Once relegated to the darkest corners of our society—explicit, sexual material is now only a few clicks away. Unlike previous mediums, the Internet offers convenient, instant, anonymous, no-cost access to hardcore pornography. As a result, its availability and consumption have increased exponentially.
There are now over 5 million pornographic websites.
Hundreds are being added each day. Daily pornographic search engine requests now exceed 68 million, and daily pornographic emails top 2.5 billion. According to recent estimates, as many as 10 percent of the 189 million Internet users in the US could be addicted to online pornography—many of them children and teens.
Online porn activities include viewing and/or downloading pornographic images and videos. This also includes reading and writing sexually explicit stories, visiting sexually-oriented chat rooms, and engaging in interactive online cyber-sex with the aid of digital cameras.
The destruction resulting from viewing Internet pornography is two-fold.
- Spending hours on the internet leads to conflict in the user’s life.
- The emotional, relational, psychological, and spiritual degradation associated with viewing sexually explicit content.
