Dubbed “Truth in Porn,” the campaign is intended to raise awareness about the problems Internet porn allegedly causes for individuals, families and businesses, according to Jill Manning, a family therapist.
“As a family therapist working with children and adolescents who are struggling with the effects of pornography, I can tell you that pornography — especially Internet pornography with its violent, demeaning, or highly explicit messages — is damaging, not only for youths, but for many adults as well,” Manning said.
The site’s homepage contains an ominous welcome message: “Internet pornography is a problem. It is not only harmful to children, but also dangerous and destructive to our families and our communities. Today, there is nothing you can do to keep Internet pornography out of your home. Today, you don’t have a choice.”
TruthinPorn.com also features a list of statistics that have been cited repeatedly by many anti-porn groups claiming, for example, that 90 percent of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online. No source or methodology is cited.
“People need to know what they are allowing to enter into their homes when they are connected to the Internet. They need to know that some forms of pornography are no different than leaving alcohol, drugs or firearms laying around for their children to pick up and play with,” Matthew Yarro, vice president of marketing for CP80, said. “It could ruin their lives and possibly even kill them. Why take the risk?”
Both Yarro’s and Manning’s names may be familiar to XBIZ readers.
Last year, Yarro’s brother Ralph announced that he had developed a technology that he claimed would use the Internet’s existing infrastructure of protocols and ports to enable the migration of adult sites to specific channels, with the end goal of leaving Port 80 free of porn, and began using his substantial wealth to lobby lawmakers in Washington to support his idea.
Manning has testified several times before Congress requesting government regulation of the adult Internet, often claiming porn is addictive.
“This is not just a simple, benign form of expression, but rather a potentially addictive substance,” Manning told the Senate in November. “People watch a movie, read a book, listen to music, but they masturbate to pornography. In that difference, you have a different stimulation to the brain.”
“There have been some experts who have argued that [masturbation], in and of itself, overrides informed consent when encountering this material,” Manning continued, suggesting that the act of self-gratification, which activates 14 neurotransmitters in the brain, causes loss of judgment, compounds miscommunication between the sexes and increases the risk of divorce.