First a few random statistics with the Mussar Haskel coming later. I ask mechila. I am posting for תועלת:
Approximately 70% of men and 30% of women watch pornography regularly.
The average age at which individuals first view pornography is around 11 years old.
87% of young men and 31% of young women have viewed pornography by age 18.
The average weekly time spent watching pornography is approximately 6 hours.
54% of young men say they watch pornography more frequently than they did a year ago.
Pornhub [I don't know what that is but it doesn't sound too kosher...] reported over 42 billion [!!!!] visits in 2022.
80% of young males report consuming porn at some point during adolescence. [In the so called "Bible Belt" there are very high percentages of intake of salacious content].
Pornography consumption in the US is highest among 18-24-year-olds, with over 94% of males and 61% of females in that age group having viewed it.
Nearly 50% of teenagers admit to having viewed pornography online.
Verified Data Points
With over 70% of men and 30% of women regularly watching porn from the age of 11, the global industry generating nearly $100 billion annually increasingly influences youth, relationships, and society’s perceptions of sexuality—raising questions about its impact on mental health, intimacy, and cultural norms.
Behavioral Patterns
54% of young men say they watch pornography more frequently than they did a year ago.
42% of internet users have searched for pornography online.
The percentage of men who visit porn sites daily has increased by 15% over the past five years.
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What is my point???????
Three major points -
1] If you give your child a smartphone with internet you are both insane and irresponsible. If you let your child use the Internet w/o very close supervision and a filter - ditto. If I was a woman [I would be a really bad one by the way so ברוך שלא עשני] - I would NEVER let my husband use unfiltered, unsupervised internet.
2] Just about every person you see on the Internet [this includes podcasters, politicians, pundits and even words that don't start with a "p"] has his mind and soul immersed in filth. Pornography, vulgarity, profanity, lewdness, leitzanus, dvarim bteilim, kfirah, levity, frivolity and the list goes on and on. These are our *influencers*. Charlie Kirk [הי"ד??] was an admitted pornography addict [he said that he kicked the habit] and it is safe to say that to varying degrees just about all of them are.
You want to be pure? There is this AWESOME *site* with great *content* called the התורה הקדושה. True and tried for 3,500 years!! טעמו וראו!!!
3] The Gedolim were and are right about the Internet. Just like they were right when TV became popular and they forbade TV and they were right to forbid going to secular colleges where רבים חללים הפילה - וד"ל and they were right forbidding coed schools and camps etc. etc. People are highly critical of their stance on the army. If they would only understand how hard Gedolei Yisroel work in order to maintain our tradition and do anything to avoid situations that would compromise Am Yisrael's future as a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. We need an army but it is a clear and open threat to Yiddishkeit. It is hard to argue with that unless you have never served and know nothing of the Israeli army. I would never let one of my children have an irreligious friend - much less serve with him in an army unit and be exposed to his language, ideas, lifestyle etc. etc.
People today are highly patronizing of the Charedi world as if they are a group of misbehaving children who need sophisticated adults to set them straight [so various strategies are being devised to get the children to behave - by hook or by crook]. Funny how the most modern research has proven how correct the Charedi attitude was on rejecting [to varying degrees] the Internet etc. and the sophisticated, educated but *open minded* types have messed up children and often messed up lives themselves - thanks in a good part to the Internet and social media. Most Charedi children are pure, untainted and unjaded. Many of the girls [for example] have no idea about what happens in a shared parental bedroom until days [or the actual day] before their weddings. [The boys do at some later point in childhood because it is hard to learn gemara without coming across the idea... But it is in the context of Torah and Halacha and not via the filth of the Internet.]
The solution: Cloistered and protective environments. Full stop. None of this "we have to expose them now so they will be impervious later" nonsense. Don't expose them [or yourself] now and teach them to cling to קדושה and טהרה so that they don't fall later.
