November 14, 2013

Shedding light on pornography addiction

Protecting Children and Families from Pornography conference will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Dixie Center, 1835 Convention Center Drive, St. George. Admission is $20 for adults and free for college and high school students with a student ID. For information, go to www.utahcoalition.org or email ucapmail@utahcoalition.org.
11-14-2013 Utah:

Conference aims to raise awareness of problem

It’s a vice that was once limited to back alleys, adult stores and shady parts of town; an addiction that required a little bit of effort to pursue.

Now it’s available no matter where you are, regardless of your age — all you have to do is click the mouse, type a keyword or follow a link and pornography is instantly on your screen.

Despite its pervasiveness, pornography is a topic of discussion that is still very much taboo in some circles. The Utah Coalition Against Pornography plans to address this aspect of the issue at this weekend’s regional conference titled Protecting Children and Families from Pornography.

“Every parent who has children in their home and an Internet connection needs to be at this conference,” said Geoff Steurer, a licensed marriage and family therapist who is involved in putting on the conference. “You say the word ‘pornography’ and everyone wants to be as far away from it as possible, (but) we want parents to be empowered and armed with good information.”

Despite the rapid changes made in the pornography industry, many adults may still imagine that their children’s exposure to pornography — if any — will be something akin to their own experience years ago, when they found an adult magazine and gathered in the tree fort with their friends to peruse its contents.

That kind of encounter can certainly prove harmful, Steurer said, but it is unlikely that a child’s exposure to pornography in this day and age will be that sanitized.

“Today, kids’ first exposure is not a static image,” Steurer said, adding that it’s going to be graphic, high definition, violent and, in many cases, feature criminal acts. “This is the reality we live in.”

According to an article Steurer recently published, The Washington Times reported that roughly 80 percent of children who encounter pornography do so in their own homes. It’s a statistic that he said can be frightening and one that he hopes will lead parents to action.

“I think people think if they show up to this (conference), they are admitting to having a problem with (pornography),” Steurer said. “We have to get away from that.”

Three years ago, the Utah Coalition Against Pornography presented a similar conference in St. George for the first time, drawing roughly 1,000 people — a number that was much greater than organizers had anticipated. This year, they hope to match that attendance, and organizers are reaching out to a variety of religious and civic groups to spread the word about the resources that will be available Saturday.

“There are families who have broken up over this issue. This has become a scourge in Utah,” said Pamela Atkinson, president and chairwoman of the board for UCAP.

Don Lyman, a former stake president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he attended the last UCAP conference in St. George and was impressed with the kinds of insights that were offered.

“It was especially helpful in dealing with people who have those addictions and families who suffer with those types of addictions,” Lyman said. “It’s something everyone should go to. It’s such a widespread problem.”

The conference will include a keynote address by Clay Olsen of Fight the New Drug. Olsen will speak on “What Teens Wish Their Parents Knew When Talking About Pornography.” The lecture will be followed by two one-hour breakout sessions. Participants can choose from five topics, ranging from help for couples whose marriages are impacted by pornography addiction to low- and high-tech methods for protecting children from pornography as well as a question-and-answer session just for teens and young adults.

“People want to go back to a day when things seemed so innocent,” Steurer said, emphasizing the fact that the new reality is already here, whether people want to accept it or not.

“Acceptance is not the same as agreement,” he said.

In Lyman’s experience of working with people struggling with pornography issues, awareness goes a long way in preventing problems.

“I think people are just not aware of how easily this addiction becomes part of our lives. It comes from everywhere,” Lyman said.

Steurer said it’s a topic that “thrives in secrecy and silence,” which is why he believes parents need to be willing to talk to their children, no matter how uncomfortable they, as parents, may be with the subject.

“A lot of kids are going to Google now for sex education rather than their parents,” Steurer said. “When you ask Google about sex, you’re going to get straight-up porn.”

Finding the right way to have such a discussion is just one of the topics being offered at Saturday’s conference.

“They’ll be in good company. They’ll be there with other concerned parents. This is a group of people who want to make a difference,” Steurer said. “This conference is a safe place to talk about dangerous things.” ..Source.. by Lisa Larson

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