FIGHT THE NEW DRUG!

Note: I thought I must share this from the Africa Christian Action.

Your brain is the powerhouse of your body. We all have one but we use it at different capacities. It is one of the most valuable things we possess. Thankfully we have skulls to protect our brain, but some people have done some pretty dumb things to put themselves at risk of losing this precious gift!

Let me tell you about another risk to your brain – a new drug. P*rnography is just as addictive as hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine. You might be thinking, “But how is it like a drug? You can’t sniff it or smoke it!”

P*rnography has been around for a long time but scientists are just beginning to understand how exposure to pornography affects you – how the effects of p*rnography on your brain are similar to those of hard drugs. P*rnographic images go into your brain through your eyes and trigger a release of chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. You brain becomes overloaded with chemicals. If you keep viewing p*rn, you build up a tolerance for it and you require harder core material to create the same rush. Your brain then becomes dependent on the rush of chemicals and you begin to believe that you can’t live without it.

The frontal lobes are the decision making centre of your brain. Viewing p*rnography damages that part of the brain. Your life begins to revolve around getting a fix. All you can think of is satisfying your addiction. All this happens when you think you are still in control.

You may be thinking, I can view p*rn and stay in control! But why risk it? After your first exposure, your brain rewires itself. An ex hard drug addict and p*rn addict says his p*rn addiction was harder to break than his drug addiction.

Nobody likes to talk about this topic. It’s uncomfortable to talk about, but you need to understand just how pervasive this new drug is and the threat that the p*rnography industry poses to you and your family. With an increasing amount of children having access to the Internet on their smartphones, it’s not a question of if you, or your children, will be exposed to it, but when.

•         The largest group of Internet p*rnography users are youth between the ages of 12 and 17.

•          The average age of exposure to p*rn is 11.

•          Every second, 30 000 people are viewing p*rn on the Internet.

•          30% of p*rn addicts are women.

Stages of addictionAnyone who considers p*rnography to be a harmless ‘entertainment’, should consider the insidious ‘slippery slope’ of the continued viewing of p*rnography. Dr Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist at the University of Utah, USA, described the four-step process whereby a person becomes addicted to p*rn:

 

Step 1:           Addiction to the material and repeated return to it for sexual excitement. Cline says this addiction is so powerful that his severely affected clients have to use medications such as Depo Prover to try reduce the s*x drive and eliminate s*x fantasies and may need to attend Sexaholics Anonymous for up to four nights a week to achieve sobriety and break the stranglehold of their addiction. Virtually no casual user/viewer of p*rn is exempt from the addictive effect of exposure to it. The accessibility and anonymity of p*rn on the Internet increases the danger.

 

Step 2:           Escalation in the individual's need for more explicit, deviant and sexually shocking material to achieve the same level of sexual stimulation.

 

Step 3:           Desensitisation towards initially gross and shocking material so that, in time, this material becomes acceptable and desirable to the viewer.

 

Step 4:           Increased tendency to start ‘acting out’ sexual activities seen in p*rn. Not everyone who views p*rn will rape, but the likelihood of committing rape goes up.

Don’t you see how viewing p*rn can enslave you and possibly lead you to harm others – even those you love?

The p*rn industry wants to get you hooked, so that they can make more money out of you!

Watching p*rn is viewing abused, drugged prostitutes Research indicates that about 60–80% of women, who work in the s*x industry,  were sexually abused as children. It is very rare to find ‘p*rn stars’ who started out of a freely chosen desire. Along with poverty, broken families and lack of education, childhood abuse is very common. Many ‘p*rn star’ actresses admit they experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect by parents. Some were raped by relatives and molested by neighbours. Then some of them ended up as teenage runaways and were picked up by pimps. They were taught at a young age that sex makes them valuable. They only escape one circle of abuse by entering another; they can't run from the pain so they go towards it. Fast forward a few years and they find themselves drunk and drugged on a p*rn set, as they re-live the same abuse they experienced growing up. Ex p*rn performer, Shelley Lubben, has documented how hundreds of ‘p*rn performers’ that she knows of, committed suicide.

Imagine a picture of a naked black man in a dog collar, on a leash, on all fours. The image is appalling. It would be regarded as racist by most people. Yet this is a very common way women are depicted in p*rn.

Free speech or sex slavery?
Former Senior Advisor on Trafficking for the Office for Democracy and Global Affairs US State Department, Laura J. Lederer, summarised the link between p*rn, prostitution and trafficking in the following four points:

1. Some types of p*rnography actually use trafficked victims, some of which were recruited via fake job advertisements.

2. Some traffickers film the acts that their victims are forced to perform.

3. P*rnography is used in sex trafficking and the sex industry to train women and children what to do.

4. P*rnography creates and provides rationalisations for exploiters as to how and why their sexually exploitive behaviors are acceptable.

If you view or buy p*rn, you are helping to perpetuate and fund modern-day slavery (human trafficking)!

How to Block P*rn on the InternetPlace a good filter on your computer that can prevent you, or your children, accessing, or stumbling on porn websites. South Africa’s only family friendly Internet Service Provider that uses the best filtering software available is www.virtuenet.co.za. Virtuenet recommends www.k9webprotection.com as the best free web filter. Internet accountability services (which track the websites visited and send these to an accountability partner) can be downloaded from www.covenanteyes.com.

See the www.purehopeblog.net for excellent short articles on cultivating a pure lifestyle for and with your family.

How to Block P*rn on Your PhoneP*rn websites can be blocked from a Vodacom phone by dialling *111*123# from the cell phone you want to block and from an MTN phone by dialling *101# and following the menu prompts. (Cell C and 8-ta do not yet have porn website-blocking features). These only block websites and not SMSs or MMSs.

Parents should not give their children BlackBerry handsets using a BIS (Blackberry Internet Service) subscription. As BlackBerry uses their own private network which encrypts the data, this will render both Vodacom’s and MTN’s parental controls useless.

 

Visit www.cellphonesafety.co.za for useful information on blocking porn websites on all types of cell phones, disabling apps, cell phone addiction and more.

“Jesus said: ‘Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?’ Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’” John 8:32-36

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Become a fighter!

Addicted? Need help? Call STOP: 083 463 4762 or Christians for Truth:  082 807 2831 for counselling.

For youth resources, including articles and videos you can share on social media, visit http://frontline.my-mailer.com/link.php?M=2365&N=868&L=824&F=H. Invite Africa Christian Action to give a Fight the New Drug presentation at your school assembly or youth group.

Contact Christian Action for tips on protecting your family and resources for fighting the p*rn plague.

Download this article as a tract here.

See also:The Bible and P*rnography
Finding Freedom from P*rnography
The Secret in the Pew – Hope for the P*rn Addict
How to Block P*rn On Your Phone

Resources Available
Every Young Man’s Battle DVD (58 minutes, R155)
Somebody’s Daughter DVD (62 minutes, R135)

Available from Christian Liberty Books: Email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za, or Tel/fax: 021-689-7478, http://frontline.my-mailer.com/link.php?M=2512&N=615&L=37&F=H.

Africa Christian Action
PO Box 23632
Claremont
7735 Cape Town

South Africa
Tel: 021-689 4481
E-mail: info@christianaction.org.za
Web: http://www.christianaction.org.za/

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