News that a Texas husband and wife were convicted in the largest
child pornography business ever uncovered was not surprising to Richard Land.
Indeed, his concern is that the news was shocking to most other
Americans.
News that a Texas husband and wife were convicted in the largest
child pornography business ever uncovered was not surprising to Richard Land.
Indeed, his concern is that the news was shocking to most other
Americans.
The international porn ring is still being broken up, U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft reported after the August 8 conviction of the
Texas couple.
As president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty
Commission, Land said he knows that the growth of the Internet has brought nearly
as much bad as good. And the ready availability of online child pornography
is a case in point, he said.
Land cited a March 19, 2001, Newsweek report that legal authorities
had done a good job in busting up child porn rings until the Internet provided
a whole new and wide-open avenue for propagating the filth.
“Child pornography was pretty much eradicated in the 1980s,”
said Kevin Delli-Colli, chief of the U.S. Customs Cyber-Smuggling Center. “With
the advent of the Internet, it exploded.”
Land said while the Internet is a helpful and safe tool for
information and entertainment for many, its advent also was “a bonanza
for peddlers of filth and perversion.” Sex sites are the “dark underbelly
of the Internet” and are among its most visited sites, Land emphasized.
“I cant begin to imagine the countless number of
young lives destroyed at the hands of these cyber-molesters,” Land said.
He noted that the FBI opened 700 cases dealing with pedophilia
in 1998, most for posting child pornography. By 2000, more than 2,800 such cases
had been opened.
Families need to be aware of the risks online, Land said.
“Parents need to take an active role in monitoring their
youngsters use of the Internet. Few parents would take their kids downtown
and drop them off unescorted after dark, but that is, in effect, what we are
doing when we allow our children to surf the net alone and unprotected.”
Enough is Enough is an organization dedicated to educating
families on the importance of protecting children from the harms of pornography.
The group offers several suggestions for parents, including:
Become more Internet savvy.
Keep the computer in a “public” area in the
house and monitor its use by kids.
Check out available parental controls and install filtering/blocking
software or use a “clean Internet provider” that filters at the server
level. Recognize that no filter is foolproof or 100 percent safe.
Do not let children have online profiles, so they will
not be listed in directories and are less likely to be approached in childrens
chat rooms.
Tell children never to give out personal information,
including their name, parents names, address or the school they attend.
Do not allow children to post, send or receive pictures
online.
Tell children to tell about anything that seems strange
to them, if they are asked personal questions or if their online friend invites
them someplace.
Land said the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has developed
a resource kit to aid church leaders in helping parents address the “scourge
of pornography.” The Champion Action Kit on Sexual Purity is $24.95 and
available at (800) 475-9127.
“The most vile and offensive material imaginable is but
a keystroke away from any of us,” Land said. “Its time we recognize
the dangers and take measures to protect ourselves and our children.” (BP)
(Information on the Enough is Enough organization is available by calling 888-236-6044.
More information on filtered Internet service is available from LifeWay Online
at http://infolifewayonline.com and
the American Family Association at www.afa.net)