PORNOGRAPHY RESOURCES

WEBSITES

 

 

http://www.protectkids.com/ - This is a good, secular site that can help with connecting parents to internet filters and other programs that can help keep kids safe while on the internet.

 

 

http://www.safefamilies.org An important site offering free protective software and important guidelines.

 

http://www.familylifetoday.com/articles/article_detail.asp?id=310 – This page can help parents to be proactive in their approach to pornography and also speaks of female struggles.

 

http://www.familylifetoday.com/articles/article_detail.asp?id=311 – This is another page that gives a great example of a father being proactive and talking to his son about pornography.

 

 

http://www.familylifetoday.com/articles/article_detail.asp?id=309 – This article speaks directly to parents about how they can confront pornography, biblically, in their own lives so as to be an example to their kids.

 

 

http://www.familylifetoday.com/articles/article_detail.asp?id=798 – This chilling story tells of the dangers of chat sites and their link to online predators, and speaks of ways to keep your kids safe while on the internet.

 

 

http://www.pureintimacy.org/cs/parents/restoration/a0000173.cfm - This is an amazing article on how to confront your children about using pornography.  The bottom of the article gives four-pronged approach to helping your kids avoid pornography in the future.

 

 

http://www.family.org/socialissues/Pornography/ - Focus on the family’s extensive online library of resources for pornography abuse.  Their section on Children and pornography is loaded with great statistical research.

 

 

 

http://www.pureintimacy.org/gr/getting_started/ - The entire site of the article listed above.  This site deals with sexuality issues in Christian lives today.  It is not only great for pornography information, but also homosexuality and addiction issues as well.

 

http://www.contentwatch.com/ - If you are willing to pay for it, this is an excellent internet filter, that will not only block most pornography, but can limit internet usage to certain times of day as well.  [author’s note:  This is my internet filter of choice.  It works very well.  You do have to pay to download it, but most of the free internet filters on the internet are either very obtrusive and block too much content (for example, Fantasy Football) or are ineffective in blocking non-obvious pornography sites (for example, foreign pornography sites, message boards, and text based sites).]

 

NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

American Family Association

P.O. Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803.  This organization, formerly known as the National Federation for Decency, has been extremely effective in influencing advertisers and television networks. Their tactics are directed at the leaders of those industries and involve the boycotting of all products made by companies that advertise in pornographic magazines or on blatantly offensive television shows.

 

The Child and Family Protection Institute
721 2nd Street, NE, Washington, DC 20020. Though involved in more than the fight against pornography, this organization is very interested in curbing the trend. They have produced several articles and books on the subject, and are a good source of current information on pornography.

 

Citizens for Decency Through Law, Inc.
11000 North Scottsdale Road, Suite 210, Scottsdale, AZ 85254.  This organization is working through the legislative process to tighten laws concerning pornography. They also are pushing for more consistent enforcement of current obscenity and pornography laws. Many of those laws are adequate to greatly impact the operations of many pornography production and distribution systems if enforced.

Concerned Women for America

P.O. Box 65453, Washington, DC 20035-5453.  This organization, with nearly 750,000 members, is much larger than the National Organization for Women (NOW). It receives much less press than NOW, but has had influence on both the national and state levels in effecting legislation. Pornography is one of CWA’s concerns, and they are working to limit its spread. Local chapters of CWA are also growing.

Focus on the Family

, Colorado Springs, CO. 
This organization could be one of the most influential Christian organizations in the United States. Though pornography is only one of numerous family issues with which FOF is involved, it does periodically receive attention on their daily, national radio program. In addition to that radio time, FOF urges listeners to contact governmental authorities in phone or letter campaigns. FOF also produced a fine film/video resource titled, "The Winnable War". It addresses what citizens can do to rid their neighborhoods, cities, states, and country of pornography. FOF has also conducted an interview with Ted Bundy, a serial killer executed in Florida’s electric chair. Bundy’s remarks about the role of pornography in his crimes are powerful. The tape is available at cost, and may be worth using under the right circumstances.

 

Morality in Media
475 Riverside Drive, New York City, NY 10155.  A media watchdog, this organization attempts to suppress the growing presence of sexually oriented television programming.

 

National Coalition Against Pornography, Inc.
800 Compton Road, Suite 9248, Cincinnati, OH 45231. The NCAP combats the spread of pornography through public awareness and legislative action. They produced a fine summary of the 1986 Attorney General’s report.

TechMission - Safe Families

"Safe Families, a program of TechMission Inc., seeks to help keeping children in at-risk and under-resourced communities safe from pornography, predators, and other dangers while online. They do this by offering free internet filtering software and by providing training materials to parents, pastors, and non-profits."

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

Local chapters of national organizations might be available in your community, but will not likely be in the white or yellow pages. Contact churches in your area to determine if they are doing anything about local pornography. If a secular anti-pornography movement has started locally, the newspapers would probably have covered it.

BOOKS

 

Eysenck, H.J. & Nias, D.K.B. (1978). Sex, violence and the media. New York City: Harper and Row. Reports on studies involving sexual attitudes and the effects of media on those attitudes.

 

Final report of the attorney general’s commission on pornography. (1986). Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press. Must-reading that gives the broadest possible exposure to pornography, its production, distribution, content, effect, and regulation. Not light reading; should be considered a reference work for people serious about understanding pornography.

 

Griffiths, R. (1975). Art, pornography and human value. Nottingham, Great Britain: Grove. A short dissertation advocating a critical look at all forms of pornography and the application of biblical moral standards as a guide.

 

Kirk, J. (1985). The mind polluters. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers. A brief history of and discussion about the harm of pornography by a leader in the anti-pornography movement. The majority of the book addresses ways for individuals and groups to become involved in the fight against pornography.

 

Malamuth, N.M. & Donnerstein, E. (ed.). (1984). Pornography and sexual aggression. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. The editors recommend that some type of control be exercised over some of the current pornography, but they recognize it is a difficult task.

 

Williams, T.M. (1976). See no evil. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing. Though dated, this is an excellent, biblically sound approach to pornography. Short and readable, this is excellent for developing a personal theology concerning pornography.

ARTICLES

 

Cline, V.B. (1984). Aggression against women: The facilitating effects of media violence and erotica (Lecture). An excellent presentation of the relationship between violence in America and pornography. He sums research done by Donnerstein and Malamuth, two top researchers in the field of pornography.

 

Elias, M. (1985, October 2). Playboy can make men fickle about mates. USA Today. Summary of the research done at Arizona State University by Douglas Kendrick. The study showed that viewing even mild pornography negatively affected the appraisal of real life people and relationships.

 

Exposure to erotic materials during adolescence: Male rapists, pedophiles, transsexuals and heavy pornography users vs. controls. No author cited. PsycINFO Database Copyright 1974. (On-line). Available: Electric Library. Abstracts from various journal articles regarding the effects of pornography and violent sexual crime (particularly rape, pedophilia, and other sex-related disturbances). One in particular cites the fact that the control group composed of non-offenders reports greater use of pornography than the sex offenders.

 

Ferraro, Monique & Eoghan Casey (2004) Investigating Child Exploitation and Pornography: The Internet, Law and Forensic Science, Academic Press, 320pp. Explore this new location for sexual predators. This book offers you a “history of child exploitation cases and studies, outlining the roles of technology in this type of crime and the evidence they can contain.” Looks at the real cases to establish guidelines for investigation and prosecution.

 

Goodhue, T.W. (1990, January). Pornography: Who gets hurt? Youth, 5(5), 4-10. A light discussion from a fairly liberal perspective. The author uses a narrow definition of pornography that excludes many of the photographs appearing in Playboy and other magazines.

 

Laphan, L.H. (1984, November). The place of pornography. Harper’s, pp. 31-45. A secular panel discussion of the role of pornography in the United States. It highlights the views of extreme pro-pornography to anti-pornography. Has interesting insight into the feminist perspective that only pornography degrading women should be outlawed.

 

Leo, J. (1987, March 30). Romantic porn in the boudoir. Time, pp. 63-65. A report of female influence on pornography. Pornography produced by women emphasizes more romance and foreplay before mutually consenting acts. It represents a possible softening of attitudes toward pornography by women and couples. It may be the kind of material that some feminist leaders endorse. Profiles some of the women who produce pornography.

 

Mawyer, M. (1988, March). Stripping the pornography industry. Fundamentalist Journal, 7(3), 53-55. A report on the recent success of the National Obscenity Enforcement Unit in legal action against pornographers. Also notes the need to do more.

 

Meddis, S. (1987, December 10). Parents disconnect dial-a-porn. USA Today. Parents of a 12-year-old boy and the 4-year-old girl he raped facilitated legislation against Dial-A-Porn in California. The boy had listened to Dial-A-Porn rape and incest accounts for more than two hours, two weeks prior to the rape.

 

Paul, Pamela (2006)  Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families, Owl Books, 320pp. This book argues from a post-feminist perspective that “pornography, like alcohol or cigarettes, should be ‘discouraged,’ and proposes an effort by the government and private sector to quell consumer demand.” The author interviewed 100 persons, 80 of them young straight men. The book takes the uninitiated into the realities of Internet porn verbally and should be labeled X for cautious adults who need to know.

Saunders, Kevin W. (1996) Violence as Obscenity: Limiting the Media’s First Amendment Protections, Duke Univ. Press, 256pp.

 

Spring, B. (1986, July 11). How harmful is pornography? Christianity Today, 30(10), 26-27. A short summary of the Attorneys General’s Commission on Pornography report.

 

Study reveals porn magazines promote sexual abuse of children. (1987, February). Fundamentalist Journal, 6 (2), 56-62. A report on the Department of Justice study conducted by Dr. Judith A. Reisman. The results show vastly increasing use of children and pseudo-children (adults dressed to look like children) within Penthouse, Playboy, and Hustler, a 2600% increase since the 1950s.

 

The documented effects of pornography. No author cited. (1990). Forerunner, 10. (On-line). Available: Internet search, Microsoft Netscape. Documented studies that support the idea that there is a causal link between pornography use and violent sexual crimes.

 

The National Coalition Against Pornography. (1989, May/June). Rapes decline in oklahoma xity. Standing Together, p. 2. Compares the rape statistics in Oklahoma City with the number of adult bookstores in operation. During the 1980s, the number of adult bookstores dramatically decreased from public pressure. During the same period, there was a corresponding decline in the number of rapes.

Thornburgh, Dick, ed & National Research Council (2002) Youth, Pornography and the Internet, National Academic Press, 450pp.

 

Wagner, David A. (2001) Secret Sins of the Heart: Freedom from the Chains of Pornography, Essence Publishing, 328pp. Tony Compolo say of this book: “… a good book by a good writer about a horrendous problem. It is important to read.” No deep psychology or social analysis here. Just a solid, practical book describing how people get lured into this addiction from a spiritual and pastoral perspective and what they and we can do about it.

 

Wharton, A. (1986, November). America’s addiction to pornography: The drugging of morality. Fundamentalist Journal, 5(10), 47-49. A discussion of the decline in social concern regarding pornography. Traces the decline from the 1950s to the present.

Wray, H. (1995). Is porn un-american? U.S. News and World Report. (On-line). Available: Electric Library. A long article dealing with many social issues regarding pornography; cites various studies and the mixed results they find regarding the connection between pornography and sexual attitudes and violent sexual crimes.

 

Tom Combes and Dean Borgman cCYS