The Storm of Internet Porn

The Storm of Internet Porn

In the most recent issue of the Christian magazine, Ensign, Gordon B. Hinkley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, brought up the topic of pornography and the internet. He named his talk, “A Tragic Evil among Us.” Just by the title alone, one can see that Hinkley is extraordinarily against the porn industry. In the very beginning of his article, he states, “[Pornography] is like a raging storm, destroying individuals and families, utterly ruining what was once wholesome and beautiful.” As a Christian myself, I also share this view about pornography. I share it so much that I decided to become a sexual addiction psychologist. Through my own religious affairs and through earnest studies, I have found that pornography does nothing but harm to its audience. Because of this, my wife and I have chosen to leave pornographic material outside our home. We do not pay for cable; we carefully choose our magazine subscriptions, and we even try to not watch movies that are rated-R. We have also chosen to cancel our internet service so our children cannot surf the web for porn. However, this is what troubles me. I need the internet for school work, shopping, information, etc. Even though I can drive to school to access the internet, being without the internet has really been hard. Yet, getting rid of it completely seems to be the only sure way of ridding us of the pornography it can contain. How else can we as parents gain absolute control over the pornographic content that seems to seep into every webpage that we and our children look at? Since AOL, MSN, and the other larger ISP (internet service provider) companies have