A Practical Primer on Fighting Internet Porn

by M.A. Button

Internet Pornography is one of the most destructive forms of evil that human society has ever encountered. It scourges individuals, families and whole communities to the point where the end result is people perceiving one another as nothing more than mere objects and not persons. This detracts from the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life.

If we are going to save Christianity, then Christians must act. If we are going to save our children, then parents must act.

We must start fighting Internet Pornography at the level of our own homes before taking on the filth of the world, for Our Lord says,

"Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:3-5)

I've put together an easy method for detecting and deleting Internet pornography (a giant 'wooden beam') on your computer. Once detected, the offenders can be identified and the situation remedied. Once the secret is exposed, it is no longer a secret!

1. The easiest way to detect porn on your computer is to open your Internet browser and look at the top where the Internet address is displayed. You'll see the address of your homepage, starting with "http://www ... com."

2. Now, look to the right. You should see a symbol that looks like a "V". Click on it. This will take you to recently accessed websites. Usually porn sites have sexy names like "girls,girls,girls," for instance.

The second method is more complicated.

Realize EVERYTHING accessed on the Internet is stored somewhere on your computer, unless you've deleted it. Remember this! Your computer stores Internet image files, text files, audio files, and video files.

A dialogue box is used to delete these files, called "Temporary Internet Files." The same dialogue box can be used to view these "Temporary Internet Files." I suggest viewing these files if you suspect someone in your house is accessing Internet porn. Confront them with your findings, gently, and then delete the files.

To find Porn Images stored on your computer (assuming you use Windows):

1. Click START

2. Click ALL PROGRAMS

3. Click ACCESSORIES

4. Click SYSTEM TOOLS

5. Click DISK CLEANUP-at this point, your computer will scan the files on the computer to calculate how much space can be freed on your computer.

6. You will see what's termed a "Dialogue Box." Dialogue Boxes are commonly used in Windows to access Windows Computer Subprograms that are written into the Windows Operating System (an Operating System is a computer program that runs your computer).

In the Dialogue box, you'll see various file categories and checkboxes next to them. Click the checkbox next to "Temporary Internet Files," and then highlight "Temporary Internet Files" with your mouse.

7. Click "VIEW FILES."

8. You'll see a series of folders with weird names such as "03NNU0DH." Open the files one by one to view the contents. One note: you may see a box that says "possible security problem with contents of folder." I suggest ignoring the possible security problem and opening the folder anyway.

9. If you have your computer set to view file suffixes, then you'll see the file suffix after the file name. (Example: if a file is called chickens.doc, the suffix is ".doc"). Files that have the suffixes of .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .tiff, .psd, and .ai are Image files. Another easier way to determine if the file is an image file is to view the "Type" column to the right. This tells you if a file is an image file, or not.

Now, if an image file has a sexy name, then it might be a porn image. Double-click on the suspicious file, choose a program to open it with (Windows Picture and Fax viewer or Windows Media Player should work fine) and then view it. Something pornographic should be obvious.

After you've confronted the person viewing porn, return to the same dialogue box and click the checkboxes to delete, "Temporary Internet Files," "Recycle Bin," and "Temporary Files." Don't compress your files because it slows down your computer. I'd suggest leaving the other boxes unchecked. Then, click "OK." The computer will ask, "Are you sure you want to perform these actions?" Click, "Yes." This will delete these unwanted files and will actually speed up your computer.

A third method is putting a content filter on your Internet Browser. Open your Internet Browser and click on the help menu (at the top) and the tutorial will tell you how to activate content filters. You can prevent family members from accessing "R" rated material, or "PG-13," material, or you can limit them to "G" rated websites. You then can choose a password to override the content blocker on your Internet browser. Note: I'm using the movie rating system as a figurative example. To my knowledge, there is no such thing as content ratings for websites -- that is, not yet. This will not exist until we Christians DEMAND it!

This process takes time, but the spiritual welfare of your family is worth it, don't you think?

God Bless!

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us! Amen.