We Have a Problem
By Vickey Pahnke-Taylor

"addressing contemporary matters that just might matter to you.”

Note from the Author:  This column represents my viewpoint and my understandings.  No doubt, there will be some potholes here in there in my thought process.  Certainly, the articles will not be perfectly written. But this column will focus on topics that might offer a thought worth chewing on mentally, or an idea worth pondering. 

We hope to bring exposure to issues that many may not have even known were an issue.  We hope to touch on subjects you suggest. We will attempt to engage your mind and open your heart as we talk about things that affect individuals in personal — sometimes harmful and hurtful — ways.

We’ll dig in to such topics as pornography — one not, perhaps, on the top of readers’ lists. But because this plague is spreading like wildfire and affecting so many folks in horrible ways, we will offer as much insight as we are able. The idea is to follow President Spencer W. Kimball’s counsel:

The column will offer the best statistics I can get my hands on, with the support of good people who expend their energies in good works, and quotes from our beloved and trusted leaders. 

Because these articles will address subjects and ideas that may be a little different from the regular articles you see posted, we imagine that you will have some strong feelings on some of the matters upon which we touch. Please — share your thoughts. We want your input. We want to create an environment in which we can share experiences and feelings. We hope to facilitate healing, enlarge perspective, and focus on issues that might very much matter to you.

It is not going away.  It is devastating in its proportion, its reach and its debilitating effects. It is insidious.  It is looming right around the corner of your town, your ward, your street, or in a room within your own home.  It is breaking hearts, ruining marriages, darkening minds, and stealing the innocence and purity of our young and old alike.|

The problem is pornography. 

If we have had no dealings with it, we may not want to know about it.  We don’t know how to define it. We don’t want to think about it.  We may not have a clue as to how to address it.  We may choose to believe that the problem is small or distant, and will never wrap its ugly hands around us or one of our own. It is somebody else’s problem.

Nom it isn’t.  It is our problem.  Potent, widespread and closer to home than we may imagine.  Affecting us in quiet, yet devastating ways.  Here are a few simple and startling statistics that you may not know:

• The average age of first Internet pornography exposure is 11 years old.
• Children are the largest consumer of internet pornography.
• Pornography is more addictive than any illicit drug.
• It takes less than 3/1000^th of second for the brain to process a pornographic image.
• It takes as little as four exposures to such content to become addicted.
• There are more than a billion pornographic images online today — and growing.
• Pornography is becoming the leading cause of divorce today.
• The impact of internet pornography to business in the US alone is estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars.

I had no clue of pornography’s intensity and overbearing influence until I began working with some good people whose fight is against this insidious plague on the internet. CP80 is a foundation whose undertaking is to clean up the internet. 

The CP80 solution leverages existing technology to categorize all content on the internet into Community Ports and Open Ports. The Community Ports would be for content that is suitable for everyone, including children; and the Open Ports would be for adult content that has been protected as free speech, including some forms of pornography.

With content organized into ports, the consumer can then choose to opt out of the Open Ports (Adult content) at their home or business and only receive the Community Ports directly from their Internet Service Provider (ISP).

If this is confusing to you, simply think of the CP80 port solution as cable television channels.  With content organized into channels (ports), a consumer can choose what content enters his home or business.  The Community Ports, for doing whatever we do on the internet, will then be unfettered by things that may seem perverted to us.

I have learned a great deal from the CP80 Foundation about how the Internet works, about the dangers of Internet pornography, and that there are things I can do to further protect my world —  home, family, neighborhood, schools, and so on.-- from the harm of pornographic materials and influence.  I learned that it was time to get involved.  Although CP80 focuses on internet changes, there are other avenues of pornography that need our awareness and efforts in fighting the battle of moral decency.

We have a problem.  It grows whether or not we are yet aware or involved. To be honest, there are many things about pornography I do not know. I want to keep it that way.  I do not wish to ever know how deep and ugly it gets.  I just want to be aware enough to take a stand for what I feel is right and try to do something that counts. Turning a blind eye will not allow me to be part of the solution. 

What is that adage I’ve heard?  “If I’m not part of the solution, then I’m part of the problem.”

Not in offense, certainly, but in blending in with the masses who want someone else to solve this problem as it affects the ever-lowering standards of moral integrity. 

I am not making a mountain out of a molehill. Read carefully the words of this statement issued February 26, 1966, by The First Presidency:

This was forty years ago!  Our prophets understood that a tidal wave of filth was coming.

In the decades since this warning was issued, the rise of pornography has been astronomical.  It makes billions of dollars for the peddlers of this filth.  It affects men, women, and children on a shockingly regular basis. The “fence at the top of the hill instead of the ambulance at the bottom of the hill” mentality needs to be embraced so that we stem the tide of ugliness. 

Are you sure it has not yet affected one of your loved ones?

From the news just a short time ago, I share one example of how our family members may be bombarded:  A small child, on a school bus, was shown pornographic pictures  by the bus driver’s aide, who had a file of them on her cell phone!  This innocent child was exposed to seedy, defiling images that are burned into her little mind.

I imagine that for every incident we hear about, there are ten, a hundred, or more that we do not hear about.  Pornography is rampant. Surely there is something we can do!

There is a war going on, brothers and sisters.  The enemy in this war is sneaking in through the home office, the work place, cell phone, any handheld device or at any spot where a family member has internet access. With the click of a mouse, or of a remote control, it may seep out of the computer or television and into the heart of a family member.   At what point do we determine to jump in and:

I am beginning this ongoing column because:

• Organizations are losing well-trained officers to pornography. 

• Spouses (both men and women) are feeling as though it is their fault when their companion becomes enmeshed in the stuff.
• Children are being bombarded by images that are on file in their minds, sometimes affecting their ability to make choices.
• Families are being torn apart with both male and female addiction.
• Leaders are shaking their heads, dealing with far too many cases of this addiction within their ward and stake. 
• Young people are being lured with the filth on every side.
• Many are privately bearing a heavy burden as they deal with the hurt that comes with this difficult addiction — their own or someone else’s.
• Crime is increasing as minds and hearts veer further from the light of truth.
• There is a great deal to learn — without becoming mired in the ugliness ourselves.
• There are little things that we can do to make a significant difference..
• I trust that many of you will let us know what you are doing and how it has helped. Strength in unity and numbers!
• As a columnist, one little thing that I can do is write. Hopefully, more people may read, gain awareness, and share.

With your help, we can:

If we are to do as Elder David B. Haight has counseled, the time to try and make a difference is now:

We have a problem.  It will not go away.  But we can suck the strength out of it and place strong walls of safety and power to better protect.  Knowledge is power. Doing something constructive with that knowledge is a powerful deterrent to forces that oppose decency.

Through the months ahead, this column will tackle all kinds of questions and concerns.  We will begin to define pornography. We will share testimonies and counsel from our leaders.  We hope to build a bit more savvy, arming ourselves in order to safeguard our families or rebuild after disaster has struck. We will seek to combat the problem — not be drawn into it. We can strengthen and teach one another in small yet effective ways. We may cause some changes — in legislation, in community corrections, or in individual hearts. 

Even though I have taught and written for twenty years, this is new territory for me. Before learning about CP80, the anti-pornography cause was someone else’s battle. Though sympathetic to the cause, and familiar with how pornography can break hearts and families apart, the need for involvement never clicked.

I was not familiar with our leaders’ counsel regarding our responsibility. I am now. It is time for it to become my concern, as well as my neighbor’s. Clearly, our leaders have motioned for us to step to the plate. Whether through CP80 (internet issues) or any other viable, righteous effort, this is a fight in which we can all involve ourselves. Maybe even by participating in this column?

Many of you may have specific training relative to the effects of pornography. Some of you have gone through a personal Gethsemane because of its effects — as an addict, a worried friend or family member, a church leader, or a heartbroken casualty left behind by one who is currently losing in the ongoing pornography war.  Please write your thoughts as they seem appropriate. Whatever your situation or experience, share it as the Spirit nudges. You will add insight and strength to a neighbor across town or across the world.

Join with us. Some of you are already on the forefront of the battle lines, doing something significantly positive. We can build a snowball of information and education that grows as it rolls forward. Please help. We have a problem.  Let’s be part of the solution!

 If you want to learn more about the evils of pornography, visit http://www.cp80.org/.  To write to Vickey personally, click here (vickey.whatmatters@gmail.com).