nine out of 10 children of ages 8 to 16 have been exposed to online pornography

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In an estimate, the US Department of Justice states that about nine out of 10 children of ages 8 to 16 have been exposed to online pornography. (Prepared statement of Attorney General John Ashcroft at National Prosecutors' Symposium on Obscenity, 6 June 2002) According to Symantec, a software company, about 47 percent of the children of school-age are exposed to pornographic spam (junk e-mail) on a daily basis. (Symantec News Release, Jun 2003) In a hearing, the pornography industry representatives told the American Congress’ COPA Commission that "children are involved in as much as 20 to 30 percent of the traffic to some pornographic web sites". (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2002) Elucidating the danger of this exposure, Ralph DiClemente, a behavioral scientist from Emory University, says: “[Children] can’t just put [porn] into their worldview, because they don’t have one.” He goes on explaining that "pornography becomes a building block in a child’s mental and emotional development. (Schabner D, “Danger Zone?” ABCNews.com, June 2002) When pornography becomes a filter through which the rest of life is understood, serious damage occurs". According to a report in 2001, more than 50% of all sex offenders in state of Utah, USA were adolescents and children as young as 8 years of age were committing felony sexual assault. (Child on Child,” KSL TV, May 2001) The reason behind persistence of porn industry in fighting laws such as the Child Online Protection Act, which forces pornographers to use age verification systems, is obvious since this flood of pornographic imagery creates a new generation of consumers. The increased culture-wide sexualization is exposing the society to incredible public health risks. In the United States one out of five adults has a sexually transmitted disease (STD), (W. Cates Jr. American Social Health Association Panel, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 1999) and each year 19 million new cases of STD infections occur, about half of which are among youth ages of 15 to 24. (H. Weinstock, S. Berman and W. Cates Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2004) Pornography is a significant factor in occurrence of sexual violence. The FBI reports that "the most common interest among serial killers is hardcore pornography". In another study 87 percent of child molesters were found to be regular consumers of hardcore pornography. (W. Marshall , Report to the Federal Department of Justice, Ottawa, Canada, 1983) In an interview with Focus on the Family Founder, Dr. James Dobson, some hours before his execution, Ted Bundy, the infamous serial killer from Florida described that how early exposure to pornography had consumed and led him down his murderous path. He added that he was responsible for his actions, however; the messages in pornography had primed him for his criminal actions. It is horrifying but we should not get surprised. Lack of preventive measures has permitted this enterprise to have an explosive grow into an unimaginable human global trade. Pornography is an $8 billion-a-year business with close ties to organized crime. (Report of Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence, U. S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C., 112) Pornography turns humans into merchandise. Men and women are regarded and treated as sexual objects to be bought, sold, used and eventually discarded. Probably nothing would better conclude this article than an article published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry, by Professor. Benedek EP, a clinical professor from Ann Arbor University, Michigan, who concludes that "the main possible effects of televised pornography that must concern us as clinicians, educators, and parents are modeling and imitation of language heard and behaviors observed in televised pornography; negative interference with children's normal sexual development; emotional reactions such as nightmares and feelings of anxiety, guilt, confusion, and/or shame; stimulation of premature sexual activity; development of unrealistic, misleading, and/or harmful attitudes toward sex and adult male-female relationships; and undermining of family values with resultant conflict between parents and children". (Harv Rev Psychiatry. 1999 Nov-Dec) Therefore it is not a surprise to face upsurges of skyrocketing STD infections together with marital and family breakdown, creating a society where, men rape women and children or even children rape one another. These developments are totally logical consequences of the explosive growth in pornography.