% of the pupils asked said that they had been blocked by internet security settings when they tried to access inappropriate websites. According to Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust: "Much more needs to be done to ensure that controls are watertight, and school staff need to closely supervise pupils in classes where they have Internet access."
Those recommendations would undoubtedly help in managing this issue. However, in perhaps what might prove to be a more effective deterrent approach, former British Culture Secretary Maria Miller told the Mail Online that children must be taught that sharing explicit images is a crime. Due to the potential consequences, chances are that fewer children would then willingly participate. Unless of course, they continue to see no action being taken against their fellow juvenile friends who get caught.
Nevertheless, since our current generation of children is so highly computer literate and technologically savvy, there are obvious limits as to how far these controls would be useful. For instance, following the survey, teachers were given new powers to delete sexually explicit images found on pupils' phones. Yet there will always be a fresh supply of access to pornographic images via by mobile phones, private laptops, print magazines and other sources, no matter how many times such cell-phone images can be found and deleted.
Various possibilities have been offered as causes for this upsurge in interest in pornography, or ‘porn’ by school-going children. Child-protection expert, Dr Zoe Hilton is reported to have advised the Commons Education Committee that celebrities are the cause of a sharp rise in the number of children sending sexually explicit text messages, or “sexting”. Little wonder, given the level of immoral influence that movie and rock music stars have on the youth, which is further worsened by the widespread media exposure accorded to celebrities.
Peer pressure would be another factor, given that growing children are vulnerable to social vices out of a desperate desire to be liked and accepted by their peers. In cases where children have lacked a firm moral upbringing and support structures such as church youth ministries, they will usually be quick to succumb to sexual immorality, drug substance abuse and violent, rebellious attitudes.
One of the many unfortunate and sad outcomes of student interest in pornography is the effect it has on well-brought up and morally upright children. In a recent publication of CBN.com, an account is given of a North Carolina mother, who says her 11-year-old son was exposed to pornography in the classroom via another student's school–issued laptop. Fortunately, he had the right training from home, to know that what he saw was immoral and inappropriate.
His mom commented: "It's not the kind of thing, at 11 years old, that he should be learning…he said it was disgusting and he wishes he could unsee it." She said her son was sitting in his middle school class when another student accessed porn on his school-issued laptop. She said her son later told her that "it's what you told me people do when they're married and they love each other, but this wasn't love. "When it happened again, this time with several kids watching porn in his cafeteria at Parkwood Middle School in Monroe, the mother turned to school administrators, who promised to do their best to monitor the issue.
Meanwhile, evidence continues to increase regarding the impact of pornography on its younger viewers in their later years. In a recent article published by the Gospel Coalition.com, it was reported that one study published in Cyber-Psychology and Behavior found that 39 % of college-aged males and 23 % of college-aged females said they had viewed bondage porn as teens, and 18 % and 10 % respectively said they had viewed rape porn.
Commenting on the study, Jacob and Joseph Phillips wrote: “While their bodies and minds are in key developmental stages, kids are viewing images that portray woman as objects to be used in whatever way a male desires. Is it any wonder that boys being educated about sex by pornographers become men who associate sex with the rape and bondage pornography that ignores the humanity of women?”
The analysis then proceeds to explain several ways in which pornography facilitates and complements the culture of rape that is so prevalent in society today. Below are extracts from the arguments put forward:
• Pornography presents women as inferior —In pornography, women are only valuable insofar as they bring pleasure to men.
In Great Britain, for example, a new Internet service provider-commissioned poll of 1,000 children of secondary-school age has found that one in six students has accessed pornographic websites on school computers. Children aged as young as 11 to 16 admitted to side-stepping teachers' safeguards designed to prevent access to websites containing inappropriate content, such as pornography and violence. These revelations, recently reported on by Charisma News, are said to follow widespread concern about the number of young people sending sexually explicit messages by phone and social media.
Only 25% of the pupils asked said that they had been blocked by internet security settings when they tried to access inappropriate websites. According to Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust: "Much more needs to be done to ensure that controls are watertight, and school staff need to closely supervise pupils in classes where they have Internet access."
Those recommendations would undoubtedly help in managing this issue. However, in perhaps what might prove to be a more effective deterrent approach, former British Culture Secretary Maria Miller told the Mail Online that children must be taught that sharing explicit images is a crime. Due to the potential consequences, chances are that fewer children would then willingly participate. Unless of course, they continue to see no action being taken against their fellow juvenile friends who get caught.
Nevertheless, since our current generation of children is so highly computer literate and technologically savvy, there are obvious limits as to how far these controls would be useful. For instance, following the survey, teachers were given new powers to delete sexually explicit images found on pupils' phones. Yet there will always be a fresh supply of access to pornographic images via by mobile phones, private laptops, print magazines and other sources, no matter how many times such cell-phone images can be found and deleted.
Various possibilities have been offered as causes for this upsurge in interest in pornography, or ‘porn’ by school-going children. Child-protection expert, Dr Zoe Hilton is reported to have advised the Commons Education Committee that celebrities are the cause of a sharp rise in the number of children sending sexually explicit text messages, or “sexting”. Little wonder, given the level of immoral influence that movie and rock music stars have on the youth, which is further worsened by the widespread media exposure accorded to celebrities.
Peer pressure would be another factor, given that growing children are vulnerable to social vices out of a desperate desire to be liked and accepted by their peers. In cases where children have lacked a firm moral upbringing and support structures such as church youth ministries, they will usually be quick to succumb to sexual immorality, drug substance abuse and violent, rebellious attitudes.
One of the many unfortunate and sad outcomes of student interest in pornography is the effect it has on well-brought up and morally upright children. In a recent publication of CBN.com, an account is given of a North Carolina mother, who says her 11-year-old son was exposed to pornography in the classroom via another student's school–issued laptop. Fortunately, he had the right training from home, to know that what he saw was immoral and inappropriate.
His mom commented: "It's not the kind of thing, at 11 years old, that he should be learning…he said it was disgusting and he wishes he could unsee it." She said her son was sitting in his middle school class when another student accessed porn on his school-issued laptop. She said her son later told her that "it's what you told me people do when they're married and they love each other, but this wasn't love. "When it happened again, this time with several kids watching porn in his cafeteria at Parkwood Middle School in Monroe, the mother turned to school administrators, who promised to do their best to monitor the issue.
Meanwhile, evidence continues to increase regarding the impact of pornography on its younger viewers in their later years. In a recent article published by the Gospel Coalition.com, it was reported that one study published in Cyber-Psychology and Behavior found that 39 % of college-aged males and 23 % of college-aged females said they had viewed bondage porn as teens, and 18 % and 10 % respectively said they had viewed rape porn.
Commenting on the study, Jacob and Joseph Phillips wrote: “While their bodies and minds are in key developmental stages, kids are viewing images that portray woman as objects to be used in whatever way a male desires. Is it any wonder that boys being educated about sex by pornographers become men who associate sex with the rape and bondage pornography that ignores the humanity of women?”
The analysis then proceeds to explain several ways in which pornography facilitates and complements the culture of rape that is so prevalent in society today. Below are extracts from the arguments put forward:
• Pornography presents women as inferior —In pornography, women are only valuable insofar as they bring pleasure to men.
•
Pornography objectifies women — Similarly, the vast majority of
pornography objectifies women; their bodies are important, as is their
function as an element in sexual gratification. But their hearts, minds,
opinions, experiences, feelings, and everything else that makes them
self-consciously who they are is completely irrelevant.
•
Pornography treats sexual gratification as an end to itself —
Pornography perpetuates the harmful notion that sex is everything; it’s
an end to itself. The value of things like consent, the perspective of
others, relationship, love, conversation, covenant, interaction, deeper
meaning? Unimportant.
•
Pornography encourages male aggression — Not only is pornography
continuing to expand, but formerly fringe forms of pornography that
encourage male aggression are also becoming more mainstream (i.e.,
bondage porn, rape porn, BDSM). There is a logical reason for its
growth; scientists have found “people who watch a lot of porn are likely
to need increasingly graphic material to achieve the same sexual
stimulation.”
Clearly, exposure of young people to pornography, whether at school or otherwise, doesn’t help when it comes to cultivating godly morals or limiting sexual crimes and perversions in society. Studies show how addictive pornography becomes once indulged in, similar to the effects of getting “hooked” on narcotic drugs like cocaine or heroin. No doubt the grip and pervasiveness of pornography has a lot to do with the high numbers of rapists, pedophiles, prostitutes, adulterers, fornicators, LGBT and other sexual perversions, not to mention broken or hurting marriages and relationships.
For parents and guardians who would like to see their children overcome the pornography challenge, there is still a lot of hope from the wisdom of God’s eternal Word:
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).
Clearly, exposure of young people to pornography, whether at school or otherwise, doesn’t help when it comes to cultivating godly morals or limiting sexual crimes and perversions in society. Studies show how addictive pornography becomes once indulged in, similar to the effects of getting “hooked” on narcotic drugs like cocaine or heroin. No doubt the grip and pervasiveness of pornography has a lot to do with the high numbers of rapists, pedophiles, prostitutes, adulterers, fornicators, LGBT and other sexual perversions, not to mention broken or hurting marriages and relationships.
For parents and guardians who would like to see their children overcome the pornography challenge, there is still a lot of hope from the wisdom of God’s eternal Word:
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).
Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/December11/114.html#UzCMQ4jCJ0SZQxcw.99
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