The results of TopTen Reviews' study about the pervasiveness of pornography are broken down into easy-to-digest statistics, but the implications are a very bitter pill to swallow.
Among its findings, the Ogden-based company reported Friday the pornography industry earned an estimated $97 billion in 2006. The researchers also reported 28,258 Internet users view pornography every second and a new pornographic Web site is created every 39 seconds.
The darkness that is pornography is quickly spreading and thickening throughout out the world. It is a plague that will only worsen as time passes. Equally troubling is the fact that further studies reveal Utah is keeping pace with the pack, instead of being an exception to the trend.
At the 19th annual Child Abuse and Family Violence Conference in Salt Lake City Nov. 15, FBI agents said Utah's capital city ranks No. 1 for adult-themed searches on Google. The FBI study only report raw numbers and share little about the demographics of the people who search and view pornography, but anyone who believes the BYU campus is unaffected by this storm is living in his or her own bubble, to say the least.
It is difficult to determine exactly how many BYU students battle pornography addictions, but there are easily hundreds who face this issue. Last semester, The Daily Universe published one student's account about his struggles with pornography, and he said an unofficial survey found 13 percent of men in his ward admitted to having problems.
Ask any counselor who treats those that deal with this addiction and he would say that is exactly what it is - an addiction as binding as any other drug. He would also those who face similar trials don't have to dwell in the darkness. Those who've struggled with pornography would say they've tried to kick the addiction on their own time and time again. But, more often than not, a desire to quit isn't enough to break the cycle.
BYU offers students access to comprehensive counseling resources that include guidance through sex addictions. For anyone struggling to overcome pornography, we encourage him or her to seek out BYU's counselors so they can start to drive the darkness out of his or her life.
Copyright Brigham Young University 18 Mar 2007
