The Video Pornography Revolution
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay
Pornography is considered by many as harmless and
even healthy by some societies. But what is happening today is far from
the girlie magazines read under the bed covers with a flashlight. The
Internet has changed all that and now young people with the ability to
access a computer in school or at home can, with the click of a button,
summon up the most horrific images of abuse being done to children. Even
worse can be seen if you pay a fee using a credit card.
This huge international trade has to be detected and the perpetrators
made to answer for their crimes. It is not the crime-less act many
claim. Every image of a child being sexually abused is evidence of a
horrific crime. What we need to counter this is a movement as strongly
determined and unrelenting as the pro-life movement. They see the evil
of abortion with a bright shining conviction and work non-stop to save
the babies… We need the same to stop the crimes against children.
A few weeks ago I was visiting a poor family whose child had been
reported abused by some young boys. As I was walking to their house in a
shantytown I noticed a group of men and boys crowding around a
television set. It was no sports event they were watching but a strong
pornographic movie. The adults had to pay a small fee to the owner of
the video machine to join the “Home Cinema” but children were free. Many
were peeping over the backs of the adults.
I was not surprised when I heard that two, nine-and-ten-year-old-boys,
had victimized the six-and-seven-year-old little girls. When brought for
counseling they admitted they had watched the pornography videos and
were imitating what they saw.
The proliferation of pornographic videotapes has a terrible effect on
the moral life of the people. This is one of the greatest challenges
facing the Church, the true guardian of the dignity and sacredness of
the human person, of children and family values. Civil society and
government must be aroused from their non-caring attitude.
The impact of the Internet is making the situation worse. This is the
advertising arm of child sexual abuse and the sex industry as a whole.
Young women are hired to perform lewd sex acts before a camera while the
images are beamed live through the Internet to anyone anywhere in the
world who pays to see. This is the latest in “peep shows” and it is
globalised.
The PREDA project for child victims of sexual abuse reaches central
Luzon and Metro Manila. Some of the eleven-year-old boys that we are
getting out of the prisons for recovery and human development training
are charged with the rape of little girls younger than them. They are
pedophiles in the making and have been corrupted by the adults who set
up the pornography cinema in the alleyways and back rooms. We are even
accepting children for recovery as young as six and seven with sexually
transmitted diseases. Thousands of young people have been helped yet
many more have yet to be reached.
There is much evangelization to be done in making the sacredness of
human person and the integrity of the human body a center of Christian
spirituality for young people in a world where it is seen as a commodity
to be bought and sold. Christianity today must reach young people and
inspire them to respect the human person and actively counter the social
evils that are ever present damaging and destroying innocent lives. We
have our part to play by giving good examples, speaking out and
supporting the work to stamp out the evil trade.
End
