Bryan Fischer
Time to follow David Cameron and protect young children from porn
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
The UK is dealing with an epidemic of porn addiction and sex crimes. But not just with adults, with teenagers. According to the Daily Mirror, the number of under-18s who have committed sex crimes has jumped an astonishing 40% in the last three years, largely due to unrestricted access to pornography on the internet.
In addition, 40% of teens report that they have texted explicit pictures of themselves to others.
More than 5,000 formal investigations have been launched over the last three years into under-18s accused of sex crimes, including rape and assault.
Almost all the police jurisdictions in the UK report that sex crimes have been committed in their jurisdictions by 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old boys, with the victims often being under the age of 10. Online porn consumption by teenagers is a catastrophic and toxic problem which is rapidly turning the UK into a "moral wasteland," according to former child television star Floella Benjamin.
Some of those accused of sex crimes are as young as five years old. Think about that for a moment.
One 15-year-old porn-obsessed boy was sent to jail just last week for three years after he and a 14-year-old friend bound, gagged and raped a 14-year-old girl. Where did they get that idea? Well, it wasn't from watching "Leave it to Beaver" reruns.
One sexual health nurse talks of 13-year-old girls who come to his clinic talking about the pressure being placed on them by their boyfriends to engage in extreme and degrading sexual experiences.
(While writing that last paragraph, I at first accidentally misspelled "boyfriends" as "boyfiends," which is much closer to the truth.)
Iceland is planning to ban online pornography altogether, which would make it the first but hopefully not the last Western nation to do so.
Cameron's focus is on the impact of pornography on children. Porn clearly has a deleterious impact on adults as well, since it leads men to think of women as sex objects and contributes to degrading sexual behavior as well as to brutal sexual assaults (think Ted Bundy here). Thus Iceland is certainly moving in the right direction. Porn debauches, diminishes, and destroys and should be contrary to public policy for all people at all ages.
But we all should at least be able to agree on the importance of protecting vulnerable young children from its pernicious effects. It's a child protection issue, and, as one UK official pointed out, "[W]e need to draw a line before it's too late."
Prime Minister David Cameron has wisely responded by cracking down on what he calls the "corroding influence" of online porn. Every household in Britain connected to the internet will, by default, be blocked from accessing internet porn. Any household that wants to pipe that raw sewage into their homes will be obligated to make a deliberate choice to deactivate these family-friendly filters.
Can we do the same thing in America? Of course we can. Some will immediately start hollering about the First Amendment. But its free speech protections were designed by the Founders to protect freedom of political speech. They had no intention of providing shelter for pornography, obscenity, vulgarity or even profanity, and would be aghast to see the way in which activist judges have mangled and shredded the Constitution to give protection to behaviors which no rational society should tolerate.
Besides, taking your clothes off and having sex in front of a camera isn't speech anyway. It's conduct, and thus has no free speech protections whatsoever.
So the great need of the hour is for American statesmen who, inspired by David Cameron's example, will work to protect America's young children from the ravages of porn.
So where are they?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
July 23, 2013
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
The UK is dealing with an epidemic of porn addiction and sex crimes. But not just with adults, with teenagers. According to the Daily Mirror, the number of under-18s who have committed sex crimes has jumped an astonishing 40% in the last three years, largely due to unrestricted access to pornography on the internet.
In addition, 40% of teens report that they have texted explicit pictures of themselves to others.
More than 5,000 formal investigations have been launched over the last three years into under-18s accused of sex crimes, including rape and assault.
Almost all the police jurisdictions in the UK report that sex crimes have been committed in their jurisdictions by 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old boys, with the victims often being under the age of 10. Online porn consumption by teenagers is a catastrophic and toxic problem which is rapidly turning the UK into a "moral wasteland," according to former child television star Floella Benjamin.
Some of those accused of sex crimes are as young as five years old. Think about that for a moment.
One 15-year-old porn-obsessed boy was sent to jail just last week for three years after he and a 14-year-old friend bound, gagged and raped a 14-year-old girl. Where did they get that idea? Well, it wasn't from watching "Leave it to Beaver" reruns.
One sexual health nurse talks of 13-year-old girls who come to his clinic talking about the pressure being placed on them by their boyfriends to engage in extreme and degrading sexual experiences.
(While writing that last paragraph, I at first accidentally misspelled "boyfriends" as "boyfiends," which is much closer to the truth.)
Iceland is planning to ban online pornography altogether, which would make it the first but hopefully not the last Western nation to do so.
Cameron's focus is on the impact of pornography on children. Porn clearly has a deleterious impact on adults as well, since it leads men to think of women as sex objects and contributes to degrading sexual behavior as well as to brutal sexual assaults (think Ted Bundy here). Thus Iceland is certainly moving in the right direction. Porn debauches, diminishes, and destroys and should be contrary to public policy for all people at all ages.
But we all should at least be able to agree on the importance of protecting vulnerable young children from its pernicious effects. It's a child protection issue, and, as one UK official pointed out, "[W]e need to draw a line before it's too late."
Prime Minister David Cameron has wisely responded by cracking down on what he calls the "corroding influence" of online porn. Every household in Britain connected to the internet will, by default, be blocked from accessing internet porn. Any household that wants to pipe that raw sewage into their homes will be obligated to make a deliberate choice to deactivate these family-friendly filters.
Can we do the same thing in America? Of course we can. Some will immediately start hollering about the First Amendment. But its free speech protections were designed by the Founders to protect freedom of political speech. They had no intention of providing shelter for pornography, obscenity, vulgarity or even profanity, and would be aghast to see the way in which activist judges have mangled and shredded the Constitution to give protection to behaviors which no rational society should tolerate.
Besides, taking your clothes off and having sex in front of a camera isn't speech anyway. It's conduct, and thus has no free speech protections whatsoever.
So the great need of the hour is for American statesmen who, inspired by David Cameron's example, will work to protect America's young children from the ravages of porn.
So where are they?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
