Heartknots : a series of struggles

Abstract

At the start of writing this report, a 24/7 counter on the website www.covenanteyes.com indicates a 674,152, 616 searches for pornography since the start of 2015, increasing at the rate of around 70 searches per second. A survey done recently in the United States recorded in the scholarly article titled: ‘The Internet Pornography Pandemic: “ The Largest Unregulated Social Experiment in Human History’ written by Donna Rice Hughes, 2014 shows that the mean age of boys and girls being expose to Internet pornography is 14.3 and 14.8 years old respectively and 93.2% of boys and 62.1% of girls have already seen pornography online before they reach 18years old. Our children are now more tech-savvy than we could imagine. Among youth 12 to 14 years old, 88% in the United States use the Internet. 37% of 3 and 4 year olds use their parents’ tablets and smartphones, as do 87% of 5 to 7 year olds. Pornography has become prevalent in our homes with the availability of Internet and our children are accessing pornography without guidance. 53% of boys and 28% of girls (ages 12–15) use sexually explicit pornography, most often via the Internet. As quoted from the author Luke Gilkerson from the book ‘Your Brain on Porn’ “We are only beginning to see the effects of mass produced porn in our culture. The Internet generation- those who have grown up with online media in the home have now entered young adulthood. Many saw pornography for the 1st time when they were very young and today consuming Internet pornography is a weekly or even daily affair for many college age men and women.” (Gilkerson, pp.5, 2014) Since the inception of Pornography in the Internet in the 21st century, we are seeing the result of this uncontrolled social experiment. More results are showing a rise in terms of broken marriage, premarital sex, and abortions of unwanted babies, rape and prostitution. Research results are proving the prophecies of wise men and women who fought against the effects of commercialized sex has on our society. No one was prepared to protect us from Internet pornography because they could not anticipate the rate of growth of pornography industry and the accessibility of it. We are seeing more stories on the Internet about how pornography has distort the way young people view sex and relationships. Yet with a vast majority of people indulging in pornography even in a conservative state like Singapore, pornography remains a taboo topic. How is it that we can remain silent about it when we are seeing the devastating effects of unregulated Internet pornography and reaping the fruits of it? Therefore through my FYP, I would like to explore on how could it be make more comfortable for Singaporeans to have a dialogue on sex and pornography and hopefully through that people can see for themselves the real face of pornography.