As we begin to march forward in our fight against pornography—especially as it relates to technology—I think it’s vitally important to identify the battlefield. Much like athletes understand what’s in and out of bounds, we must also know where the lines are drawn in defending ourselves against pornography.
Since football season is kicking-off, let me use it as an illustration without alienating those of you that may despise sports or don’t give a flyin’ flip about them. The area of the playing field in which a team has progressed that is close to scoring, is called the “Red Zone.” It is the position on the field that is the most difficult to defend as it is generally the most common place a team scores from.
By identifying the “Red Zones” of pornography, we can better defend it! I believe that most of us have little or no defense in many areas of our lives because we simply don’t know better. Not understanding where the “Read Zone’s” are, make us highly vulnerable.
The Mobile Web
The newest frontier for pornography use, a new “Red Zone” if you will, is the mobile web.
Every smartphone, tablet and laptop have made logging onto the Internet easier than ever. Devices like smartphones and tablets, not only give you easy access, but these devices are profoundly monotone—meaning they are designed for one user. In fact, many screens are even difficult to view unless you’re looking directly at them. Smartphones especially, also tend to be highly personal. Have you ever tried to borrow someone’s smartphone to make a call before? Good luck with that.
A Toxic Recipe
So a mobile device is highly personal, extremely mobile, and generally designed to have its content consumed by one person at a time. To make matters worse, most mobile devices are not the easiest to monitor. One of the nice things about smartphones and tablets is the ease of use. Apps are simple and straightforward. With that being said, checking Internet history—or even app history—is difficult for your basic user.
By mixing these elements together, you create a toxic recipe for disaster.
Let’s face it. Most people take their smartphone to the bathroom, jogging and to bed. These times could easily become opportunities to indulge in pornography.
Exhibit–A
For those of you that may feel that I am jumping to conclusions or this has “much ado about nothing,” let me give you some facts to think about.
“By 2015, mobile adult content and services are expected to reach $2.8 billion per year, mobile adult subscriptions will reach nearly $1 billion, and mobile adult video consumption on tablets will triple. We are already starting to see an increase in mobile adult content.”
But wait, there’s more:
“1 in 5 mobile searches are for pornography.”
And…
“24% of smartphone owners admit to having pornographic material on their mobile handset.”
So there you have it.
Look at your smartphone or tablet.
Does it look the same as it did five minutes ago?
It’s a Red Zone. Defend yourself.
Jeffrey R. E. Morgan says
My wife and I both just gave up our smartphones on Sunday. We both realized the hold they have on both of us. Having a constantly on internet accessible device can and does cause problems in our lives.
When my wife can have a panic attack from not having her phone, we know its time to reevaluate .why we even need them. We decided that the only things we really need to do are to make phone calls and send text messages.No e-mail and no social media.
Eric Dye says
Hats off to you both!
Dan Stephens says
I think that the mobile web is a front for more than just the war on porn consumption, but also production. Half or more of my students (I’m a new youth pastor) have apps like snap-chat or other apps with the original purpose of sexting. While looking for materials that I can equip parents with, I found this site: http://www.digitalkidsinitiative.com/, which seems to have some good stuff. As far as the war-on-porn goes, this might be a good intelligence center.
On another note, has anyone figured out how to disable “incognito mode” on either the factory internet browser or Google chrome? My google-fu has been insufficient to figure that one out.
Eric Dye says
Thanks for the link, Dan. You’re right about snap-chat, we’ll have to cover that. As for incognito, that’s a good question. :-/