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Porn is tightening its grip on America’s youth through two major areas – online gaming and virtual reality.
As recently as five years ago, the number of video games containing pornographic sexual violence was minimal, according to Ben Miller, digital strategies coordinator for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). But now, the center reports the numbers of these games are skyrocketing.
Last year, one popular video game website hosted 780 games with nudity. This year, the same website hosts more than 1,600 of these games.
Now, a company that owns a large number of top porn studios and websites has started a distribution platform for online pornographic games.
“Porn games don’t simply contain sex and nudity. Rather, they are much more graphic,” Miller said in a press release. “Some of these games promote sexual harassment and assault. Despite being cartoons, the graphic content in these games is far from harmless. Animated porn fuels sexual addiction and shapes sexual palettes just as regular porn does.”
The distributor provides free-to-play games in addition to their purchased products. This free option will allow young children easier access to the content, bypassing paywalls intended to block young people’s ability to play the games.
Watch A Brain on Porn with Dr. Lawrence Tucker
NCOSE noted that the provider’s website traffic has exploded from 50 million to 115 million visits between April and August 2018, ranking it in the top 500 websites in the world.
Parents need to be aware of the impact the increase in pornographic online gaming may have on their children.
“Parents need to understand how intricately linked the gaming industry and pornography industry are,” Marriage and Family Therapist Dr. Jill Manning told Internet Security 101. “More and more games have pornography embedded in them. If kids play online, that is a pornographer’s heyday for marketing, grooming and hooking young consumers.”
Virtual Reality (VR) is also a booming business.
Another major adult gaming portal announced last May that it is expanding into virtual reality with two new VR products. Through the use of a headset such as the Oculus Rift (owned by Facebook), a viewer is able to enter a totally manufactured environment and tune out the reality of their actual situation.
Fortune Magazine stated, “By 2025, adult virtual reality content is forecast to be a $1 billion business, the third biggest sector behind video games and NFL-related content, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Travis Jakel.”
Todd Glider, CEO of VR adult entertainment company BaDoink, said: “VR will become the standard in the industry for today’s younger male consumers.”
“I see it through a generational lens. VR porn will not have a pronounced effect on the demographic born before 1980,” he continued. “However, for the generations born after, the ones that reach adulthood in a world where 24/7 access to adult content is just a mouse click away, that’s the audience for VR porn, and it will be huge.”
Watch “How Men Get Addicted to Pornography” with Nancy Houston
https://vimeo.com/248230640
Here are some steps you can take to protect your children
- Keep the gaming device or computer in a high-traffic area, not in the child’s room, even if you already have an internet filter service.
- Remove the headphones and make them use the computer’s speakers so you can hear any online chatting.
- Set up all of your children’s game accounts and console controls. You decide who has access to their gaming profile and who your child can talk to. Learn how to use the parental controls that are built into the console.
- Read reviews and understand the industry rating system. Make sure the game is age-appropriate.
- Talk to your children. Teach them basic internet safety roles and to notify you if they encounter anything unusual or unsettling while they are playing. Build a non-shaming relationship with your child so that if they do come across adult content, they can approach you and talk about it.
Christian apologist and evangelist, Josh McDowell, is featured in the Conquer Series, a 12-part DVD course that helps families deal with pornography.
The powerful video segments, compelling testimonies, and strong Biblical teaching will equip you with valuable information about the porn battle that’s rising against your family. You can find out more at ConquerSeries.com.
–Steve Warren
