At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Netflix users in the U.S. — of which there are around 75 million — spent a little more than three hours per day on the streaming platform. Even at that, three pornography sites are currently performing better than Netflix.
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According to numbers collected by the analytics site Similarweb, three major smut websites now rank higher than the platform housing the most original content of any streaming service currently available on the internet.
There’s no doubt pornography is a leading — if not the leading — issue plaguing the current generation.
A new peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Health Communication found an astounding 84.4% of male teenagers and 57.1% of female teens have viewed pornography, which often leads to decreased self-esteem, increased propensity toward sexual aggression, greater loneliness, lower overall satisfaction with life, a decline in relationship quality, and poorer mental health, among other things.
That says nothing of the legitimate concerns about illegal content floating around on many pornography sites.
There have been several instances of Pornhub — the No. 1 pornography site in the world — housing child sexual abuse material, rape footage, as well as videos involving women who were coerced against their will into performing explicit acts on camera. Additionally, the video-sharing site OnlyFans has shown to be a hotbed for CSAM and other predatory behavior.
Last month, OnlyFans announced it would ban explicit content beginning Oct. 1, a decision the London-based company later retracted, following a bombshell investigation published by the BBC, which found underage teens have been using fake IDs to access the adults-only platform not only to view but also publish explicit content.
Kids as young as 13 years old have been duping OnlyFans’ age-verification apparatus.
As Christians, we know all pornography — illegal or not — stands in contradiction to God’s design for us. It teaches us to devalue or fellow human beings who are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) in “the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). It also distracts us from God by replacing Him with a false and insufficient savior. Writing to the believers in Colossae, the Apostle Paul called on Christians to “put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5).
Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians that our bodies are not designed for sexual immorality but to be offerings to God. He urged Christians to “flee from sexual immorality” because “every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).
So often, the root cause of the sin of pornography isn’t obvious. It’s the result of a deeper deficit: a longing for relationship, a feeling of inadequacy, crippling fear or anxiety, unresolved stress, or even an unmet desire to connect with God. These are all real — and very normal — struggles, but pornography cannot solve them. In fact, it will only deepen these wounds and pull us further into them. Don’t mistake its momentary satisfaction for true contentment, which comes only through relationship with God and fellowship with the body of Christ.
If you’re struggling with sexual sin, please don’t continue to fight alone. Reach out to someone you trust. Sin can only thrive in lies and darkness. When you speak out in truth, bringing your struggles to the light, they lose power.
Consider enrolling in Faithwire’s Set Free e-course, a seven-week study designed to give participants the practical and spiritual tools to begin tackling sexual sin.
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