Dear Friend,
I need to tell you the story of 12-year-old Jack (not his real name), a young sixth grader who was given a Chromebook by his middle school. Jack quickly discovered his school-issued device allowed him unfiltered access to the Internet and many other apps unrelated to school, such as Netflix and YouTube, which have volumes of pornographic content.
Jack’s mother thought he was doing schoolwork, but when she caught him watching YouTube videos instead of doing his homework online, she thought nothing of it, thinking a device given to her son by the school would be safe.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
When Jack began to act strangely, asking to bring his Chromebook into his bedroom to study and spending an increasing amount of time on the device, his mother decided to investigate.
What she found shocked her: Jack’s school-issued Chromebook had no protections whatsoever and was now filled with hardcore pornography!
Jack’s accidental encounter with pornography on his unfiltered Chromebook jumpstarted an addiction, and soon his family was at a loss. Without the Chromebook, he couldn’t continue school. But with it, he was at great risk.
Internet pornography consumption by adolescents like Jack is associated with a multitude of negative effects, such as a greater propensity to addiction, risky sexual behavior that can have profoundly adverse effects, and other health impacts on the brain. Such outcomes are not surprising in light of research into how the human brain develops throughout childhood and into adulthood.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has advocated against pornography for nearly 60 years. As one of our main missions, NCOSE has fought to bring public attention to the public health harms of pornography. Our organization has a proven track record of success on this front, but our programs and projects are not cheap.
That’s why the National Center on Sexual Exploitation needs your help. We cannot let Jack’s story repeat itself. We are regularly working with Google executives demanding that Chromebooks be filtered to prevent access to pornography. This is just one of a multitude of efforts we have underway to stop pornography from invading your family life.
Will you help us in this fight against pornography with a generous tax-deductible donation today of $25, $50, $100 or more? All donations will be matched, dollar for dollar, by a generous donor to NCOSE.
And what’s more, right now your donation comes at a critical time for us.
June is our fiscal year-end. We need all the support from our partners that we can get! Please consider donating today in order to help fund projects and campaigns that will help bring freedom from sexual exploitation in 2020-21.
