More Accidental Porn

By staff - Feb 6, 2007 - 1

Children and teens are being exposed to online pornography in record numbers, usually by accidentally viewing sexually explicit material while surfing the Internet.

A study appearing in the February issue of Pediatrics said 34 percent of Internet users age 10 to 17 had unwanted exposure to online pornography in the last year. According to the Associated Press report, the riskiest sites for unwanted exposure are file-sharing programs, but images also pop up in chat rooms and game sites. Researchers said filtering software helped block images, but even it was not always completely effective.

“The devil is attacking Christians of all ages through sex,” said Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “The Bible says that parents have the responsibility to rear their children in the knowledge and wisdom of the Lord. That responsibility includes placing filters on every computer in the house and then monitoring your children’s Internet activity. You can’t depend on a filter to catch everything, so you need to keep your eyes and ears open.”

Action Steps for Parents

Parents have a critical role to play in protecting their children of all ages from inappropriate content and monitoring the viewing of appropriate material. How can that be done?

  • Have a reliable content filter on your Internet connection.
  • Don’t place a computer with Internet access in your child’s room, unless you’ve made provisions to limit his or her surfing.
  • Limit total media viewing. Children eight to eighteen watch TV an average of three hours a day in addition to the time spent playing video games and surfing the Internet.
  • Grow your children up to understand that while the world is full of temptation, purity is a worthwhile and achievable goal.
  • Be aware of the threats posed by new technology in new generation cell phones and iPod-like devices that offer video capabilities.

Vital Information

Further Learning

Learn more about: Family, Children, Parenting, Pop Culture, Sexual Purity, Pornography

1 comments (post your own) feed

1 On May 3rd, 2007, at 6:39am, Kursat Yilmaz" wrote:

In my opinion You should ban to all of websites which are related to pornography..
Because sometimes it is impossible to control a child as parent.

Post a Comment




Notify me of follow-up comments?

Before You Submit Your Comment (below), Read This:

Thank you for your interest in the ministry of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (SBC).

Comments are moderated to preserve the family-oriented nature of this website and in an attempt to avoid comment spam. We welcome opposing viewpoints, and we will not turn comments away as long as your views are presented with respect to everyone.

Your comments will not appear immediately and are subject to editing or deletion. We will make every attempt to check new comments in a timely manner, though there will likely be delays on the weekends and around holidays.

Please follow the these guidelines to insure your comments will be posted:

  1. Use a real name, at least a real first name. We find folks are less-rude online when not hiding behind a screen-name.
  2. Name-calling and vulgar-language will not be tolerated. Zero-tolerance is our policy. We will not spend time editing profanity. If it contains foul language, your post will be deleted. Oh, and we decide what is and what is not vulgar.
  3. Comments must be on topic. General comments (compliments, complaints, and otherwise) are best delivered here or expressed on your own personal Web site.
  4. And please, do not type in ALL CAPS. It looks like you're screaming at people.

Additionally, within Baptist polity, please recognize that many issues and decisions are addressed at a local church level. SBC denominational (national) offices have no control and desire no control over the activities of a local church. This entity is not responsible for overseeing and insuring the ethical behavior of Southern Baptist pastors or church members. If your concern involves a legal civil or criminal matter, we suggest you contact the proper local officials.

Issues involving pastoral staff or other church members, local Baptist associations or state Baptist conventions are local issues. Therefore the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission cannot and should not address such issues. While we regret we are unable to assist you, we encourage you to seek a biblical resolution of the issue at the local church level. If your question or submission pertains to a matter covered in this text, it is likely we will not acknowledge your submission.

Other than that, we welcome you and hope to see thoughtful discussions at ERLC.com