Read UFI's Latest Book: 'Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography'

Since the arrival of the Internet, cell phones and the DVD and video industries, pornography has become the most pervasive and immediate threat to marriages and families, adults and children. Addiction and divorce are the most recognizable social costs of pornography, but the costs run much deeper. United Families International’s “Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography” examines what is perhaps the most insidious threat to individuals and families around the globe today.

History and research reveal the many harms of pornography:

• Pornography seeks out people from all walks of life, then poisons and corrupts them. The allure of substantial profits seduces corporations, hotel chains, cable television companies and Internet entrepreneurs – without concern for the well-being of families.
• Pornography has the propensity to deaden husbands’ attraction for their wives. The result is often heartache, alienation and divorce.
• Pornography is a perpetrator of family breakdown.
• Pornography demeans its participants. It is a form of prostitution, and porn subjects are frequently the victims of molestation, rape, coercion and blackmail.
• Pornography corrupts children and robs them of their innocence. Children have been raped and murdered by the producers of pornography.
• Organized crime is heavily involved in pornography, and crime rates are much higher in the neighborhoods where pornography is available.
• Pornography takes billions of dollars out of economies that could be much better spent on the needs of families.
• Pornography is not a benign phenomenon; it leaves a clearly discernible trail of victims.
  The scenes of sex crimes and the homes of those committing sex crimes are frequently littered with pornography. Pornography creates callous attitudes toward rape and causes users to develop distorted perceptions about sexuality.
• Pornography acts as a harmful “drug.” Physiologically, viewing pornography commonly triggers internal, endogenous drug production. An image in a person’s head acts as an electrical signal for no more than a few seconds can leave a trace that will last for years.
• Pornography distorts a healthy understanding of human sexuality.
• Pornography is pervasive, and no one is beyond its reach. One does not have to look for pornography; it will find you.
• Driven by greed and a disregard for families and consumers, businesses continually seek to expand pornography’s reach by creating new markets.
• Pornography contributes to the rising tide of sex trafficking.

The preponderance of social science research demonstrates how pornography harms men, women, children, families and marriages and poisons homes, work places, governments, communities and corrupts the mass media culture.

Read UFI's "Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography" online.

Dad, You Make Your Family and Community Better

Sunday, June 15 is Father's Day, and this is a message for all Dads.

Do you know just how indispensable you are to your wife and your children? To your community?

When you are present in the home and married to your children’s mother, so many positive things are in play.

For instance, your teens are significantly more likely to be involved in constructive use of their time through groups, sports and religious organizations.

Marriage strengthens the bonds you have with your children. Typically, you are more involved with your children and enjoy better relationships with them than unwed or divorced fathers. Your role of husband and father encourages you to voluntarily take responsibility for your children.

Students living with you and their mother score consistently higher in reading and math than other children.

Your wife is statistically much safer because of your presence.

Just having you at home and in their lives means your boys and girls are less likely to be suspended or expelled from school, less likely to commit delinquent crimes, less likely to be reported for problem behaviors at school, less likely to receive low grades in two or more subjects and more likely to score well on standard tests of cognitive development.

Your children are more likely to complete high school, attend or graduate from college.

Your daughters are less likely to become pregnant as teens.

With you present and in their lives, your kids are less vulnerable to serious emotional illness, depression and suicide.

Happy Father’s Day. Remember how valuable you are to your wives and children. Your presence in the home contributes to positive dynamics for your family and your community.

Enjoy your day!

Every Teen Doesn't Have Sex

We constantly hear from Planned Parenthood and other liberals that "everybody does it." And since every teen is supposedly sexually active, the remedy is condoms.

Now a new study comes out to refute those tired lines. And guess what? The Center for Disease Control study reports that just 34.1 percent of U.S. high school students are sexually active. That's a little short of "everybody." This figure is down from 54 percent in 1991, which is about the time that abstinence education began gathering momentum.

The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System study showed a 2-percent dropoff in the percentage of teens who said they used condoms while having sex. As students progress through high school, their condom use drops off -- despite the heavy dose of condom education by Planned Parenthood.

Despite the falling rates of sexual activity, there is still too much early sexual activity. In Mississippi and Delaware, more than 60 percent of high school students have had sexual intercourse. The rates are over 50 percent in 14 other states.

The further students go through high school, the more likely they are to engage in sexual activity:

Ninth-graders: 20.1 percent
Tenth-graders: 30.6 percent
Eleventh-graders: 41.8 percent
Twelfth-graders: 52.6 percent

Nearly 15 percent of high school students have had sexual intercourse with four or more persons in their life.

The figure for students having sex for the first time before the age of 13 is 7.1 percent. Just 4.5 percent of high school seniors fit this category.

Sexual activity among Black and White students is declining, but there was no decline among Hispanic students.

One of the surprising findings of the study is that 29.1 percent of high school students in San Francisco have ever had sex. In contrast, 70 percent of students in Baltimore had engaged in sexual intercourse. Other major metro cities with high rates were Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee and Philadelphia.

Read the study