This Christmas, Stay Alert to Pornography

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 12/15/05)

December 9, 2005

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

This past November at the fall meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Religious Alliance Against Pornography presented some deeply unsettling information about the spread of pornography through current technological advances.

During the Christmas shopping season, I wanted to bring to your attention the following, especially in light of the fact that many of you are now making decisions about Christmas gifts for children and young people. Many are you may in fact be planning to give video cell phones, PDAs and iPods.

According to the Religious Alliance Against Pornography:

• All the pornography on the Internet will be available within months to all Americans including children and teens through wireless handheld devices such as video cell phones, iPods and PDAs.
• There are no filtering or monitoring devices now available. This means children and teens can access pornographic material with total anonymity without parents or grandparents having any knowledge of it. We know from research that this material is seductive and addictive.
• The technology itself is not dangerous. The danger lies in the fact that there are no safeguards or regulations in place to protect children and teens from being exposed to unwanted, explicit pornographic content that is downloadable through these wireless handheld devices. Unwanted pornography often leads to wanted pornography.
• In Korea and Europe, wireless video and television streaming technology is already in place. Triple-X, pornographic content is the only content that is presently generating profits for these companies. The same technology is coming to America and will deliver the sexualized messages of the culture impacting our children and youth in very destructive ways.

I encourage you to consider this information in these weeks before Christmas. Purchasing these wireless devices before appropriate protection is in place can open our children and grandchildren to unknown dangers.

Faithfully in Christ,

The Most Reverend Paul S. Loverde

Bishop of Arlington

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