Victories from the Movement—Good News for Parents!

by Kristen A. Jenson, MA

The momentum is building to warn and protect kids from pornography! Today I get to share some good news that proves all of our efforts are making a difference. (Don't miss the inspiring message from Sam Gamgee at the end!)

New Video for Kids!

First up, I want to share the newly released video What Do I Do When I See Pornography? In fact, the read-aloud children's book Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today's Young Kids was used in the development of some of the concepts taught in the video. It was produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and targets a broad Christian audience. Getting this message out to kids—victory!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x_ijWnjcOY

Whew! Last month we traveled to four amazing conferences that I want you to know about.

#1. ORLANDO FL, Sept 10-12

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) hosted their second annual Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Summit for leaders in the movement.

You might think the most fun I had was spending a day at Disney World, but you’d be wrong! I’m way more excited about fighting porn! (Yes, I’m that weird!)

Just a few highlights (out of dozens of amazing presentations!):

• I was honored to give an update of the effectiveness of our book Good Pictures Bad Pictures, and share several stories of kids who used their two brains and the CAN DO Plan™ to defend themselves against porn. (I’ll be blogging about those in an upcoming post!) Kids live in a virtual world every bit as real as their physical world, and it’s up to parents to teach them the skills to thrive in both. The good news is that they CAN DO it!

• Dawn Hawkins, vice president of NCOSE, spoke about the success of their Dirty Dozen campaign. This is amazing, folks! Giant companies are scrambling to get off this list! Most recently Hilton Hotels stopped offering porn channels in their hotels.

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• Matt Fradd and me at the CESE Summit in Orlando
• Matt Fradd of Integrity Restored gave a rousing and eloquent final keynote. In it he explained why pornography is bad. It’s not just that it has bad consequences (addiction, ruined marriages, ties with sex trafficking, and the list goes on). At the core, porn is bad because it uses human beings for selfish and commercial consumption instead of treating them with the love and dignity all people intrinsically deserve. That is the heart of the matter.

Here’s how we say it in Good Pictures Bad Pictures:

“Watching pornography can lead you to believe that people are objects to use instead of real human beings with feelings. We know that everyone has feelings and wants to be treated with kindness, so that’s one more way that pornography lies to people who look at it.”

[[CTA]]

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#2 MESA AZ, Sept 12

The Arizona Family Council held its biennial Building Strong Families conference where my right hand woman, Claudine Gallacher, presented Addiction Prevention: How to PornProof Your Child’s Brain with an Internal Filter. Hundreds of parents gathered to learn how to protect and heal their families from the pandemic of pornography. Victory!

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All sold out at our booth at the St. George UCAP

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#3 ST. GEORGE UT, Sept 19

A thousand concerned people gathered at the Southern Utah Coalition Against Pornography (UCAP) conference where I was privileged to teach two sessions of my class 5 Steps to Inoculate Kids Against the Pandemic of Porn.

I always do a book giveaway using entry forms that ask for feedback. The most common message from parents? “Thank you! I now feel empowered to talk to my kids about pornography.” Victory!

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18K people came to the Penn. Convention Center for WMOF

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#4 PHILADELPHA PA, Sept 22-25

The World Meeting on Families is a HUGE triennial conference hosted by the Catholic Church and was attended by 18,000 people from all over the world! I was so excited when the organizers contacted me to request that we bring our book to share with participants.

Claudine and I were able to introduce Good Pictures Bad Pictures and PornProof Kids to hundreds of parents, grandparents and religious leaders. I can’t begin to describe the enthusiasm we felt there! Another VICTORY!

"There’s Some Good in this World and It’s Worth Fighting For"

Sometimes the darkness we're up against seems overwhelming. That's why I love this scene from The Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers) movie that my friend Matt Fradd shared in his summit keynote.

Sam and Frodo are on their perilous quest to destroy the ring in the fires of Mt. Doom when Frodo is overwhelmed by the enemy’s power and feels like he can’t go on. His faithful companion, Sam, inspires him to keep trying.

Sam: It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.

I can’t say it any better than the wise words of Sam Gamgee. Let’s keep fighting the darkness of pornography and never give up. Our kids are worth it!