The Growing Porn Epidemic
We live in a rapidly changing world where traditional values and beliefs are increasingly viewed as narrow minded or uninformed. Community is moving away from traditional personal relationships into online personas. The result is a world growing in hidden pain.
As this change happens before our very eyes, Need Him Global has a front row seat to how culture is changing and the resulting impact on society. But there is one issue that has exploded in the past year and represents an epidemic of pain and brokenness. That issue is pornography.
You may be thinking that is no surprise based on the prevalent availability of pornography online and the growing acceptability of it in culture. However, there is more to this problem than you think. We see almost 50% of our conversations on this topic coming from women. We regularly see teenagers that have been involved with pornography for years. A recent landmark study on the problem showed that more than one in four (26%) young people aged 18-24 seek porn out weekly. A growing number of teens are “sexting” meaning receiving or sending sexually explicit images via text message. And maybe most discouragingly, less than one-third (32%) of young adults say viewing porn is “usually or always wrong”.
The result is a growing number of conversations each day with young people that are desperately seeking some biblical truth and help around this issue. A growing number of conversations are with people that are watching a marriage come apart and want help for their spouse. The result is that we are always looking for solid resources to share. There are some good accountability software programs to track phone and computer use but many seekers also want something they can lean on that is based on biblical principles and putting Jesus at the heart of change. We wanted to offer something that would help people be set free from the destructive patterns of lust, guilt, emptiness and broken promises.
The result was that the ministry created a reading plan specifically for women struggling with pornography and another specifically for men. We published these plans the first week of March with no advertising or media. We have already had over 20,000 people subscribe to the plans and start walking with Jesus to find hope and healing from pornography. If you know someone struggling with this issue then refer them to either the Freedom from Porn: Women or Freedom from Porn: Men reading plan at www.bible.com.
