Kids, Teens and a Growing Addiction to Porn
Okay, so this is heavy. I've noticed a recurring theme in the news and it's heartbreaking. The issue is focusing on the growing epidemic of online porn addiction found in children and teens. By no means am I an expert on this topic, but I would like to share a new TED book, The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It by Philip Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan, as well as a recent article I read, Jamie is 13 and hasn't even kissed a girl. But he's now on the Sex Offender Register after online porn warped his mind... Please see the excerpt below from The Daily Mail Online:
Jamie was ten years old when he saw his first pornographic sex scene. During a sleepover, a classmate offered to show him ‘some funny pictures’ on his laptop.
‘At first I found it a bit scary and a bit yucky,’ Jamie told me as he shifted uncomfortably on his chair during our therapy session.
‘I didn’t know it was possible for people to do those sort of things — and there were lots of nasty close-ups. But it gave me funny feelings and the pictures started to stick in my head.’
For the next three years, while his parents assumed he was using his computer for his homework, Jamie visited porn websites for up to two hours a night...
Whether you have children, brothers, sisters, cousins, a Mentee, whatever, I strongly believe that this is one of the top issues that needs to be on one's radar when it comes to children. So many of the issues we see in adults stem from one's childhood. Our children are our future, and it is our responsibility to be accountable so that they have the most promising future possible.
Please share this post. God only knows how many families have this going on in their very own homes, and they don't even know it yet.
Pray hard.
-Chelsea