Pornography

We live in a digital world full of indecent imagines and inappropriate texts. Pornography is growing at rates that are hard to keep up with.  We have been warned of the damaging effects of pornography  has on individuals and on marriages. Statistics from, familysafemedia.com and several different reputable sources including Google, Word Tracker, PBS, MSNBC, NRC, and Alexa show that:

• The worldwide pornography industry generates revenues of around $ 56 billion, of which $12 billion is in the US. Child pornography generates about $3 billion annually.

• There are around 4.2 million pornography websites (12% of total websites) offering about 372 million pages. About 100,000 sites offer child pornography.

• There are around 68 million requests to search engines daily for pornographic content (25% of total search engine requests).

• There are about 1.5 billion pornographic downloads each month (35% of all downloads).

In my marriage, there are things I can do to help protect myself and my spouse from the damaging influence of pornography.  I can make sure that my husband and I set boundaries on our use of electronics. Just as we set limits on our children’s use of technology use, we too can do the same for ourselves. I am reminded of a conference we had with the youth in our ward about the dangers of technology.  Our bishop gave the youth some great tips and safeguards for the youth follow. I think those tips and safeguards can be applied in my own marriage.

We need to keep an open line of communication with one another.  It’s important to check in on each other.  I personally will ask my husband randomly if there is anything we wants to talk about or if there are things he has seen or has been looking at and he does the same with me.  It isn’t awkward or weird for us because we both know the importance of just checking in.  Our bishop in our singles ward suggested that it’s a good thing for couples to do and we decided to follow that counsel.

In our home the computer is in a common place that is open to the rest of the house.  Having the computer in a central area helps prevent any type of temptation for looking up inappropriate media. Knowing that at any moment someone could walk by doesn’t allow for much secrecy.

I think the most important thing my husband and I can do is to make sure that we are sticking to the covenants we made in the Holy Temple nearly 12 years ago.  We can set up spiritual safeguards by having family prayer, individual prayers, and prayers as a couple.  By reading from the scriptures we learn from those of old. If we are doing our best to live a life as Christ lived there isn’t room for the evils of pornography and the trail of despair it leaves behind.