LifeSiteNews.com recently posted an article reporting on research which suggests a strong link between the use of child pornography and child abuse. Conducted between 2002-2005, the study — chronicled in an article by Tori DeAngelis in the December edition of the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology— studied men who had already been convicted of child pornography crimes to determine if they had also molested children.

Clinical psychologists Michael Bourke, Ph.D., and Andres Hernandez, Psy.D., found that, while many child-pornography viewers denied having molested children before their trials, the vast majority of them changed their stories after being convicted.

In the context of treatment, in courtrooms, in investigative circles and in assessment literature, it has been assumed that pedophiles and child-porn addicts are separate, yet similar groups. However, in the course of treatment, these men would disclose to therapists that their sexual acting out was not limited to their use of the Internet; it was in fact a parallel behavior to their abuse of children.

The study, initially released in the April issue of Journal of Family and Violence, studied 155 men convicted of possessing child pornography. Of the 155, seventy-four percent denied ever having molested children prior to their convictions. However, at the end of treatment, eighty-four percent of these same men had admitted to molesting a child at least once. The average number of victims per man was 13.5.

This revealing study, which strongly links child pornography and child molestation, raises further questions about whether there is a convincing link between adult pornography and the viewing of child pornography.

Dr. Judith A. Reisman, former president of the Institute for Media Education and a noted psychologist, says that the link between adult pornography and child pornography is also largely recognized.

In her book Soft Porn Plays Hardball, Reisman quotes John Rabun, Jr., the chief operating officer of the National Missing and Exploited Children’s Center in Washington, D.C., as saying that of “fourteen hundred cases of suspected child exploitation all, that is 100 percent … had in their possession at the time of arrest, adult pornography ranging from what is … typically referred to as soft pornography such as Playboy, on up to harder, such as Hustler.”

Reisman goes on to say that pornography, like any addiction, starts out soft and moves on to harder material. “As in all addictive stimuli one proceeds from the original stimuli to ‘harder’ stimuli. If pornography is an addiction, like alcohol and other drugs, then it also leads a significant percentage of users to ‘harder’ stimuli, period.”

With this new study, Reisman argues that the chain of events can now easily be traced from adult pornography to child pornography and ultimately child molestation. “The use of harder pornography eventually moves into children, and then to increasing sexual violence and brutality to children,” Reisman concludes.

New Comprehensive Study Shows How Pornography Threatens Marriages, Children, Communities and Individual Happiness.

The Family Research Council released a new study this week that comprehensively details the effects of pornography on marriages, children, communities and individual happiness.

The study, “The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community,” synthesizes all available research on the effects of pornography on families and communities.

Pornography distorts an individual’s concept of the nature of conjugal relations, which, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children and to individual happiness. In undermining marriage, it is one of the major factors in undermining social stability.

Social scientists, clinical psychologists, and biologists have begun to clarify some of the social and psychological effects, and neurologists are beginning to delineate the biological mechanisms through which pornography produces its powerful negative effects. Among the study’s findings:

• Men who view pornography regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual aggression, and sexual promiscuity.
• Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their conjugal relations and less emotionally attached to their wives. Wives notice and are upset by the difference.
• Pornography engenders greater sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to a greater risk of out-of-wedlock births and STDs, which in turn lead to still more weaknesses and debilities.
• The presence of sexually oriented businesses significantly harms the surrounding community, leading to increases in crime and decreases in property values.
• Child-sex offenders are more likely to view pornography regularly or to be involved in its distribution.
• Pornography eliminates the warmth of affectionate family life, which is the natural social nutrient for the growing child.

Click HERE to read the full study.

By Alan Sears, President of ADF –WashingtonTimes.com

Not long ago, President Obama addressed America’s schoolchildren, asking them to take personal responsibility for their choices and always strive for excellence.

Unfortunately, while he’s preaching responsibility to the next generation, his Justice Department is turning a blind eye to those who would destroy that generation’s future for personal gain.

Earlier this year, I was one of nearly 400 pro-family advocates from across the nation’s political, philosophical and legal spectrums who signed a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., asking him to meet with concerned citizens and step up his department’s efforts to combat what has become a multibillion-dollar stranglehold on the minds and souls of millions of American men, women and children.

In response, we received one short form-letter paragraph two months later from a department official assuring us our input was valued and our concerns were being considered “carefully.” Since then … nothing but crickets.

The tepid response is all the sadder because our request didn’t seem an unreasonable one to make of the man who, 11 years ago, was one of the few members of the Clinton Justice Department who seemed to take the threat of pornography seriously. At the time, as deputy attorney general, Mr. Holder boldly called for stronger enforcement of pornography and obscenity laws, saying:

“Priority should be given to cases involving large-scale distributors who realize substantial income from multistate operations and cases in which there is evidence of organized crime involvement.

“However,” he added, “prosecution of cases involving relatively small distributors can have a deterrent effect and would dispel any notion that obscenity distributors are insulated from prosecution if their operations fail to exceed a predetermined size or if they fragment their business into small-scale operations.

“Because of the nature of the Internet and the availability of agents trained in conducting criminal investigations in cyberspace,” Mr. Holder said, “investigation and prosecution of Internet obscenity is particularly suitable for federal resources.”

What a difference a decade makes. Today, the evil has proliferated. The number of both large- and small-scale distributors has multiplied many times over, and federal resources are even more indispensable.

However, under Mr. Holder’s direction, the Justice Department is taking a profoundly laissez-faire attitude toward a criminal enterprise making pervasive use of the Internet to facilitate the efforts of child molesters to infect children with their profoundly warped and perverse ideas about sexual activity and deviancy.

Ironically, Mr. Holder made his comments in 1998 – the same year Congress passed the Children’s Online Protection Act (COPA), a minimal effort to hold back the pornographers by blocking explicit teaser photos and video clips on Web sites easy for children to access and by requiring credit cards and adult access codes to enter hard-core porn sites.

It was a small step in the right direction, but the American Civil Liberties Union and its sister organizations tripped COPA coming out of the gate. The legislation immediately was swarmed by lawsuits – protesting the undue burden placed on adults who wanted to get their dehumanizing images as quickly and easily as possible – and earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined review of the law.

That, combined with the Justice Department’s apathy, leaves the gates of the mental playgrounds wide open for those who believe, in the favorite phrase of the North American Man Boy Love Association (a major beneficiary of the government’s passivity), that “sex after 8 is too late,” and that every child is “fair game.”

Sane souls, to be sure, find those concepts sickening and appalling. But then, to believe what NAMBLA does, what the ACLU does, what, apparently, the current Justice Department in Washington does, you have to make some incredible leaps of faith and logic.

You have to believe that the men who wrote our Constitution despised Christian faith and morals and were indifferent to the concerns of parents for their children’s mental and emotional well-being – but were always deeply committed to the protection of deviants and pornographers.

You have to believe groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are a pernicious threat to the souls of our nation’s youth – but that the men and women who salivate over pornographic images mean our youngsters no harm.

You have to believe that immersing oneself day after day in deviant sexual imagery has no discernible impact on one’s mind, morals, habits, attitudes or relationships with children and people of the opposite sex.

You have to believe that – if the government would just leave them alone – young people living in a culture awash with hypersexualized imagery, language, programming, fashion and entertainment and given instant and unlimited access to technology, will deliberately discipline themselves not to send “sext” messages or lewd pictures of themselves and others over their cell phones, laptops and home computers. In other words, you have to believe the unbelievable to justify defending the indefensible.

Faced with the astonishing apathy of so many judges, legislators and government officials on an issue with such devastating implications for our most vulnerable citizens, it’s hard not to think that those who would pay any price to sustain their lucrative traffic in pornography are delighted to have found federal law enforcers who buy into their agenda.

Of course, the pornographers have the best lawyers and public relations teams billions can buy – and besides, they’ll get their money back and then some. But their profits, and this Justice Department’s passivity, are already costing the rest of us two things a great nation can ill afford to lose: the high moral ground and the souls of our children.

It’s hard to believe that’s the future our president, a man who so beautifully and publicly demonstrates his love for his daughters, wants for any of our children.

Alan Sears is president, chief executive officer and general counsel of the traditional-values Alliance Defense Fund and was executive director of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography under President Reagan.

American Family Association (AFA) today called on 7-Eleven stores to reconsider their decision to sell the November issue of Playboy, which will feature a cartoon character on the cover. The magazine will hit newsstands on October 16 with a cover and two-page centerfold featuring Marge Simpson, the mother on the Fox animated series The Simpsons.

“Most American dads know the dangers that porn represents to young males. It’s irresponsible of 7-Eleven to display porn in front of boys who pop into 7-11s for a hot dog or a Slurpee,” said Randy Sharp, AFA Special Projects Director.

“The cover will create the kind of curiosity that can easily lead them into an addictive porn habit,” he said. “This is not what American families want to see in their neighborhood convenience store.”

The magazine will be carried in the 1,200 7-Eleven stores that are corporately owned, stores that have been virtually porn-free for the last two decades.

Monica Cole, Director of AFA’s OneMillionMoms.com, and a mother herself, finds 7-Eleven’s decision deeply offensive. “Marge Simpson on the cover of Playboy is disturbing on so many levels,” she said. “7-Eleven has to know that using an animated character on the cover of a pornographic magazine is deceptive and harmful because it will attract the attention of children.

“It’s inexcusable for a company that wants to be a responsible member of American society to use a cartoon character to hawk pornography,” Cole said. “America’s moms didn’t like Joe Camel selling cigarettes to their kids, and they don’t want Marge Simpson selling degrading images of women either.

“A lot of moms are going to shop somewhere else if 7-Eleven doesn’t do the right thing and refuse to stock this magazine.”

American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over 2.5 million online supporters.

by MoralityInMedia.org

Pornography Awareness Week and White Ribbon Against Pornography Week (both running Sunday, Oct. 25, through Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009) will soon be here. Please, if you can, take at least one action step against pornography. Among the other things, an individual or organization can:

• Display white ribbons
• Write a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
• Ask your governor, mayor or city council to enact a resolution
• Make a complaint to a public official about distribution of obscene material in your community
• Ask a local business to stop distributing pornography
• Thank a local business for not distributing pornography
• Distribute literature to public officials, members of an organization or the general public
• Invite someone to your church or other religious group to give a testimony about their experience with pornography (as a victim or addict)
• Ask your pastor or other religious leader to preach or teach against pornography
• Pray fervently and in faith believing

There are many resources available at www.moralityinmedia.org (click to “WRAP Campaign”).

By Mitch Stacy –The Associated Press

When a single Florida county arrested 45 men and boys from all walks of life last June on charges of downloading child pornography, some people worried the place had become a haven for deviants.

But top law enforcement officials and child welfare experts say the only thing unusual about Polk County is that its sheriff, Grady Judd, happens to pursue child-porn enthusiasts with more fervor and resources than most.

Child porn has grown so pervasive on the Internet, they say, that police agencies all over the country, using the latest file-tracking technology, could easily spend every day finding and arresting offenders.

“Today, it’s truly like shooting fish in a barrel,” said Judd, who has directed four child pornography roundups since 2006, resulting in at least 176 arrests in Polk County, a patchwork of orange groves, phosphate mines, modest towns and a half-million people between Tampa and Orlando. The biggest city is Lakeland, population 90,000.

Mike Phillips, chief of the computer crimes section at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Polk’s sheer number of child pornography arrests in recent years is almost unheard of nationally for a single agency.

Judd, whose sheriff’s office houses the Internet Crimes Against Children task force for central Florida, has made sure his detectives have gotten the specialized training needed to identify and catch people who download the illegal material from the Internet. He notes that much of the legwork in the latest sweep was done by just two or three detectives, though more were required when deputies raided suspects’ homes.

The popular and media-friendly Judd, who when he needs guidance is as likely to reach for the Bible on his desk as he is to go flipping through the Florida criminal code, said his crusade against child porn comes from his fervent commitment to protect children. An “old vice guy,” he was arresting child pornographers when they were still trading in magazines and paper photographs.

“We are absolutely committed and send a clear message that if you engage in child pornography, if you’re trying to lure children online, we are going to seek you out, chase you to the ends of the earth and put you in jail,” the 55-year-old sheriff said.

Child pornography has exploded as Internet use has become commonplace. Experts say the images increasingly seem to feature younger children – infants and toddlers – being molested for the cameras in more violent and egregious ways. Most are abused and photographed by a parent, relative or someone else in a position of trust.

In this era of lean budgets, many law enforcement agencies don’t have the time, resources or inclination to aggressively pursue such crimes, experts say.

“Once you get the training and the resources, it’s very easy to pick these guys off, but law enforcement already has such problematic crimes competing for police resources,” said Keith Durkin, an Ohio Northern University sociology professor and frequent witness for the federal Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

Harold Copus, a former FBI agent who has extensively investigated child pornography cases, took a harder line on law enforcement efforts.

“It is spotty and totally inconsistent,” Copus said. “And it comes down to commitment and, quite frankly, laziness. There’s no pressure” from the public.

Phillips, the Florida computer crimes chief, said that because of limited resources, the June roundup was aimed at some of the worst offenders – those trading the most images or suspected of abusing children. The 45 people arrested had amassed up to 15,000 images.

Those arrested included a 50-year-old car salesman, a 62-year-old retired teacher, a 34-year-old pilot, a 43-year-old truck driver and a 22-year-old Sea World employee. Some had long criminal records. Others had none. Three were high school students.

“We have looked at the enemy, and he is us,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Computer analysts at the center investigate about 2,000 reports a week of suspected child pornography that come in from the public and online service providers. Tips to the center rose from 3,160 in 1998 to 101,748 in 2008, mirroring the spread of everyday Internet use, and analysts there have documented millions of images online.

Child pornography arrests by the 59 federally funded Internet Crimes Against Children task forces topped 3,000 last year for the first time, nearly double the number reported just four years ago.

Authorities ultimately will have to do more than slap handcuffs on people who make and view child pornography, said Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.

“This is not just a law enforcement issue,” he said. “This is not just about people doing something illegal and therefore we have to stop it. It’s making people understand why this is more of a societal issue, why this is more of a public health issue.”

Judd, who has battled adult bookstores and prostitution with similar zeal, gets angry just talking about the people who trade in the horrific images of child abuse.

He tells the story of one man caught in bed with a teen daughter when deputies barged in with a search warrant. Then there is the graphic online slideshow offering fathers step-by-step instructions for molesting their children.

“It is something we must wake up to,” Judd said. “And we are asleep at the wheel as a nation.”

Morality in Media has compiled information from hundreds of news articles and from court cases, social science studies, books, Congressional testimony, and other sources that show how the explosion of hardcore adult pornography on the Internet and elsewhere is contributing to the sexual exploitation of children. The works cited in the report were published from 1980 to the present.

The evidence compiled shows:

• Perpetrators use adult pornography to groom their victims.
• For many perpetrators there is a progression from viewing adult pornography to viewing child pornography.
• Johns act out what they view in adult pornography with child prostitutes and pimps use adult pornography to instruct child prostitutes.
• Children imitate behavior they view in adult pornography with other children
• Perpetrators use adult pornography to sexually arouse themselves.
• Addiction to adult pornography destroys marriages, and children raised in one-parent households are more likely to be sexually exploited.

The 40-page report entitled, “How Adult Pornography Contributes to Sexual Exploitation of Children,” is supplemented by 175 pages of appendices. The report with appendices is posted at Morality in Media’s www.obscenitycrimes.org website (“Porn Problem & Solutions” “Help for Porn Victims & Addicts” and “Help for Parents” pages). The report was compiled by MIM President Robert W. Peters.

In the report, Mr. Peters commends government and private entities for finally working together to curb sexual exploitation of children. He then states, “For the most part, however, these same…entities have turned a blind eye towards the explosion of hardcore adult pornography on the Internet and elsewhere… [T]hose who fight sexual exploitation of children but who turn their backs to the adult pornography problem are making a tragic mistake.”

Mr. Peters observes that while hardcore adult pornography does not depict actual children, it does “include hardcore depictions of sex with persons who look like children and with ‘barely legal teens.’ Hardcore adult pornography also encompasses depictions of sex with animals, other family members, multiple partners (‘gangbangs’), and prostitutes. It also depicts excretory activities and sexual violence against women, including rape and torture.”

Mr. Peters responds to the notion that online distributors of hardcore adult pornography are not breaking any laws. He writes, “[I]n 1996 Congress amended two sections of the federal obscenity laws… to clarify that distribution of obscene matter is prohibited on the Internet. In Miller v. California…the U.S. Supreme Court has also stated: ‘This much has been categorically settled by the Court, that obscene material is unprotected by the First Amendment.’ The Miller Court went on to define the term ‘obscene’ in a manner intended to restrict the reach of…obscenity laws to ‘hardcore’ pornography. Today, most adult pornography distributed commercially, whether online or elsewhere, is ‘hardcore.'”

In response to the assertion that that the average American no longer deems hardcore adult pornography unacceptable, he states, “Pornography defenders overlook at least three factors. First, much if not most hardcore adult pornography is consumed by a relatively small percentage of individuals who are addicted to it. Second, just because a person experiments with hardcore adult pornography for a period of time or on occasion succumbs to the temptation to view it does not mean he or she approves of what is viewed, especially when hardcore adult pornographers promote their products aggressively…Third, many visitors to ‘adult websites’ are minors.”

He also cites the results of four national opinion polls (conducted by Harris Interactive and Pew Research Center) indicating that most adults do not consider pornography morally acceptable or harmless and that they want federal obscenity laws enforced.

He explains why it is a mistake for the Justice Department and FBI to focus their energies almost exclusively on child molesters and child pornography because of limited resources. “In the first place,” he writes, “the explosion of hardcore adult pornography is contributing to sexual exploitation of children in various ways. In the second place, children are harmed not just by predators; they are also harmed by exposure to hardcore adult pornography…In the third place…a frequent result of a successful federal obscenity prosecution is a significant fine and/or forfeiture of property…[which] can offset in whole or part the cost of these cases. In the fourth place…it isn’t just children who are harmed by hardcore adult pornography.”

Mr. Peters sets forth reasons for why he thinks vigorous enforcement of obscenity laws will result in a number of benefits both to children and society. He also explains why federal obscenity laws are not being enforced vigorously, as they should be. Those at fault include the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI and Congress.

Mr. Peters states that in addition to law enforcement, “parental involvement, public education, the involvement of religious groups, and corporate responsibility are all desperately needed.”

The following sources are cited in the report and appendices: journals, including Aggressive Behavior, American Journal of Psychiatry, Child Abuse & Neglect, Child Maltreatment, CyberPsychology & Behavior, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, Journal of Sexual Aggression, Psychological Record, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, and Women and Criminal Justice; books, including “Pornography: Driving the Demand in International Sex Trafficking,” “Sex-Related Homicide and Death Investigation Sexual Abuse,” and “The Johns: Sex for sale and the men who buy it;” materials published by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, American Prosecutors Research Institute, COPA Commission, ECPAT, International Association of Police Chiefs, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, UN Human Rights Council and others; national opinion polls; federal and state court cases; testimony in legislative hearings; U.S. based news publications, including Associated Press, Boston Globe, New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami Herald, Mobile Register, Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star, Detroit Free Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kansas City Star, Omaha World-Herald, Tulsa World, Denver Post, Salt Lake Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Seattle Times; and news publications based in several other countries.

As more and more teenagers get caught sending and receiving sexually explicit images of themselves and classmates, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has released a policy statement on “sexting.” This publication serves as a primer for parents (and teenagers) about what sexting is, what it is not, how prevalent the problem is, and the consequences for those involved.

Teenagers, and even preteens, can and do use cell phones, computers, web cams, and digital cameras to produce sexually explicit pictures and videos. While this alone could be passed off as “kids being kids,” it is when these images and videos are transmitted over phones and the Internet that serious problems can arise. They may be intended for only one person, but can quickly spread, especially if that other person is a stranger or predator.

IFI encourages parents to read this policy statement, and take the necessary precautions to protect your children from the dangers of sexting.

By Allie Martin –OneNewsNow

Hundreds of pro-family activists say they’re not giving up in their quest for a meeting with U.S. Attorney GeneralEric Holder over pornography prosecutions.

In mid-July, more than 400 people signed a letter to Holder, requesting a meeting to discuss the expansion of pornography prosecutions. Late last month, the criminal division of the Department of Justice responded with a short note, thanking those who signed that letter and touting the DOJ’s crime-fighting efforts.

Pat Trueman, special counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, says the situation deserves special attention.

“We might respect a person’s right to say anything, do anything, but the Constitution doesn’t give us a right to just have unlimited porn — and there are limits,” says the pro-family attorney. “[T]he Justice Department knows what those limits are, and they should be prosecuting the illegal pornographers — and I think the public understands if you want to maintain a decent society, you have to enforce the laws against illegal pornography.”

During the Reagan years, Trueman served as chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.

WorldNetDaily.com

A new report documents how the federal government, busy suing Arizona for upholding national law regarding illegal aliens, has ignored all but a handful of documented cases of the purchase of child pornography by workers at the Department of Defense.

The report comes from Yahoo News, which said the information comes from a 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement review of the online purchases of child porn.

The report said the investigation discovered more than 250 workers – both civilian and military – in the Defense Department who charged porn to their credit cards or used their PayPal accounts.

However, only a “handful” even were investigated, the report said, citing Defense Department records.

The report said the “Project Flicker” work provided to ICE investigators the names and card information of 5,000 Americans, including those who gave military e-mail addresses when they bought the porn.

Judith Reisman, author of “Sexual Sabotage: How One Mad Scientist Unleashed a Plague of Corruption and Contagion on America,” said the case recalls the securities officials and “scores of other institutional leaders, not to mention the president offices when [President Bill Clinton] left.”

“So pornography is not addictive? And what people do in their privacy of their own homes is nobody’s business?” she said. “A significant number of these criminal addicts will have been sexually victimizing children, their own or others.”

“When I completed my study in 1985 of Images of Children, Crime & Violence in Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler, 1989, US Department of Justice, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Grant No. 84-JN-AX-K007, I predicted a massive increase in child sexual abuse and a mimicking of the child pornography in Playboy and its satellites. When I was a kid, in the 1940s living in a Judeo-Christian moral environment, America was laughed at by Europeans as a ‘Child Centered Society.’ Post-Kinsey, we are a ‘Child Abuse Society.’ So, which do we really prefer?”

Reisman, a Ph.D. who is sought worldwide for speaking and lecturing engagements, is a consultant, the scientific adviser for the California Protective Parents Association and former president of The Institute for Media Education.

She has consulted for four U.S. Department of Justice administrations, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Her book debunks the mythology that puts Alfred Kinsey on a pedestal.

Reisman, instead, describes how Kinsey’s “K-bomb” was a time-released explosion “set to silently emit erototoxic radioactivity into our atmosphere – unto the generations.”

She reports in her book that Kinsey and his cohorts “sabotaged our nation by entering our libraries and schools as ‘sex educators’ – ridiculing marriage, fidelity, and chastity.”

“They preached widespread sexual experimentation, succeeded in nationwide fraud campaigns, and gutted the tough laws that kept pornography and predators at bay,” she reports.

Her research includes explanations about:

-How, why, and by whom Americans’ traditional sexual morality has been violently subverted;

-“Sexual savior” Alfred Kinsey’s true and horrifying plans for American society;

-How and why the children of the Greatest Generation traded their parents’ traditional morality for Kinsey’s sexual immorality, believing sexual freedom was their own idea;

-The deviant fraud campaigns vetted by the Rockefeller Center and, later, Playboy;

-and the shocking statistics on child sexual abuse and abortion.

The Yahoo report said the Pentagon’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, in a related investigation, found those who appeared to be purchasing child porn included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the National Security Agency and workers in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The report says information obtained by the website The Upshot under the Freedom of Information Act shows 264 Defense employees or contractors had bought child porn online. Nine of those held “Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information” clearances. But only 52 were investigated, and only 10 were charged.

Among those identified but not charged was an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army as well as an official in the office of the secretary of defense.

Yahoo said its source, familiar with Project Flicker, said the inquires lapsed because of agency priorities and departmental resources.

The report said the source, who was granted anonymity because of fear over the person’s job, said there wasn’t any organized effort to even notify the commanding officers of the suspects’ purchases.

This is the kind of situation, Reisman notes, that results from the work of Kinsey and his fellow “researchers.”

In her “Sexual Sabotage” book, she reports how Kinsey surrounded himself with “homosexual lovers and pornography stars, sex procurers, panderers and predators, each with his own deviance,” and he “required (them) to look like sober, sensible professionals in suits and ties, with short hair.”

The illusion of buttoned-down normalcy allowed Kinsey’s seminal work to present clearly criminal findings with nominal outrage, said Reisman.

As “Sexual Sabotage” reports: “‘Sexual Behavior in the Human Male’ reports data ‘on 214 male children’ … Kinsey asserted, ‘Of the 214 cases … all but 14 were subsequently observed in orgasm.’ Observed?! Who ‘subsequently observed’ (defined as ‘occurring or coming later or after’) these infants and boys being – yes – sexually tortured, timed and recorded? Who, of Kinsey’s team, did this under his direction? The youngest boy tested to ‘climax’ is ‘2 mon.’ old.”

The pornography industry, which experienced huge growth during the 1990s — thanks in large part to the lack of prosecution by the federal Department of Justice — is suffering large losses during the most recent recession. A growing abundance of free content on the Internet is undercutting consumers’ willingness to pay for porn, according to a story in the LA Times.

Industry insiders estimate that since 2007, revenue for most porn production and distribution companies has declined 30 to 50 percent and the number of new films made has fallen sharply. “It’s the free stuff that’s killing us, and that’s not going away,” said Dion Jurasso, owner of porn production company Combat Zone, which has seen its business fall about 50 percent in the last three years.

While the industry may be suffering financially, the problem of pornography and its easy availability on the Internet continues to get worse. At least five of the 100 top websites in the U.S. are portals for free pornography, referred to in the industry as “tube sites,” according to Internet traffic ranking service Alexa.com. Some of their content is amateur work uploaded by users and some is acquired from cheap back catalogs, but much of it is pirated.

The Times article says that the only growth market most executives see is mobile devices, since they let consumers watch porn anywhere and in relative privacy. Major companies that serve as a gateway to content on cellphones in the U.S. such as Verizon don’t allow explicit adult content. But like cable and satellite companies in the 1990s, they may change their minds when they see the potential profit.

Source: Tough times in the porn industry (LA Times)

The Knights of Columbus have taken a stand against the porn industry, calling on law enforcement to vigorously prosecute illegal pornography, encouraging the entertainment industry to help halt the steady erosion of public standards of decency and calling on all Knights to support groups that work to oppose pornography. The full resolution is re-printed below. The 1.78 million member Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic fraternal and philanthropic organization.

The Impact of Violence and Pornography
Resolution on the Impact of Violence and Pornography
adopted by the 127th Supreme Convention on Aug. 6, 2009.

WHEREAS, modern society has become saturated with sexually explicit, violent and profane materials, in movies, on television, in video games and especially on the Internet, where there are more than four million pornographic Web sites and as much as 35 percent of all Web content is pornographic; and

WHEREAS, pornography has become a $12 billion a year industry and is now a major source of revenue for organized crime; and

WHEREAS, the costs to society are enormous, and include infidelity, broken marriages, both direct and indirect harm to children and a general breakdown of moral standards of every sort; and

WHEREAS, violence and pornography in the media are an assault on the fundamental human dignity of every person, and especially victimize women and children;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Knights of Columbus calls upon law enforcement officials at all levels to vigorously investigate and prosecute criminal conduct in this area, especially child pornography; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, that we commend those in the entertainment industry who provide family-friendly programming and products, pledge, as consumers to support them, and call upon the industry in general to halt the steady erosion of public standards of decency and restraint; and

FURTHER RESOLVED, that we encourage all parents to foster a wholesome atmosphere and open communication on sexual matters within the family, and call upon all Knights to support groups that work to oppose pornography and promote family values and respect for human dignity in the media.

By Associated Press –Fox News

Los Angeles County health officials say there have been 16 previously unpublicized confirmed cases of HIV in adult film industry performers since 2004 when an outbreak shut down porn production for a month.

The county Department of Public Health data was requested by The Los Angeles Times and announced Thursday.

The newly released data brings the number of known HIV cases in adult film performers to 22 since 2004, including a porn actress who tested positive late last week.

The San Fernando Valley-based Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation announced Wednesday that an actress tested positive for HIV last Saturday.

Adult film industry workers had described the new case as the first since 2004.

Adult filmmakers in the U.S. now require that actors prove they have tested negative for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases within 30 days of going to work on a film.

Still, the tests aren’t foolproof, as was revealed this week when an actress who had passed an HIV test before making a film tested positive immediately afterward.

That positive result was reported by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation. Known in the industry as AIM, the organization tests hundreds of actors each month in the San Fernando Valley, where the U.S. porn industry is headquartered. It grants those who pass certificates allowing them to work.

Although the woman’s co-stars have tested negative, they have been quarantined from acting for the time being and advised to be retested in two weeks because medical experts say it takes almost that long for a person to show signs of infection.

That means the woman’s case should be a wake-up call to the adult film industry that it isn’t doing enough to protect its performers, said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health.

He said the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health requires that safe sex be practiced on all adult movie sets.

“But we have persistent reports that that is not the case,” he said, adding his department receives an average of 15 reports a week from the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation of actors testing positive for other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia.

“That’s obviously very disturbing,” Fielding said. “I don’t know of any other industry where people are subjected to that kind of risk.”

He called for the use of condoms on all adult films as one means of providing necessary worker safety.

After an HIV outbreak in 2004 spread panic through the industry and briefly shut down production at several studios, many producers did indeed begin making condoms a requirement. But they said both actors and audiences quickly rebelled.

“What happened was the talent didn’t want to use condoms,” said Steven Hirsch, co-Chief Executive of Vivid Entertainment Group, one of the multibillion-dollar industry’s largest filmmakers. “They came to us and said repeatedly, ‘Could we have choice?’ … As a result, we decided to go condom optional. Plus we’re very comfortable with what AIM is doing with the 30-day testing.”

Late Thursday, county heath officials released data indicating that there were 16 previously unpublicized confirmed cases of HIV in adult film industry performers since 2004.

That brings the number of known HIV cases in adult performers to 22 since 2004, according to the data requested and reported by The Los Angeles Times.

AIM, founded by former porn star Sharon Mitchell, who left adult movies to earn a doctorate in human sexuality, maintains a computer database that film producers can check to determine that actors have passed their tests. Devereaux said this has reduced the forging of test certificates, something she said was more common during the ’90s, a time when tests were required only every 90 days.

The woman who tested positive hasn’t been identified by AIM officials, but Fielding said he expected the foundation would turn her name over to county authorities soon and when it did they would counsel her and any of her sexual contacts.

Mark Kernes, senior editor at the Adult Video News media network, said word in the industry is that she is an older woman who only acts occasionally in films targeted to young men’s fantasies and thus is believed to have acquired the virus from a non-actor. He, like others, hopes it will spread no further.

Like other businesses, the porn industry has been affected by the recession and the increasing availability of its product for free on the Internet. But it is still an enterprise that Kernes estimates generated $8 billion in revenue last year.

With so much at stake, Hirsch said it makes sense that the industry would do everything it could to police itself.

“People in our industry have sex for a living so they are hypersensitive when it comes to disease,” he said. “If they’re unable to work they are not making any money.”

He considered it significant that there has been only one confirmed case of HIV in the industry in the past five years, a period during which he estimated the business churned out as many as 100,000 films.

“Look,” he said, “I wish it would be zero. But it was only one and it was dealt with immediately. I believe it just proves the system works.”

An associate professor at York University in Toronto believes “sexting” — youngsters sending nude photos of themselves via cell phone — is not child pornography, and senders shouldn’t be prosecuted.

Professor Peter Cumming presented a paper at the 78th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, saying sexting is similar to “spin-the-bottle” or “playing doctor.” Pat Trueman, special counsel for Alliance Defense Fund, tells OneNewsNow that is a real stretch.

“Sexting is really children producing child pornography. Our society is in deep trouble that we’ve come to this,” he believes. “Child pornography is a serious crime for anyone. But to have children beginning in their young ages producing child pornography — what will these kids grow up to be like as adults?”

Laws exist that prohibit production and distribution of child pornography and should be enforced, according to Trueman. He contends if there is no prosecution, youngsters will consider that a green flag to continue the trend.

“But if we enforce the child pornography laws, even in the juvenile courts where the punishment will be less, these kids will stop sexting,” Trueman notes. “You can count on that.”

Trueman adds that now is a good time for parents to talk with their children to make sure they understand the dangers and consequences of sexting. He urges parents to check their children’s phones to see how they are using them, because children as young as ten have posed nude and taken pictures using their cell phones, sending the pictures to peers.

By Gerald Korson –Fathers For Good

A growing problem that calls for serious solutions

Henry seemed to have it all – a good marriage, four young children, and a solid middle-management position with a financial corporation. He and his family lived in a good suburban neighborhood and were active in their local parish, where Henry was involved in the music ministry. At 35 years of age, he was poised for a promotion to a more lucrative upper-management post within the next few years.

He always worked long hours, both at the office and at home, but in recent months he had shown signs of stress. To his wife and children, he seemed more distant, irritable and gloomy, and he was spending longer and longer hours at the computer. He often missed family outings, saying he needed to complete more work. Even his co-workers noticed a change in his mood and productivity. He simply wasn’t himself.

Everything came crashing down one evening when Henry’s 11-year-old daughter walked into his den – and caught him watching an explicit internet porn video. Horrified, she told her mother, and this now-disillusioned family suddenly had some very serious issues to face.

A Hidden Addiction

Tragically, Henry’s situation is not at all unique. While pornography has been around for centuries, the problem of addiction has increased dramatically in recent years largely due to the vast presence of pornography on the internet.

Dr. Patrick Carnes, who in 1983 first advanced the idea that a person could become addicted to sex, calls the addiction to internet pornography “the crack cocaine of sexual addiction.” Like crack, it doesn’t take long for an internet porn user to become hooked – often just a few weeks. And like crack, habitual viewing of online porn creates an intense cycle of addiction that is extremely difficult to break without expert assistance.

The effects of internet pornography upon marriage, the family and the individual are devastating.

1. It destroys the trust and intimacy between husband and wife and often leads to marital breakup.

2. By exploiting human persons and turning them into mere objects for one’s own sexual satisfaction, pornography creates obstacles to real communication and personal interaction with one’s own spouse and with others.

3. It stimulates within the porn addict a distorted view of sexuality that can lead to the desire for increasingly riskier, more perverse and even criminal sexual behaviors.

4. Like any addiction, it draws focus away from one’s family life and relationship with God and sets a destructive example for children.

5. Viewing pornography and engaging in masturbation are serious sins that can block God’s grace when it’s needed most.

“This plague stalks the souls of men, women and children, ravages the bonds of marriage and victimizes the most innocent among us,” writes BishopPaul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, in his 2006 pastoral letter Bought with a Price: Pornography and the Attack on the Living Temple of God. “It obscures and destroys people’s ability to see one another as unique and beautiful expressions of God’s creation, instead darkening their vision, causing them to view others as objects to be used and manipulated.”

Epidemic proportions

Catholics and other Christians are not immune to porn addiction. Some estimates put porn use among church-going men at 50 percent, a figure that differs little from use among the adult male population at large.

It’s an epidemic that is exploding in the internet age. A few decades ago, a man who wanted pornographic entertainment would have to visit a rundown X-rated theater in the seediest part of town or covertly purchase a racy magazine at the corner liquor store.

But with today’s internet, explicit pornographic images and videos are readily available – often at no cost, and with few or no barriers to users of all ages in the relative privacy of their own homes. It’s as easy to access porn online as it is to log on to sites like YouTube or Facebook, and it can even be downloaded to an iPod or cell phone.

For Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, the internet is the primary factor in the increase in porn use.

“Particularly with the internet, we usually talk about the three A’s – accessibility, affordability, and anonymity – and sometimes I add a fourth A, addiction,” says Peters. “Pornography is addictive in any medium, but when you’ve got this smorgasbord at your fingertips, and you’re clever enough to keep anyone from finding out about it, it’s an awful lot easier for people to get into pornography.”

Those factors also make it much easier for children and teenagers to access pornography, according to Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a medical doctor and director of the Institute for Marital Healing, near Philadelphia.

“Unfortunately, kids in elementary and high schools can develop a really bad problem with porn at a very early age,” Fitzgibbons says. “They go to school and talk about porn sites with their friends. If it were not for the internet, these kids would not be into this fantasy world.”

Peters echoes this assessment. “With the advent of the internet, more and more children are being exposed to pornography, and at earlier ages, and to more extreme content,” he says.

Into the darkness

An internet porn habit may begin out of curiosity, by clicking on a racy advertisement or an e-mail or happening upon a site by accident. A man may continue to explore online porn because he feels it fills a real or perceived need, explains Mark Houck, co-founder and president of The King’s Men, a Catholic apostolate based in the Philadelphia area.

“Perhaps he is stressed at work, or perhaps he is bored with his life and looking for some excitement,” says Houck. “Whatever the case is, it begins with his false perception that the women and images he will see on the internet will satisfy his needs. The truth of the matter is that they will never satisfy his needs, and he will be left in a worse situation than he was before.”

Factors that may lead to the development of a porn-viewing habit include stress, marital conflict, profound self-centeredness, or the “pleasure principle,” a Freudian term for the drive to avoid pain and seek immediate gratification.

Sometimes there is a contributing cause in what Dr. Fitzgibbons calls “marital loneliness.”

“The couple has drifted apart in the home,” Dr. Fitzgibbons says. “They love each other, but they’re not present to each other, particularly in the evening. They’re in different rooms, even different floors of the house. That’s the worst mistake.”

Whatever the root causes, a man’s attraction to pornographic images can bring about a mental “high” that provides a brief escape from whatever stress or unhappiness he is experiencing in his daily life. It usually also provokes physical arousal, which leads the man to masturbate. Often this act is followed by guilt, shame, depression, and even self-loathing. Yet the attraction to this “high” soon returns, and he will likely be drawn back to the internet to enter this world of fantasy again and again.

Gradually, the porn addiction takes more time and more images. “What you see on the internet today is nothing more than the product of millions of porn addicts’ insatiable desire for their next high,” Houck says.

A destructive cycle

Eventually, the anonymity ends when the secret gets out. The increase in internet pornography addiction has brought with it an increase in the number of men and couples seeking help to overcome the problem – although it is not usually the man’s idea to seek help, says Dr. Fitzgibbons.

“Sometimes it’s the men, but more often the wives become aware that their husbands have this problem,” he says.

Most wives consider their husband’s porn use as a betrayal every bit as deep and damaging as if they had committed adultery.

“The negative impact on marriages is quite significant,” says Dr. Fitzgibbons. “I’ve had many women say that this is no different to them than their husband having an affair.”

Dr. Art Bennett, director of Alpha Omega Clinic and Consultation Services in Bethesda, Md., says that “the only way the addict can relieve these uncomfortable feelings of shame and guilt is to slip once more into the ‘erotic haze’ of cybersex, which then further ensnares the user in the web of addiction.”

The user may try to stop, but the withdrawal symptoms drive him right back to the very source of his addiction, Bennett says.

Tough road to recovery

While some experts object to using the medical term of addiction, most therapists in the field today agree that obsessive viewing of internet porn qualifies as a behavioral addiction: When a man views the images, the accompanying gratification tends to neurochemically “hard-wire” his brain and burn the images permanently in his memory in what some doctors call an “eroto-toxin” effect.

It thus becomes perhaps a more dangerous addiction because it derives not from an external substance, as in drug or alcohol addiction, but is internalized within the addict.

Rebuilding marital trust after the addiction is discovered is a major undertaking, says Dr. Fitzgibbons. The man must patiently discuss and rehash all that went on as deeply and as often as she requests. He must provide her with more attention and become more focused on their marital friendship. With time, if he can be chaste and accountable, his wife’s trust in him may grow again.

Part of the recovery process as well as a preventive measure is for husband and wife to practice good interpersonal communication and to spend quality time together – in other words, to build and maintain a strong marital friendship.

“Marital friendship is based on talking, communicating, being present to the other – not just watching television, but taking time to discuss matters or to do things together, even pray together,” Fitzgibbons says.

Effective dealing with stress is also essential. “You have to be really careful,” he noted. “You can get stressed, drained, and seek to escape it. Some people drink too much, gamble, or seek some other kind of high, even sports. For other guys, it’s a pornographic escape.”

The spiritual dimension

While treatment clinics and support groups can be helpful, Dr. Fitzgibbons strongly advises a strong spiritual component. “Where there is a spiritual component to the recovery, we have seen great success,” he says. “The Lord doesn’t want this darkness to interfere with the great sacrament of marriage.”

This would include recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist as well as a commitment to a fervent prayer life.

For resources on overcoming porn addiction, visit Where To Find Help.