The tech giant and privacy advocate wants to help the porn problem by filtering people's messages.

However, privacy campaigners from around the world are firing back at Apple in an attempt to get it to abandon its plans.

The privacy campaigners say Apple's plans to automatically scan messages for CSAM undermines the principle of end-to-end encryption.

Over 90 parties are signatories to a letter coordinated by the Center for Democracy & Technology.

The campaigners acknowledge Apple's positive intentions.

Specifically, the privacy campaigners fear that if governments know the technology exists, they could demand Apple use it for other purposes beyond its intended use.

"Although the new features are designed to protect children and reduce the spread of CSAM they will create new risks for children and could be used to censor speech and threaten the privacy and security of people around the world," say the signatories.

However, Lisa Taylor, a Whangarei-based counsellor in partner trauma and sex addiction, is calling porn use 'a pivotal issue' for society.

Citing porn industry research Taylor says the issue with porn is a serious social concern in New Zealand.

New Zealand is ranked 13th for page views per capita, she says.

2021 New Zealand research exposes a strong association between sex addiction, including porn addiction and domestic violence says Taylor.

This research follows a 2017 study revealing that 67% of Kiwi teens have seen internet porn.

Taylor points out that porn use is also an issue in the Church.

"We know from international research that porn use is almost as common in the church as in secular society."

She says porn and particularly porn addiction is not a topic many open up about, even though it affects people across the globe.

Source

• TechRadar
• Scoop
• Image: Metro

On this issue the world has changed a lot in less than ten years: the use of pornography has escalated and the effects are alarming.

The most telling effect, I think, is the epidemic of erectile dysfunction (ED) among men.

For all of human history this was mainly an older man's problem.

As recently as 2002 the rate of ED for men aged 40-80 was about 13% in Europe. By 2011 rates reached 28% for men aged 18-40.

As reported above, a 2014 cross-sectional study of active duty, relatively healthy, 21-40 old males in the US military, found that one third (33.2%) suffered from ED.

Unaware of these changes, for the last year or so I had thought that the drop in high school students' rate of sexual intercourse was good news and that, since 2007, abstinence ideas were winning, but given the above data, all of the causes may not be good news.

Increased pornography use among teenage boys, resulting in decreased interest in girls, may be the cause.

This also serves to put in context a disturbing experience I had a few weeks ago while driving through a wealthy Washington D.C. suburb during rush hour: I noticed (as must several other drivers waiting for the traffic lights to change) a 12-year-old moving along the sidewalk, intently looking at his smartphone in one hand while his other hand was engaged in self-abuse.

I had not yet reviewed the new research on the prevalence of pornography viewing and was quite taken aback.

No longer.

At age 12 he was already so addicted to porn and had no shame.

The average age of a boy's first viewing of pornography has dropped to 10 years of age. Fathers be aware.

• 75 percent of porn-watching is done on smart phones.
• 25 percent of all internet searches are for pornography.
• Tablets and computers make up the rest, computers being the smallest percentage.
• The average length of stay on a porn site is about 10 minutes.
• 70 percent of US college students watch porn — alone, with others, or in couples.
• 45 percent of women now accept it in their relationships.
• 10 percent of women refuse to view it themselves but accept it in their husbands or partners.

A decade ago women viewed pornography at about one sixth the rate of men.

Today, depending on the country, it varies from only one third the rate of men (US) to one half (the Philippines and Brazil).

Estimates of production range up to 4.2 million websites (12 percent of the total sites worldwide) with 420 million web pages.

Every single day, worldwide, there are more than 68 million search engine requests for pornography (which is 25 percent of all search requests).

What are the negative effects for those who become habituated and especially for those who become addicted?

Changes in brain size (diminished); the younger boys start the greater the effects on their brain, and the more difficult to overcome the addiction; men see women as sex objects not as persons, have greater interest in pornography than in the company of women or girlfriends.

They suffer increasingly from erectile dysfunction, become more aggressive in their relationships with spouses or partners, are more likely to believe the "rape myth" (that women enjoy being sexually abused), and progress to more and more deviant pornography to attain sexual arousal, leading in turn to greater sexual deviancy.

Teenagers will be more likely to engage in same-sex sexual activities. Continue reading

Once confined to the pages of a smuggled Playboy magazine, pornography can now be in the hands of anyone with a smartphone, and is more prolific and anonymous than ever.

PornHub, one of the world's largest sites with porn video streaming, reports that it averages 75 million viewers per day, or about 2.4 million visitors per hour.

In 2015 alone, the number of hours streamed from the site was double the amount of time human beings have populated the Earth, according to TIME Magazine.

And while pornography used to be a simpler problem for priests to address in the confessional - consecrate yourself to Mary, go to weekly adoration - the growing level of addiction makes it a much more complex problem for the Church to address.

That's why Fr. Sean Kilcawley, the program directory and theological advisor for pornography ministry Integrity Restored, has started to put on intensive trainings for clergy, providing them resources and practical tips for how to address the growing crisis of pornography addiction.

How the trainings work

For an intensive training, Fr. Kilcawley takes a dozen or so priests for 3-4 days and immerses them in resources and training for the porn-addicted in their fold.

He also facilitates shorter, one-day conferences.

"We try to equip the priest to get that person to come talk to them outside of confession, just to bring that into the light, so that the priest can then become the first responder in the field hospital of the church," Fr. Kilcawley told CNA.

Smaller groups work best, he added, because it allows the priests space to process the information and to be more vulnerable with one another. Continue reading

• Mary Rezac is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency/EWTN News

Yet as Catholics, our first thought may be to try to eradicate any sinful behavior with some good old-fashioned perseverance and, of course, grace from the Sacrament of Confession.

I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Peter Kleponis, a clinician who also is the Senior Advisor for Educational and Clinical Programs for Integrity Restored, who has helped many men and women in their healing journey breaking free from porn. He told me about why, most of the time, perseverance and grace are important, but they aren't enough to break free from pornography use.

First of all, do all porn users automatically need professional help? In other words, when does a porn user become an addict? Does it parallel drug addiction?

Not everyone who struggles with pornography use is an addict. Just as a person can have an alcohol problem and not be an alcoholic, so can a person have a pornography problem and not be a porn addict. Dr. Patrick Carnes (2007) notes 10 characteristics of problematic online sexual behavior:

1. Preoccupation with sex on the Internet
2. Frequently engaging in sex on the Internet more often or for longer periods of time than intended
3. Repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back on, or stop engaging in sex on the Internet
4. Restlessness or irritability when attempting to limit or stop engaging in sex on the Internet
5. Using cybersex on the Internet as a way of escaping from problems or relieving feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression
6. Returning to sex on the Internet day after day in search of a more intense or higher-risk sexual experience
7. Lying to family members, therapists, or others to conceal involvement with sex on the internet
8. Committing illegal sexual acts online (for example, sending or downloading child pornography or soliciting illegal sex acts online)
9. Jeopardizing or losing a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of online sexual behavior
10. Incurring significant financial consequences as a result of engaging in online sexual behavior Continue reading

• Caitlin Bootsma is the editor of Human Life International's Truth and Charity Forum.

An outgoing, enthusiastic guy begins slowly but surely to change. At first it's almost imperceptible — a shift in mood or a vacancy in the eyes only those closest to him can see.

It's not drastic or alarming, but it's real. Maybe his friends start to notice when he doesn't talk about those hobbies he used to love. Perhaps his coworkers make more and more passing remarks like, "Is everything okay?"

There's a thin but undeniable air of apathy in all he says and does. Friendships get put on hold, and events are skipped for no particular reason. It's nothing earth-shattering; he just seems not really there.

In my own life, and in the lives of friends I've known, this is one of the most reliable signs someone — male or female — is losing the battle against pornography.

The dangers of pornography are well-documented. For many years, Christian pastors, teachers and writers have warned that porn is a serious spiritual and emotional threat to individuals and families.

The effects of porn addiction have become so commonly seen in our culture that non-Christian observers are beginning to talk about it. Time magazine, for example, recently devoted an entire cover story to the testimonies of several young men who felt their pornography usage greatly wounded them later in life.

When we list the dangers of pornography, we often address the typical things: We talk about how porn degrades and objectifies men and women.

We argue that porn puts spiritual and physical walls between husbands and wives and how it can "re-wire" our brains to cripple our capacity for real intimacy and enjoyment. All of these warnings are absolutely true and need to be repeated.

But there's another consequence of porn, one that might seem insignificant but may actually be one of the deadliest effects of all. Porn doesn't just dirty the imagination or wound the spirit — it also kills ambition. Continue reading

• Samuel D. James serves in the President's Office at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It's rampant in our culture in the West.

The deeper I dig into the statistics and the anecdotes, the more I'm realizing that it is very much a cross-cultural issue, and that even as the internet has transcended geographical boundaries in the best ways, it has been the vehicle for what I suspect history will look back upon as one of the most pernicious evils of our time.

And none of us are immune to it.

But it's not hopeless.

And the very last thing we're called to do, as parents, is throw our hands up in the air and resign ourselves to the sad inevitability of our kids and their friends becoming statistics.

So we take the practical steps. We talk to our kids early and often about what pornography is, the real cost of it, emotionally and spiritually and physically, and we put physical and behavioral barriers in place to protect them and to safeguard the sanctity of our homes.

At the same time, we are called to be salt and light in a world grown dim and flavorless - and increasingly so, where sex is concerned.

So we fill our little people's hearts and minds with truth, goodness, and beauty, and we demonstrate for them what real love looks and feels and sounds like. And we send them out.

Christianity does not belong in a bubble. And neither do little Christian foot soldiers in training.

So while do our best to make our home base a sanctuary of love and learning and growing in discipleship and virtue, we must also equip our kids to engage the outside world, bit by bit, bringing the Gospel to their friends and classmates by means of those organic, innocent child-to-child encounters that the very young are so ideally suited for. Continue reading

• Jenny Uebbing answers FAQ's on Catholicism, life issues, marriage, and how to safely combine pregnancy with caffeine.

These are very broad strokes, but the details are equally disturbing and encouraging.

First, the women.

It is difficult, goodness knows, to find a new angle on anniversaries like International Women's Day, but it was startling to find on The Conversation a plea on behalf of female porn directors for fairer access to the market.

The Conversation is an international forum in which academics can popularise their work and is funded by academic institutions.

Its articles can be reproduced under a Creative Commons license, and MercatorNet has done so quite often with articles living up to one or other of the qualities advertised in its tagline, "Academic rigour, journalistic flair".

I suppose that Zahra Zsuzsanna Stardust, the Australian PhD student (and former parliamentary candidate for the Australian Sex Party) who wrote the piece titled "Women in the porn industry need rights and proper pay, not token gestures", displayed a certain academic rigour in that her research into the dark corners of female porn seems quite extensive. Being involved in the business herself must help.

As for flair, one would have to credit her with a bit of that, too, for passing it off as a plea for social justice rather than the promotion of a degrading subculture that it is.

Readers are supposed to feel indignant for the women directors who were asked by the captains - or rather, pirates - of the online porn industry to share their work free on IWD in return for "mass exposure".

Z Z Stardust's exposure of the monopolistic features of the industry that nurture such effrontery is a marvel of Marxist analysis. If the subject matter were not so putrid, it would be hilarious. Continue reading

Sources

• MercatorNet, an article written by Carolyn Moynihan, a New Zealand journalist with a special interest in family issues.
• Image: Restoring the Soul

Over the past decade there has been a large increase in the pornographic material that is available to both adults and children.

Mainstream pornography use has grown common because it is accessible, affordable, and anonymous. It is accessible because it is just a few keystrokes away on the Internet.

It is affordable because many online sites offer free pornography to lure viewers to their web sites. Other sites simply post third-party videos and do not charge the viewer for web traffic.

It is anonymous because it can be viewed in the privacy of a person's home. There is no longer a need to visit an adult book store or the local XXX theatre.

While the exact amount of revenue that the pornography industry generates in this country is unclear, the Internet filtering service Covenant Eyes estimates the 2012 US revenue to be around US$8 billion.(2)

It is estimated that since 2007, revenue has declined by 50% (3), but this decline is likely due to the availability of more free online pornography and not to a total decline in pornography usage.

In 2008, the Internet and marketing firm Hitwise reported that globally 40,634 web sites distributed pornography.(4)

Who consumes pornography?

A 2014 Barna Group survey revealed the following demographic data regarding pornography use by American adults: (5) (See graphic in the article).

Demographic data is similar among younger age groups. A 2008 article in the Journal of Adolescent Research revealed that 67% of young men and 49% of young women found pornography acceptable.(6)

Pornography exposure for children and adolescents has become almost ubiquitous. In a 2010 survey of English students between 14 to 16 years old, almost one-third claimed that their first exposure to Internet pornography was at 10 years old or younger. (7)

In a 2011 survey, 31% of adolescent boys admitted visiting web sites that were intended as Adult Only.(8) Continue reading

Sources

• MercatorNet, from an article by L. David Perry MD FCP, a practicing pediatrician in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• Image: Women of Grace

Sexually explicit material is no longer on the fringes of our culture; it's in the mainstream.

Yet while the ‘dirty secret' about porn is well and truly out, Christians still haven't made much of a dent in the problem. In fact, porn use is rife among Christians and Christian leaders.

In putting this article together I conducted a simple online survey of British Christians (see the box for more details) and, even knowing what we do about the prolificacy of porn, the results make for surprising reading.

The survey suggests that more than half of Christian men and around a fifth of Christian women in the UK are using porn on a regular or semi-regular basis.

Pornography isn't just something unpleasant going on in the world; it's right at the heart of our churches.

Why, when the Church has apparently woken up to its porn problem, is its use even more prolific than we perhaps imagined? What has enabled this? Is it time to respond in ways other than the existing, and seemingly flawed ones?

To answer these questions, let's take a step back and look at how society's relationship with adult material has shifted in recent years.

Blurred Lines

The lines between pornographic and mainstream culture have become increasingly blurry; a slow creep in a more ‘liberated' direction seems to have reached a tipping point.

When poorly written publishing phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey (Random House) made the transition from Kindle to paperback in 2012, pre-existing shame barriers simply disappeared.

People were happy to discuss how much they enjoyed the sexually explicit book. They were proud to sit and read a copy on the train.

Without any announcement, the boundaries of acceptability had shifted. I recently noticed a dad reading a copy as he sat poolside at our children's swimming lesson. Continue reading

• Martin Saunders is Youthscape Store's director of creative development, which means he spends his time devising new youth work resources, training and events.

And even if fathers are around, their sons don't engage with them much: boys spend 44 hours in front of a TV, smartphone or computer screen for every half hour in conversation with their fathers.

Why does any of this really matter, I ask the American psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who cites these figures in his new book Man (Dis)connected: How Technology Has Sabotaged What It Means To Be Male.

Why do boys need fathers?

Zimbardo, professor emeritus at Stanford University, replies that everybody needs a mother and father because they give different kinds of love. "Mothers give love unconditionally - because you came out of her body, a mother loves you. You bring home your report card and it's all Cs? Mom will say, ‘It's OK. Momma loves you anyway. Try harder.'

"Fathers give love provisionally. If you want your allowance, if you don't want me to turn off your computer, then you've got to perform. That's always been the deal with fathers and sons - you don't get a pass just because you exist, just because you got my name on your birth certificate. You're going to do it because you want your father to love you and admire you. That central source of extrinsic motivation is gone now for almost one out of every two kids."

The book, by Zimbardo and his co-author Nikita D Coulombe, is about why boys don't man up as previous generations of males ostensibly did. Continue reading

• Stuart Jeffries has been a Guardian subeditor, TV critic, Friday review editor, Paris correspondent and is now a feature writer and columnist for the paper

It never ceases to swarm around, mercilessly infecting unsuspecting victims.

A couple of weeks ago I had a good friend of mine confide in me about her and her boyfriend's current battles with long term pornography addictions.

My heart went out to them, as I can truly understand and relate first hand to the pain and shame they are both experiencing. Please pray for them!

My Story
As a young thirteen year old I became hooked on pornography myself, dependent on the pleasure and distraction it provided me from dealing with real life.

All of the insecurities, pain and doubts I carried around with me daily were pushed aside and blocked with the use of pornography.

It became a coping mechanism, my own adopted way of seeking out temporary, false pleasure so I could have a reason to cover up and avoid the real pain that was choking my heart.

I longed for love, and was weighed down with the grief of not being good or pretty enough for society or my peers. For years I allowed myself to become infested with the numerous lies and empty promises of pornography.

I thought I loved and needed it, but deep down I truly hated myself for allowing my brain and body to become tangled up in these soul-sucking fantasies.

It was a web I was caught up in, a trap from which I could not escape.

The worst thing for me was the shame I felt through it all, and if you've ever suffered from a pornography addiction, you'll also understand the strong sense of utter loneliness that engulfs your entire being. Continue reading

• Lindsey Graham in Restless Press

Lindsey is a high school student from Rangiora, New Zealand who attends Villa Maria College in Christchurch.

The Rural Financial Counselling Service reported recently that the number of rural people within Western Australia succumbing to internet pornography addiction, drug use and depression, is growing. Research shows internet pornography addiction to be a rapidly growing problem across Australia and overseas.

In the United States, internet pornography addiction is a factor cited in 50% of divorces. Increasingly too, young people are needing psychological therapy to help with relating and sexuality problems.

This is an important issue for parishes and for individual Catholics, for we exist as a Church to continue the mission of Jesus. Those in need were Jesus' priority, and internet pornography addicts certainly are people in need. We need to help them if we can - especially by inviting them to seek Christ's help.

I have written elsewhere about pornography actors as victims. The focus of this Pastoral Letter is on:

 How Christ can help
 The effects of pornography on an addicted person's brain
 Deepening in personal relationship with Christ
 How Christ seeks to help through his Church
 How Christ seeks to help through the Christian.

1. How can Christ help?
Many today would think that Catholic faith has nothing to offer the internet pornography addict. Yet, as for other Christians, Jesus Christ for Catholics is the Son of God and Saviour (the word ‘salvation' deriving from the Latin word for ‘healing').

He offers salvation from all in us that is not of God. This includes internet pornography addiction.

The human need for salvation

The general human need for salvation becomes clear when we remember that God originally created human beings in relationship with their Creator. Empowered by this relationship, our first parents experienced harmony within, harmony with each other and harmony with the rest of creation. 1
This situation changed when our first parents succumbed to Satan's temptation to reject their relationship with God. Instead of accepting their dependence on the Creator who created them to love, they desired to be equal - wanting to be ‘like gods'.

They rejected the God who gave them even life itself.
Now their original relationship with God was destroyed. Their original experiences of harmony were replaced by inner division, social division and division between themselves and the rest of creation.

These are the experiences of ‘original sin'.
The root of the divided human nature with which we are born. As a result, the ‘control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered'.

Ever since, people have experienced inner conflicts.
For example, our experience today is of selfishness conflicting with love; judgementalness with compassion; and confusion with truth. At times emotions weaken the will and cause intellectual confusion. Relationships between men and women can be damaged by lust.

Internet pornography addiction is one of the symptoms of this inner division.
The will is weakened by lust, desires and increasing neurological dysfunction (as we will see). This addiction is a consequence of efforts to escape life problems through fantasy.

There is no other way of restoring genuine and long term inner harmony than by the healing of the human relationship with God. People need Christ's salvation.

Christ as Saviour

The whole Christian message is about Christ as Saviour. In the context of this Letter, we can only recall key points relevant to the topic of internet pornography addiction.

First, Jesus began revealing himself as saviour by miracles. For example, he cured the sick, freed cripples to walk, restored sight to the blind. These examples were visible signs to show his power to the healing, liberating and giving new sight. His power showed Jesus to be establishing the kingdom of God in the world. By his miracles, Jesus was showing his power to be greater than the kingdom of Satan. Everything in creation not of God was a symptom of Satan's influence.
This included all forms of sin, human suffering, disharmony and death. In revealing that his power could conquer Satan, Jesus described Satan as the great deceiver, the ‘father of lies'. Satan's greatest successes today are those people who have been deceived into imagining that Satan does not exist - as is common in modern Australian society.
Jesus taught that he had come to redeem all people from the power of Satan. All who commit sin are ‘slaves' to the sin. Jesus would redeem them by dying on a cross, giving his life ‘as a ransom for many'.

Second, Jesus revealed that he had come to share ‘eternal life' - the life of God - with all who believed in him. He, with God the Father and the Spirit, would ‘make a home' in them.

Jesus fulfilled these promises by his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

By his resurrection, Jesus empowers believers today to live as he taught. Through Baptism, we ‘share the divine nature'.

We share the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
Third, Jesus left a number of means for members of the community of his followers, whom he referred to as his ‘church', to draw on his power for their lives.

These means include the seven sacraments, the Eucharist being the most important. As we do so today, the influence of the divine grows within us. The influence of Satan, including the power of internet pornography addiction, weakens.

We accept Christian salvation by entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He taught us how to pray, to worship and to live to do this. As we relate personally with Jesus as Saviour, our relationship with God is healed. Jesus' power also strengthens our souls' spiritual faculties so that inner harmony and harmony with others is restored. Continue reading

Sources

• Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference Media Blog
• Image: Novus

It is causing young people confusion and anxiety, and they are feeling pressure to mimic acts that are common in pornography but that many girls, in particular, find distasteful, degrading or painful.

Research shows more than nine in 10 Australian boys aged 13 to 16 and more than six in 10 girls in the same age group have seen pornography online. They can seek it out anonymously and effortlessly. Many, too, stumble upon it inadvertently through internet search engines.

Today's guest in The Zone has worked for more than a decade with young people and sexuality, and is the joint leader of a project called Reality and Risk, which seeks to arm young people - and parents, carers and educators - with information and confidence to think critically about pornography and the messages it conveys about women, men and sex.

Maree Crabbe has worked with young people for 20 years, and has focused on sexuality and sexual health for the past decade, developing and presenting programs about sexual violence prevention, sexual diversity and prevention of sexually transmissible infections.

In our interview, the full transcript of which - as well as a short video statement by Crabbe - is at theage.com.au/opinion/the-zone, she gives advice to young people and adults and sets out the scope of the pornography issue.

"Pornography has become incredibly accessible … and more aggressive. What was most accessible a couple of decades ago was a centrefold - a still image of a naked or semi-naked woman. Now what is most accessible is moving imagery of people having sex, often quite aggressively. It is shaping the ways that many people are thinking about and experiencing sexuality." Continue reading

Sources

• Michael Short in The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: youthbullet blogspot

Michael Short is editor of The Zone. He also writes editorials and columns.

Less than a block from the porn shop sat a century old cathedral. Without warning, an impulse to set foot in that house of worship overwhelmed me. I walked toward the edifice, hiked the tall steps, and opened the monolithic oak doors. I sat in the back row of pews, he silence was terrifying. In that space, I reconnected with something I had lost-my true self. The part of me that wanted more than compulsion, shame, and despair.

That evening was the beginning of the end. Only a few months later, my wife caught me in a lie, and my double life was completely exposed. Read more

Sources

• Michael John Cusick in Huffington Post
• Image: Covenant Eyes

Michael John Cusick is an ordained minister and is the author of Surfing for God: Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle (Thomas Nelson, Inc.).