WASHINGTON (BP)–“Pornography is often considered a victimless crime; however, that is not true,” said Wendy Wright, communications director for Concerned Women for America.
Wright, along with other speakers who took part in a CWA news conference on Capitol Hill May 2, portrayed pornography not as a “naughty but harmless” activity teenage boys get into at the library, but a social disease that is spreading rapidly and posing real threats to society, CNSNews.com reported.
“Pornography affects men who become addicted to porn, the women whose husbands are addicted to porn and daughters who are sexually abused by their fathers who are addicted to porn,” Wright said. “The public is also at risk, with pornography usage adding to the number of sexual crimes that are committed.”
Some 87 percent of girl child molesters and 77 percent of boy child molesters admitted to regular use of hard-core pornography. Of 36 serial sex murderers interviewed by the FBI in 1985, 81 percent admitted using pornography, Wright said.
Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, said porn use dehumanizes females, making it easier for men to act out their sexual fantasies.
“Pornography is not harmless … it degrades and dehumanizes women and destroys families,” Lafferty said. “Pornography creates an emotional sickness in men called ‘The Centerfold Syndrome’ — a sickness that causes men to view women as body parts and not as human beings.
“Men who become addicted to pornography become sexual predators who are unfaithful to their wives and may molest their own daughters to satisfy their sexual desires,” she said.
One such case is that of “Sandra,” a 30-year-old woman who is still recovering from sexual abuse in her childhood. When she went to live with relatives, she was forced to pose nude for pictures and was repeatedly raped from the time she was 4 until she was 15. To this day, Sandra cannot bear to have her picture taken and undergoes counseling.
“I am proof that kids don’t simply get over these types of horrors,” she said. “They will struggle with the effects their whole lives.
“More people and laws need to be enforced so that these kids can get out of these situations,” she added.
Pornography is not only harmful to those who suffer abuse from others addicted to it, but can also be extremely harmful to children who are exposed to indecent material at an early age.
Patrick Fleming, a therapist for a 9-year-old boy and his family who have seen the results of early exposure to porn, said porn affects children most because of their lack of maturity on sexual issues.
“Sometimes pornography has a powerfully damaging effect because the child is emotionally vulnerable in some way, or sometimes simply because the exposure comes at such a young age that the child is not developmentally prepared to handle such explicit sexual material,” he said.
Fleming went on to tell the story of a family who was affected by porn when their son was exposed to an adult movie on HBO at a friend’s house. From that point, “Paul” began looking for pornographic Internet sites and became addicted. The culmination of Paul’s addiction was when his mother caught him molesting a friend’s 3-year-old daughter.
Fleming said he has found that this type of early exposure to illicit materials affects people when they grow older.
“For the majority of sex addicts I have treated, an early childhood exposure to pornography has been a key part of the development and progression of their addiction,” he said.
Bob Knight, director of The Culture and Family Institute, said one way children are exposed to porn is through comics, which are often “chockfull of nudity, homosexuality, violence and demonic portrayals,” along with open attacks on religion and frequently use of foul language.
“It used to be that you found a few bad comics amid the adventure stories and tales of superheroes,” he said. “Now, the decent ones are hard to find.”
Still another way is through public libraries, where Internet porn can be accessed by anyone, even children. Jan LaRue, a senior director at the Family Research Council, called on the American Library Association to filter porn out of public space. According to LaRue, men who go to libraries to look at porn often become aroused and act lewdly, becoming a threat to librarians and patrons at the library.
“Regrettably, there are librarians who work in libraries where hard-core porn is turning their workplace into a cesspool,” she said.
Rep. Steve Largent, R.-Okla., said the ways to remedy society of the ills of porn are already on the books, but they need to be enforced better.
“All the laws necessary to fight pornography are already on the books,” Largent said. “There is no need for more laws.
“We do need the Department of Justice to enforce the laws that we already have and prosecute those guilty and care for the victims,” he said.
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Pierce is an editorial assistant with CNSNews.com. Used by permission.
