The Dangers of porn addiction:

Predators on the Net

Justin Berry, a teenager from California was a lonely boy who thought the internet would be a good device to make friends. Instead he landed himself in the sordid world of sexually-abused victims. He believed that the people who invited him to chat were good. They complimented him. They wanted to know about his day’s schedules. Soon drugs, sex and money would dominate his life; he became an internet porn star, making thousands of dollars by posting pictures of himself on the internet.

But Justin’s case is not unique. There are today hundreds of thousands of kids caught up in this horror. After attending a media seminar for parents, a distraught-looking woman said: “l was led to believe that it was no big deal until I found out that my son was addicted to internet pornography and violent video games.” As her son spent more and more time on the computer, his life and that of the entire family, began to spin out of control. Unfortunately, many of us think ‘it’s no big deal.’ Often we do not want to face the truth.

According to a recent study, teenagers and young adults spend an average of about 50-60 hours a week on internet, cell phone and television combined together. That is about 1/3 of the entire week.

An explosion in media usage means both parents and children need to be more alert to the dangers. Apart from the pornographic materials that can be found in the online social networking sites, there is also the predator element. People who post to the site are not always who they say they are, and thus young people can be easily deceived by the sexual predators posing as teens themselves. A 49-year-old woman posed as a 16-year-old boy and lured a girl of 15. When the girl found out that her online love affair was ending in failure, she committed suicide. A teenager from Saginaw, Michigan, travelled to Amman, Jordan, to be with a man she met through a social network site.

Action plans to escape the Dangers of porn addiction and predator postures:

1. Parents — have a clear vision of what you want for your children. Monitor the websites they visit and place time limit on computer and internet usage, both by you and your children.

2. Keep computers with internet access or video games out of children’s bedrooms, but only in the common area of the house.

3.Children - talk with family members any possible online dangers, including cyber bullying and sexual solicitations.

4. Never give out personal information online.

5. Make use of internet blocking programmes and filters.

6. Develop firm and clear media guidelines concerning the acceptable content of websites, networking, music, videos and video games.