Beware: Pornography may be coming to a cell phone near you
by: Dwayne Hastings - May 1, 2006 - comments: 3
You have the computer in a very public area of your home so you can monitor its use, and you’ve subscribed to the best Internet filtering system available. Think you’ve safeguarded your family against the threat of pornography? Think again.
New technology allows users to download material, such as digital video content, from the Internet directly to wireless handheld devices, such as the new generation of cell phones and iPods. To make this development even more harmful, it is typically young people who are the most technically sophisticated and the prime users of such equipment.
“Certainly, this is going to make it easier to view porn in more places than ever,” Pamela Paul, author of Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships and Our Families, told USA Today (12/12/05).
Privacy and anonymity are even greater when individuals use wireless devices instead of computers to search and view pornography. “Mobile phones and other personal devices that either connect to the Internet or allow a user to download pictures are vastly more private and personal than even a ‘personal’ computer,” says Daniel Panetti, in a white paper for the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. (The paper, “What every parent needs to know about emerging technology,” is available at http://www.nationalcoalition.org .)
Other countries are ahead of the U.S. in the implementation of this advanced technology and provide a startling picture of which industries are taking advantage of the technology and how consumers are responding. In regions of the globe where wireless video and television streaming technology is widely utilized, pornographic content is the only content that is generating substantial profits for carriers.
“The evolution of video-capable wireless devices has made mobile porn an emerging cultural phenomenon and booming enterprise. Global 2005 sales will hit $1 billion, up 175% from 2004, says Juniper Research. U.S. sales are just $30 million, mostly because carriers, fearful of a backlash, haven’t provided easy access to X-rated theater,” reports the USA Today article.
Vodafone, a cellular service in the United Kingdom, reportedly draws 60 percent of its data revenue from adult-oriented services (called “off-deck” services in the wireless industry).
The technology itself is not dangerous; the danger is that there are no regulations or safeguards in place to protect children and teens from being exposed to unwanted, explicit pornographic content that is downloadable to these wireless handheld devices.
Some telecommunication experts speculate that, unlike most other countries, until U.S. cell phone carriers provide filtering and the means for parents to block the Internet on phones, adult content will not be readily available here.
Yet in a January 24, 2006, Scripps Howard release, Paul predicted the mobile delivery of pornography will soon be an industry unto itself. “It’s happening,” she said in the news report. “People say, ‘Oh well, porn will never take off because the image is too small.’ Fifteen years ago, if you asked people if they looked at pornography at their desks, they would be horrified. But today a huge number of men and women look at pornography in their office over the Internet.”
Steve Hirsch, an executive with an adult film production company, expects “mobile porn” to eventually account for 30 percent of their sales, notes the USA Today report. “This is going to explode. People want porn in their pocket,” the article quoted Hirsch as saying.
The adult-entertainment industry is not the only group excited about the new technology. The gambling industry is exploring ways to expand its virtual operations.
It is not a matter of if, but when, graphic sexual content will be readily accessible from wireless handheld electronic devices in the U.S. In anticipation of that day, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is working closely with the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, and the wireless industry’s trade association through the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families to demand parental education, filters to block adult content, and means to restrict Internet access be provided by the carriers and phone manufacturers.
Did You Know?
More people have cell phones than fixed telephone lines, both in the United States and internationally. There are more than one billion cell phone users worldwide. Five percent of all Internet searches from personal digital assistants, or PDAs, are searches for adult content. It is estimated at least 25 percent of all Internet searches are inquiries for adult content.
Source: National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families
Did You Know?
Cell phones are now in their third generation. The first generation of phones provided calling services only; the second generation allowed users to text message another phone and to access the Internet, with limited video capabilities. The third generation of mobile devices provides access to games, real-time news, and entertainment video options, among other advanced features.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Family, Parenting, Pop Culture, Sexual Purity, Pornography
comments (post your own) feed
1 On Sep 13th, 2006, at 5:47am, Jim Kennedy wrote:
The issue is not pornography’s availability; it is how to meet God-given desires in a manner that honors Christ and him/herself.
Sadly, pornography fulfills sex education voids. Pornography is hamburger people feed on when parents/churches do not teach how to obtain and eat filet mignon. Pornography preys upon insecure people “not good enough” to find fellowship, love, and grace within a church or to mate in a Godly way.
We all need to have needs met in Godly ways. Do churches teach, love and encourage insecure traumatized youth to meet sex desires in a healthy way? What venues are there to confess lusts as to be prayed for healing rather than shamed? How are Christians taught to enjoy their spouses as not to resort to pornography?
The church has a tremendous task if it is to reduce demand for this trash. The church must be a safe place for confession and repentance, not to encourage “biblical” divorce.
2 On Oct 22nd, 2006, at 6:48am, J. Kauffman wrote:
I agreee with Jim Kennedy. The U.S.A. has enjoyed tremendous blessings imparted to us from God, compared to alot of other nations (mainly because of our support for God’s People [the children of Israel], and because most of our forefathers feared (respected) Godly principles and precepts. Even men of government were like that—they used to have prayer sessions in Congress before debating bills in the legislature. As years went by, we took biblical principles out of our society, beginning with (in OUR era, at least) the prohibition of bible reading in public schools, then prayer; and now we’re trying to redefine “marriage”, and add reading of God’s Word as a crime in our schools to criminal statutes, and so-on.
3 On Oct 22nd, 2006, at 7:02am, J. Kauffman wrote:
As to pornography, it’s been scientifically-proven that it is addicting because observing erotica releases a certain chemical or endorphin that increases the craving for more of the same. It’s a big problem for men in our CHURCHES too, mostly involving those who aren’t senior citizens yet.
The church however is only a place of fellowship for fellow believers of Christ and a house of worship to give God praise for His Gift of Eternal Life because of what Christ did for us. We need Christ in a RELATIONSHIP (“NOT” religion) in order to successfully overcome desires of the flesh such as lust,—and NO it doesn’t happen like magic, or happen overnight. As humans, we have a “sin nature” in the 3rd part of us (our spirit), and the 1st and 2nd parts (body & soul) follow suit with that nature in conjuncion with AND separately from our spirit. With so many odds against us, both natural AND supernatural, it’s NO WONDER that such a problem as pornography seems unsolvable.