LDS Resources to Stop Pornography on the Web
Yesterday, I blogged about the revived proposal to create a .xxx domain for pornography. This article lists several LDS resources that may be of interest to you:
- LDS Church (Mormon Church) has published pamphlets and posted online helps on combating pornography. More information coming in the future.
- Utah Coalition Against Pornography is a multi-faith community effort. Their Web site has information about education, statistics, and links to helpful sites. They also provide an annual conference and helpful materials.
- Citizens Against Pornography is an organization of LDS people who focus on [1] raising awareness about the harms of pornography, [2] protecting standards of decency in our communities and [3] fortifying homes and families against the destructive and pervasive influence of pornography. They promote legislation to require Web site ratings, recommend filtering technologies to assist parents, and have developing a DVD and printed material to assist parents and others. Their Web site provides help for individuals, parents, and spouses.
- Communities for Decency is a grass-roots statewide women’s organization. Their Web site contains online articles and references to other resources. They also engage in political action.
- CP-80 Internet Channel Initiative. The Internet Community Ports Act (ICPA) promotes the use of Internet channels (ports) to categorize and organize content on the Internet. The act would create Community Port channels for general-public content and Open Port channels for mature content, such as pornography.
- Cyber Secrets: The Problem of Pornography is a series of presentations given at a special conference sponsored by Women’s Services and Resources, a department of Student Life at Brigham Young University. The Web site offers the presentations in streaming audio or in print.
- Lighted Candle Society is a nondenominational, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of moral values. Their Web site contains information about the evils and extent of pornography. They also offer a DVD and other materials.
- Mental Health Resource Foundation is a volunteer organization committed to carrying a message of hope to those who may be suffering from mental illness and social/emotional concerns and those who love them. Their Web site has information on pornography and links to other resources and organizations.
- National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families is a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending biblical truth about sexuality. Their Web site has information about avoiding pornography and protecting children from it, as well as links to other organizations.
- Strengthen the Family is a non-profit organization that seeks to strengthen families and protect communities by helping them establish child-appropriate public display standards. The Web site has articles on the dangers of pornography and Internet safety, including practical advice for parents. Listen to a talk given at BYU education week in 2001 (search for speaker “JoAnn Hamilton”).
- Evergreen International is a non profit organization dedicated to helping LDS individuals overcome same-sex attraction and assosiated issues, such as pornography. They provide help to individuals, families, professional counselors, and Church leaders. Their large Web site has a few dozen pages on avoiding and overcoming pornography.
Bookmark:
Comments
These are great resources, but are there any current technical aides to help prevent kids from accessing or running across pornography through home computer use? I’d like to see a Firefox plug-in with a filter set or even a whitelist filter that would restrict accessible Web sites, but I have yet to find one that worked. Do you or anyone else know of successful browser plug-ins or software?
Here are a couple of free web filtering systems:
K9 Web Protection(http://www.k9webprotection.com/):
Windows only. Very good software, free for home use (for office you need to buy a license), works with all web browsers, requires a password to deactivate.
DansGuardian(http://dansguardian.org/):
Linux and MacOSX. Also very good software, it can be setup to work in a single computer or in a whole network. Free use in any setting (home, office, corporation, etc). Works with all web browsers. Requires to be a system administrator to deactivate.
I have both of them set up at home and they work wonderfully.
See the entry “Internet” in the Gospel Topics section of the Gospel Library. It has a list of good articles and references to filters.
Peter (and any others interested), I strongly recommend http://www.getk9.com to be installed on every Windows-based computer in your home. It’s a great filtering software product offered by BlueCoat Systems for free to home users. See the FAQ on their webpage for all the details. Very, very good.
Another vote for BlueCoat’s K9 Web Protection as an installed PC solution. Personally, I have a linux server with Dansguardian running on it that everyone has to go through. If you hop over to the http://www.ldsoss.org site, it mentions Dansguardian and squidGuard as solutions.
We use ContentBarrier for Mac (intego.com) as a filtering solution. It does the job, but it can be pretty buggy and causes our system to freeze at least daily.
Gratefully, OS X Leopard (the next version coming out later this year) will have internet access restrictions and a pornography filter built right in to the operating system.
BumperCar, a web broswer by Freeverse, is a great program to keep kids’ browsing on track. It combines whitelists and blacklists, as well as a user-definable profanity filter. I have put it through its paces, testing it for certain words, expressions, sites, etc., and it really shines as a safe harbor for children’s web browsing.
A parent can also define how far away from approved sites a child can travel (i.e. 3 clicks away, or whatever), and even those clicks are filtered through the browser’s profanity and white/blacklists.
It also stops inappropriate Google searches in their tracks.
It is available for Mac OS X at freeverse.com. I highly recommend it. Best $30 for software spent. And I seem to recall they allow you to use your one license to install the software on any computer in your home.
Get Bumpercar. I feel perfectly safe with my 5 and 7 year old boys using the web with Bumpercar (all other browsers are disabled in their user account).
Ronald Schoedel
Through much encouragement, I have started a business to help husband and wife find products and ideas to strengthen intimacy in marriage without using any pornography. This will be a great resource for many couples who are torn between purchasing products to help them, or having to avoid the atmosphere of most stores all together. Lingerie is displayed on manikins, not even using soft porn. Should be up and running by Summer 2008!
SimplySweetMarriage.com
[...] Lighted Candle Society is one of the great organizations fighting pornography. They just launched a Web site PornographyStats.com, featuring detailed information on the [...]
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