This 12 months the Naked Truth Project (NT) celebrates 10 years of opening eyes and freeing lives from the damaging impact of pornography. The organisation, based in Manchester, has been recognised widely for the work it does to interrupt the cycle of porn addiction and produce restoration to the lives of many.
Christian Today spoke with Ian Henderson, founder and CEO, to listen to about how the church has been tackling pornography during the last decade, recent challenges with the rise of AI, and what parents can do to safeguard their children from adult content.
NT got down to ‘open eyes and free lives from the damaging impact of pornography through awareness, education and recovery programmes.’ Do you think that the Church is more aware of the issue 10 years on and have churches got higher at discussing and addressing porn addiction?
Yes, I feel we have now definitely seen change. I definitely remember over 10 years ago after we began having some conversations and doing just a few pilot initiatives to see what response that may need. In those early days, I feel talking about pornography within the church context was taboo – nobody even desired to hear the ‘P’ word being said. By contrast in mainstream culture it was becoming taboo to even suggest there is likely to be anything harmful about pornography.
Since then, 1000’s of leaders have attended our conferences and events, and 10 years on we’re still engaging with churches that wish to discuss and tackle this issue. Increasingly, we’re being asked by theological colleges and Bible colleges to return and speak to leaders in training about this issue. I feel that is quite significant because it could be that certainly one of the the explanation why porn was so difficult for churches and church leaders to handle was because they didn’t feel trained and equipped to discuss it.
As many as 93 per cent of church leaders discover that porn is a big problem of their congregation, but only 7 per cent of church leaders have any programmes or ways to support people. There is a giant gap there – or there was – and I feel we’re seeing that gap starting to shut.
I also think that we’re seeing changes in wider society as well. A couple of years ago it was taboo to suggest that porn was harmful, but I feel increasingly more persons are starting to recognise the addictive nature of porn and the negative impact it may need on relationships and young people’s understanding of relationships. The Online Safety Bill was recently passed here within the UK which I feel is a mirrored image of individuals starting to grasp that we want to guard young people around this issue.
The rise of AI has created a recent sector inside pornography, ‘deep fake’ porn. Is a recent strategy needed to handle these emerging challenges?
For us as a charity the vast majority of our work is education and recovery so, we’re helping those which are scuffling with the impact of porn on their lives, or the lives of their family members. The reality is that while the sorts of porn that folks eat or download may change, what stays the identical is its destructive nature. It’s still something that’s unrealistic and creates toxic views of others.
A dictionary definition of porn would define it along the lines of writings, pictures and movies which were designed to stimulate sexual desire, often for profit, so even in that dictionary definition you’ve got a ‘what’ and a ‘why’. The ‘what’ may very well be movies, magazines, or a deep fake AI-generated picture, or it is likely to be a hand drawn anime manga cartoon. The ‘what’ can look different however the ‘why’ stays the identical – creating something to stimulate sexual excitement with a view to generate a profit. The porn industry continues to be searching for to leverage people’s vulnerabilities, their brokenness and weakness, to make cash. That is why we as an organisation often discuss rescuing people downstream who’re drowning. People will probably be drowning no matter how the porn is definitely created.
Having said that, a small percentage of our work is in partnering with and supporting organisations who work primarily around changing laws and law. There is lots of work happening in that space, including across the query of whether there must be some laws for AI.
What are your thoughts on age verification controls on porn sites?
I feel it has been a protracted time coming. It’s frustrating that it took so long, but we will rejoice that age verification has finally passed into law. The query now’s to see how well it’s regulated by Ofcom.
It’s vital to grasp that that is about protecting young people. It’s not a conversation about consenting adults and freedom; it’s an agreement that young people under the age of 18 shouldn’t accidently be exposed to porn. We should have the opportunity to have things in place that mitigate against that.
What can parents do to guard their children in a world where porn appears to be prolific?
It does massively rely upon the age of the kid but basically terms, there should be each controls and conversations. When they’re younger it is less complicated to have more control. When they become old, it’s more a few conversation. It’s helpful to think about the web as a city and take into consideration how parents would raise their children in that type of environment.
My two kids grew up living within the centre of Manchester. When they were little we wanted them to experience what was good in regards to the city. We wanted them to go to places, experience things, enjoy things and we were normally with them, ensuring that they were protected. When they were crossing the road, we were holding their hands. When they became teenagers we didn’t try this. They would go into town on their very own and be with their friends, so it became far more about having conversations around where they were going and what they were doing.
I feel the web is the same thing. It’s natural and healthy for youngsters to have independence of their real life and I feel probably within the digital world we should be working on that too. When they’re younger we want to be certain that that we’re holding their hands and a few parents do not know how one can try this since the web feels overwhelming to them. We have a parents’ pack with a number of advice about how parents can put in some controls when with younger children and have conversations in the event that they are older. That can be a great start line for a number of parents.
We would also encourage parents to have a conversation with the entire family during which they reach an agreement about one another’s digital use. That might help teenagers particularly since it makes it less about them.
You’ve reached your 10-year milestone. What’s next for NT?
We hope to have the opportunity to proceed the work we’re doing since it is required now greater than ever. We have already engaged with around 100,000 pupils in schools but we wish to discuss with more schools and more young people, and in other countries, not only the UK, since the problem is so huge – 56 billion hits on one porn site in a single 12 months tells me 100,00 pupils in 10 years is not quite enough yet!
That’s another excuse why it is vital that our resources are accessible to people, whether or not they have a faith or not. What we have seen is that as people start their recovery, additionally they start exploring and coming to faith because they’ve joined a community where there are Christians who are sometimes scuffling with the identical thing. I’d like to see more of that.
We are inspired by Isaiah 40’s language of ‘levelling mountains, lifting valleys, preparing the way in which for the Lord, clearing a way in order that the goodness of God may very well be revealed to all people.’ Pornography is a mountain that should be levelled. Our part is to ask how we will stand against this huge giant of pornography, and see more people discover – or rediscover – God.
