This week, it seems that my media “surfing” has been confronted by sexually deviant behavior.

: (Disclaimer: Lindsay had TiVo the show and I was “studying” in our small apartment while she watched Oprah, not I). Anyway, the question was posed as to whether or not it was bad that 70% of men watch porn on the internet at least once a month. All three of the esteemed panel members, Jay Leno, Rick Riley and someother dude said no. They went on to say that their wives/significant others would not be bothered by them looking at porn. I don’t buy that, but that is the sentiment out there.

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Granted this is only a theory but last night CNN was reporting that the new theory about the girl’s disappearance was a result of her being kidnapped into an Arubian sex-trade operation. Even if that is not true, there is obviously an epidemic occurring in Asia.

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Just in case having streaming pornography is not enough on your desktop and laptop, new porn companies are providing live video for you ipod.

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To compete with NetFlix, a California company, WantedList.com, is distributing DVDs just like NetFlix. Log in online, order 3 movies at a time, have them delivered to your door, enjoy, return the movies, repeat. No more having to sneak into the innercity adult book store. They are making 7million dollars a year and have 500,000 dvds to provide.

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If you watched Dateline last night, I think you were just as disturbed as I was regarding sexual prowling for teenage boys and girls. They would find them in chat rooms, talk to them for a few days, and the suggest meeting when their parents were out of town. In a three day sting in Fairfax, VA, Dateline lured 19 men in 3 days…One man worked with special ed students, one man was in the Marines, one man was an esteemed doctor, one man was a rabbi…One gentlemen, even after being caught by Dateline, met another “young boy” in a chatroom the next day, and established a rendezvous at a McDonalds–to bad for him it was the Perverted Justice league both times.

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On my “MyYahoo” page I have the most viewed/emailed photos, and each time I open the page in public I get embarrassed that some bikiniclad woman is the top of the list. Especially when I am logging on to the net during a TH222 lecture.

What is most bothersome to me regarding these incidents, is that for the most part people are not disturbed by the behaviors. Even in the extreme case of the Dateline story, where the reporters were obviously disgusted by these predators, the idea that 19 men where lured in 3 days in one city in the United States reveals how this may be a larger problem we rarely consider.
In the other examples, what surprises me is the understanding nod adults give each other to condone the use of pornography. As long as it does not bother their spouses, then it is “okay.” neglecting the systemic problems of the industry–its effect on women, and culture. Great, so now one is able to order DVDs from their home with a click, or carry movies into the classroom on their video-ipod…