Porn in search of children

Bishop Robert Llanos, newly-installed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of St John’s, Antigua, gave the startling statistic while delivering welcome remarks at Saturday’s opening session of Consider This: A National Conversation on Protecting Children From the Harmful Effects of Pornography at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s.

The end, which ended yesterday, was organised by the Archdiocesan Family Life Commission, to formulate a strategy to combat the problem of pornography use among children in this country.

Among the other speakers at the conference were US-based psychotherapist Dr Mary-Anne Layden; film maker/marketer Clay Olsen; Senior Programme Officer, Quality Assurance Unit, University of the West Indies Anna Kasafi Perkins; federally certified instructor Sunny Slaughter and clinical and community psychologist Dr Dianne Douglas.

Noting that the seeds for the conference were sown during his most recent stint as Chairman of the Family Life Commission, Llanos said within the last few years, Trinidad and Tobago has been “keeping the pornography industry afloat.” He argued that pornography and its effects on society was not simply a moral and religious issue “but a serious attack on all the institutions that help build up and promote well-being and well-adjusted societies. “Put simply, healthy human development and the well-being of all societies, for generations to come, both men and women, are seriously at risk if we do not take action and intervene now,” Llanos said.

“I cannot overstate the dangers involved towards the country’s economy, mental health, ability to maintain academic achievement, crime situation, family life, the educational system, emotional health, violence towards women and children and the list goes on. “Most importantly, we are here to save the children of the next generation and the ones after that from what is promising to be an addiction harder to overcome and far more destructive to society that cocaine, heroin or any of the known drugs of our time.” The Roman Catholic cleric urged stakeholders to heed the advice of the speakers at the deliberations and take action. “This is not the time to engage in denial or trivialising or any other defence mechanism you may want to employ because the problem we face with pornography addiction is evil and very destructive,” Llanos said “The sooner we intervene, the better our chances of saving our children and generations to come.” Llanos said although pornography, sexual deviance and associated forms of violence were not new to history “current technologies have made their use and effects more virulent than many had expected.

“Your children do not necessarily have to go in search of porn, porn now comes in search of your children and they are not likely to tell you about it...Intervene before it is too late,” he urged.