Fight the New Drug: What Parents Need to Know

The online world seems to get more and more dangerous for our children (and grandchildren for those of us who are grandparents). But there is a new movement and new hope. I’m excited about a group of young people who are working to make a difference with their “fight the new drug” message.

The New Drug

What is the “new drug”? Yes, it’s pornography. It is a drug. Science is showing real dangers of watching porn. And it isn’t a minor issue. “Various international studies have put porn consumption rates at 50 percent to 99 percent among men, and 30 percent to 86 percent among women.”

What about your kids? A video (now made private) tells that the “largest group of internet porn users is youth ages 12 to 17…. Do you know what the average age of exposure is for pornography? 11 years old. And 9 out of 10 youth ages 8 to 16 have seen it.”

If you’re still wondering if you or your kids can avoid online pornography, just check out a few of the hashtags on Instagram or Pinterest. While the article talks about explicit porn sites, there are too many porn images on what would appear to be innocent hashtags as well. Who would think seemingly innocent social media sites would have so much pornography?

Fight the New Drug: The New Anti-Porn Movement

Fortunately, many people are fed up and wanting to make a difference. One of the young people wanting to make a difference is Elizabeth Smart:

And some unlikely people have joined together in the fight against pornography. In a recent op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, Rabbi Boteach collaborated with actress Pamela Anderson (“Take the Pledge: No More Indulging Porn”) to warn about the addictive dangers of porn. It’s a powerful article with ideas such as “the incidence of porn addiction will only spiral as the children now being raised in an environment of wall-to-wall, digitized sexual images become adults inured to intimacy and in need of even greater graphic stimulation. They are the crack babies of porn.”

Yet, at the end, they give hope:

“The sensual revolution would replace pornography with eroticism—the alloying of sex with love, of physicality with personality, of the body’s mechanics with imagination, of orgasmic release with binding relationships. In an age where public disapproval is no longer an obstacle to personal disgrace, we must turn instead to the appeal of self-interest.

“Simply put, we must educate ourselves and our children to understand that porn is for losers—a boring, wasteful and dead-end outlet for people too lazy to reap the ample rewards of healthy sexuality.”

What You Can Do to Fight the New Drug

Learn everything you can.

Spend some time on the website Fight the New Drug and its Fight the New Drug YouTube channel.

Read about how to protect children from pornography.

Amazon Affiliate:

If you have kids or grandkids, be sure to get a porn blocker:

Check out what you can do to get involved through FighttheNewDrug.org.

More Ideas about Staying Safe and Happy in a High-Tech World

What Parents Need to Know about Smartphone Safety

Are You Really Present for Your Family and Friends?

Don’t Let Your Smartphone or Tablet Steal Your Precious Family Time

How to Stop Phubbing Your Family

Are You and Your Children Suffering from Nature-Deficit Disorder?

How Do Your Family Technology Rules Compare with Those of Steve Jobs and Other Top Tech People?

Technology has a lot of positive things to offer. Now we just need to all work together to fight the negative things.

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