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Pornography Fuels Sexual Abuse, And College Campuses Need to Take Action to Fix It

Photo by Tianyi Ma/Unsplash
Photo by Tianyi Ma/Unsplash
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By Tré Goins-Phillips
Editor

February 27, 2019

Identifying a problem is the easy part; it’s solving it that takes a lot of work.

That’s where a recent study from Duke University has left college administrators — in the space between awareness and action, a place many unfortunately never leave, according to Enough Is Enough founder Donna Rice Hughes.

New research from The Duke Chronicle revealed nearly half of all female undergraduate students — 48 percent — claim they have been sexually assaulted since enrolling at the university. Fourteen percent of undergraduate males said they, too, have been sexually assaulted since starting their studies at Duke.

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“This is one of the frustrating things about our work,” Hughes, who has been working for years to curb consumption of pornography and make the internet a safer place, told Faithwire. “We deal a lot with the problem and we don’t focus too much on the prevention of it.”

The data collected in the Duke study, released last week, show a considerable shift since 2016, when 40 percent of undergraduate female students and 10 percent of undergraduate male students said they were sexually assaulted while they were at the North Carolina college.

It is not clear if the increase marked more incidents of wrongdoing or a greater awareness of and willingness to report occurrences of sexual assault.

Hughes — though she said she could probably guess the answer — suggested the university should have asked respondents how much time they spend consuming pornography and what kinds of explicit material they are viewing.

America Has a Serious Porn Problem — It’s Worse Than You Think

One of the most important steps universities across the country should take, she argued, is to make their WiFi networks pornography-free.

There is an undeniable, inseparable link between the consumption of pornography and an individual’s comfortability with acting out in sexually aggressive, domineering and abusive ways. Study after study has made that abundantly obvious.

Data has shown those who spend hours watching videos of submissive, dehumanizing and even violent sexual behavior typically become increasingly numb to it. Other research reveals men who have watched violent pornography — like the depiction of rape — are more likely than those who haven’t to believe a rape victim enjoyed her assault and that women in general find rape arousing.

What can be done about this?

One of the quickest and easiest ways to make colleges safer for students — particularly female students — is to add filters to campus WiFi networks.

“Oftentimes, parents do their best to protect their kids before they graduate from high school, [but when] they go off to college, they’ve got complete open access to everything on the college WiFi network,” Hughes explained, noting free, open access to pornography “creates a toxic environment” on campuses.

EIE is currently working with a handful of students at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana who would like to see the college’s WiFi network filtered to block users from accessing “prosecutable pornography and child pornography.”

Faithwire Launches ‘Set Free’ — A New E-Course Focused on Combatting Porn Addiction

In her letter to Notre Dame President John Jenkins, Hughes wrote, “Please, do not contribute to the very factors leading to the objectification of women, addiction and destructive behavior that result from the absence of a filtering solution to your university WiFi.”

“Just as important,” she continued, “send a message to the parents of these students allowing them to feel secure in the environment in which they are sending their child to study and flourish so that their students can say ‘Not Me’ instead of ‘Me Too.’”

From a national perspective, Hughes said she has been working for years to encourage lawmakers, particularly U.S. attorneys general, to enforce the country’s dormant obscenity laws. While former President George W. Bush’s administration didn’t take much action against pornography, his Department of Justice, under the direction of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, did establish the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in 2005.

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As a result of the task force’s creation, several cases were brought against pornographers who produced “extreme” content, but no actual prosecutions against the adult industry followed the crackdown. Today, despite the fact the obscenity laws are still on the books, the statutes are really only enforced when it comes to explicit content involving children.

Hughes said she is “very hopeful” newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General William Barr will “aggressively enforce” the country’s sleeping obscenity laws, cracking down on the violent and abusive content that has become overwhelmingly mainstream since the evolution of the internet.

A 2010 study found nearly 90 percent of the pornography content online “contained physical aggression” and almost 50 percent of scenes “contained verbal aggression.” Those percentages are likely higher today.

“It is a public health issue,” Hughes said, “and the science backs that up.”

Are you struggling with pornography addiction?

For those who are dealing with their own addiction to pornography and are looking for a way out, Faithwire has created a seven-week, internet-based course called Set Free, which gives people the spiritual and practical tools they need to tackle this sexual sin.

If you or someone you know is struggling to win the battle against pornography, you’re not alone. In fact, 40 million Americans visit pornography websites on a daily basis and nearly 30,000 internet users are watching explicit content every second. Even 57 percent of pastors have admitted to struggling — either now or in the past — with an addiction to pornography.

There’s no doubt this is an epidemic in our society. If you would like more information about the Set Free e-course or are interested in enrolling, click here.

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