NOTE: This post is not for children but for adults to protect their children .... and themselves.
I was linked to the following article on g.a. [gilui arayos]
News media organizations often treat specific internet safety issues as fads – after being THE hot topic, issues fall out of favor becoming “old news” in spite of ongoing risks and threats. We’ve seen this with pornography, child predators, chat room risks and meeting strangers. Today’s hot topic is cyberbullying, but given the nature of our media cycles, we should expect to see this join the ranks of “old news” by the end of the year. That isn’t to say these topics aren’t ongoing threats, just that they lose media attention.
Internet g.a. was the first big internet safety topic to make news, and it has remained largely out of favor among the popular press ever since. But that doesn’t mean the issues and costs have vanished.
The societal costs of g.a. are staggering. The financial cost to business productivity in the U.S. alone is estimated at $16.9 Billion annually ; but the human toll, particularly among our youth and in our families, is far greater.
According to Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D, psychologist and former Deputy Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary, “two recent reports, one by the American Psychological Association on hyper-sexualized girls, and the other by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy on the g.a. content of phone texting among teenagers, make clear that the digital revolution is being used by younger and younger children to dismantle the barriers that channel g.a. into family life.
Pornography hurts adults, children, couples, families, and society. Among adolescents, pornography hinders the development of a healthy sexuality, and among adults, it distorts sexual attitudes and social realities. In families, pornography use leads to marital dissatisfaction, infidelity, separation, and divorce.
Here are some of the most credible statistics available today on internet pornography.
General g.a. stats
- Every second 28,258 users are watching pornography on the internet
- Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography on the internet
- Every second 372 people are typing the word "adult" into search engines
- 40 million American people regularly visit g.a. sites
- 35% of all internet downloads are related to g.a.
- 25% of all search engine queries are related to g.a., or about 68 million search queries a day
- One third of g.a. viewers are women
- Search engines get 116,000 queries every day related to child g.a.
- 34% of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads, pop up ads, misdirected links or emails
- 2.5 billion emails sent or received every day contain g.a.
- Every 39 minutes a new g.a. video is being created in the United States
- About 200,000 Americans are addicted to g.a. [Question - If 40 million Americans regularly visit g.a. sites, is it logical that only 200,000 are addicted??]
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Note: These statistics relate to hard core g.a. However, there is nobody who uses open internet who is not CONSTANTLY exposed to pictures and content that objectify woman, portraying them as mere fulfillments of animalistic, male desires. So the true statistic is that 100 percent of internet users are contaminated by it on some level [not to mention the amount of time wasted on non g.a.]
If someone has ANY desire at all to get close to Hashem and to be close to Him, there is no other recourse other than to distance oneself as much as possible from anything relating to g.a. The yesod - foundation - of avodas Hashem is shmiras habris [in kabbala the middah of yesod relates to holiness in areas related to sexuality]. "Yesod" is the middah of tzadik and holds the world afloat ["Tzadik yesod olam"].
When the rabbonim come out against internet it is not because they are bored and have nothing else to do with their time. It is because the internet is responsible for the break up of countless marriages and the erosion of the spiritual life of so many formerly devout people.
Even if one needs to use the internet for business or for downloading shiurim - it should be minimized. If you are a man - there are probably still a few tosfosim in shas you haven't learned well. That can occupy your free time. If you are a woman - there are countless pirkei tehillim to be said, acts of chesed to be done and shiurim to attend.
Rebbe Tzadok Hakohen writes that the last test before Moshiach comes is in this area.
Let us be equal to the task of passing this test.
