Know the Facts
Knowledge about pornography addiction can help you recognize pornography addiction. Learn how to help yourself and the ones you love.
Some Statistics
- 11- to 13-year-olds 50%
- 14- to 15-year-olds 65%
- 16- to 17-year-olds 78%
reported to having seen pornography in some way (shown/sent by someone else, searched for/stumbled upon it).
%
aged 11 to 13 came across pornography mostly unintentional.
%
of parent's felt their child would not have seen pornography.
%
of children said they had in fact seen pornography.
%
view pornography through their smartphones and tablets.
%
started to view pornography between the ages of 11 to 13
Source: Report on People, Pornography & Age Verification (bbfc, September 2019)
What Can We Do?
Recognizing that there is not one single solution to 100% effectively block and filter ourselves and our children from the dangers and garbage available on the Internet, there are several strategies we can implement to limit its influence over us:
1. Talk to our children at an early age.
Today’s teens, tweens, and school-age children are getting more and more technologically sophisticated, very often outpacing what their parents know about these high-tech gadgets.
The bottom line is this: We can’t get away from the fact that our children very well might encounter pornography. As such, having a “safe” person who can discuss their feelings, fears, and confusion about it, is vital.
We also need to educate our children about how sex is depicted in pornography so that they can learn to distinguish these images from what real sex may one day be like.
Finally, our children need to know that they have someone to come to if they see any disturbing depictions of sex in pornography.
2. Protect Your Family with a Filter.
Filters are can be installed on individual devices and implemented on routers, allowing you to safely browse the internet in the knowledge that you are much less likely to stumble across inappropriate content. Filters offer plenty of features, including the ability to block harmful websites, limit access to social networks, set screen time limits, view reports of internet usage and even track kid’s locations.
3. Have an Accountability Partner
Pornography hurts countless people across the world and devastates many relationships. Learn how accountability can help you overcome pornography and develop healthy habits. An accountability partner is the one with whom you build a relationship based on reciprocity. There is commitment, mutual agreement, and you provide feeback to each other regularly.
An accountability partner can be a much needed and treasured source of motivation, inspiration, strength and support.
4. Limit the Amount of Time Spent on the Internet
The entire world is at our fingertips and when you think about it, it’s amazing that anyone gets anything done at all. Easy access to social media, Google and streaming sites provide easy entertainment, which are, by design, addictive.
This behavior can have so many negative impacts on your life. Not only does it waste time and hinder productivity, but spending too much time on your phone can lead to impaired memory, concentration, and cognitive function. Overuse of social media frequently leads to issues with self-esteem, confidence, and anxiety, and it can affect you physically too.
5. Stay Current and Continue to Talk with Your Kids
Our children are growing with more skills and an understanding of their future possibilities far beyond whatever crossed the minds of today’s adult generations. It is up to us, the grown-ups, to do our part and help them navigate these immense resources. But let’s not forget that to do that, we need to ’embed ourselves’ in these technologies and services in order to understand how they work.
And what is better than learning together with our kids?
