Living in a digital age, we have endless resources at our fingertips, which can be a positive or negative contribution to society.
On one hand, we don’t have to run to a professional when we want to do a kitchen project or know what the rash on our baby is.
The flip side, however, can have drastic negative implications, where we fill our mind with information and images we would have been better off without, and one college is doing something about it.
It is easy to become addicted to the things we find pleasurable on the internet, like Pinterest or Facebook, but some use it for much more detrimental things like pornography.
Activist Mommy reported:
“A group of male students at the University of Notre Dame has recently come forward to request that their school install a porn block on university networks, for the precisely stated goal of helping students struggling with porn addiction.”
This is extremely insightful and impressive of those young men to stand up for a problem they see.
It is a prevalent problem in our generation, where men look at pornography either from curiosity or addiction and with the availability of the internet, it is easier than ever.
According to LifeSite News, the president of Students for Child-Oriented Policy, James Martinson said in an interview, “A filter would make it much more difficult for (individuals who are struggling with an addiction to pornography) to access pornography in an easy way.”
If a college student had to go to a store and buy a hard copy of pornography from a cashier, it would most certainly deter many young men from viewing the psychologically damaging material.
Martinson continued, “I have spoken in confidence with many of my Notre Dame brothers who have told me that a filter would help them stop their pornography addiction.”
The whole process began when 80 male students attending Notre Dame all signed a petition asking administration to block x-rated websites because of their easy access, according to LifeSite News.
As a supportive gesture, the next day 63 female students signed a letter saying they agreed with the ban on x-rated websites.
Having these letters should have been enough to give the administration prompting to look into the matter.
To make those in charge know how serious they take protecting the minds of the student body, a petition was also launched campus-wide to put the porn filter in place.
Amazingly, the petition gathered over 1,400 signatures. One wouldn’t think that a young person would so adamantly oppose access to pornography, but these young men knew that it was necessary in order to focus on what is important.
Common speech among college students typically doesn’t involve talking about pornography, but it is obvious that it creeps in the lives of many.
A male student wrote in the letter that was sent to administration that, “Pornography does not come up often in casual conversation, but its effects are everywhere, even on the campus we call home,” according to Lifesite News.
The same student pointed out a study conducted in 2013 that found “63 percent of male Notre Dame students have viewed pornography on the university Wi-Fi network.”
Unbelievable! That is a majority of the young impressionable men. This skews their sense of what a relationship should entail, distracts them from their studies, and can increase depression.
Fight the New Drug reports that the more one views pornographers, the more lonely they become.
Psychologist Dr. Gary Brooks says, that getting caught in a pornography cycle can “be a depressing, demeaning, self-loathing kind of experience,” according to Fight the New Drug.
And according to the Conversation 1 in 5 college students are dealing with depression.
Leaving home for the first time can be a stressful and scary experience for a young adult, being faced with many issues and situations that one has never experienced.
Watching porn releases chemicals in the brain similar to that of doing an addictive drug, according to Fight the New Drug, making the experience comforting.
Pornography, for this reason, can be highly addictive, and get students feeling trapped in viewing x-rated material all the time.
Dr. Norma Doidge, researcher at Columbia University, explains how “porn creates the perfect conditions and triggers the release of the right chemicals to make lasting changes in your brain.”
The young men at Notre Dame were right to make the administration aware of the damaging material available at every student’s fingertips.
It is unfortunate that it is not standard at any university or college to block explicit content on their networks.
Viewing such content can only damage young men’s minds and relationships, taking away from academic endeavors. It would be in everyone’s best interest to make it unavailable.
Blocking x-rated content should begin in the home. Young boys at home are getting more and more tech-savvy, making it far to easy to view sexual things they have heard about.
Be aware of the dangers of pornography and don’t be afraid to talk to your children at an appropriate age about how they should search the web, and what to be wary of.
Please let us know in the comments section what you think about the young men’s petition, and how it will affect the student body.