Most porn users and addicts will attest to the damaging effects porn has on the user, but often the collateral damage of porn, the damage it causes to others surrounding it, often go unnoticed. For those making efforts to break the addiction of porn, using every tool in the toolbox is going to help toward that goal. Ultimately, freedom is found when we can reprogram ourselves to God’s original design for sex, not the fantasy world that porn and our sex-saturated culture have duped us into believing. One of those tools that goes unused is the realization of what porn does to so many others. While I, the user, am getting a dopamine high and a self-made orgasm, the ripple effect of my decision to do these things goes farther and deeper than I could ever imagine.
1. The first and most evident victim of this collateral damage are the models and performers in porn. Consider this video, which gives you a good idea of why many enter into the porn industry, as well as what the industry does to people once they are inside of it:
2. You might ask, how do these models and performers get involved in the porn industry? Sure, there are the handful who seek it out willingly as a way to make a quick buck or for attention, or thinking they will become rich celebrities off of it, but many, like the above video portray, are hooked on drugs or somehow or another are manipulated into entering the industry. Did you know that many of the women you view in pornography are also sex slaves, pawns in the multibillion dollar industry of global sex trafficking? Along with their services as sex slaves, they are forced to model and perform in pornography. It’s double the money for the owners and pimps. In fact, often the same women will be used as strippers, sex slaves, and porn models. Sex traffickers prey on vulnerable women and children who have no other means of income, so are simply left with the choice to enter the industry, or die of starvation. Or often, a wealthy businessman from the city will come to the village and promise a family he will give their child a respectable job in the city and money will be sent back to the family, so the family allows him to take him/her. This sex trafficker then turns this child into a cash cow, churning out sex acts and porn shoots until they eventually die someday. The sad part is, these families sometimes know where the child is headed, but still agree because they need the money so badly. To support organizations aimed at putting an end to sex trafficking, visit Love146, the International Justice Mission, as well as World Relief.
Check out this short video by The Defenders USA, a challenge to men to defend women, stop looking at porn, and stop contributing to the sex trafficking industry. I encourage you to accept their challenge and officially join to become a Defender, I did:
3. The third victim of the collateral damage of porn are orphans and foster children. These vulnerable children are often the ones that sex traffickers seek out. (And yes, sex slavery happens in the USA, lots of it!) The solution? Adopt children and/or become foster parents, which I recently blogged on. Contact Bethany Christian Services with questions about adoption and foster care and/or seek out the resources from my previous post on this subject.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
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