Lately, it feels like I am surrounded by nudity or (borderline) pornographic material. From random advertisements, YouTube, all the popular movies and television shows, and now, even Facebook has started to disappoint me. Nudity is EVERYWHERE, and if it's not full frontal nudity, it's a picture of a beautiful woman covered in just enough strings to be classified as a bikini. Or it's a popular movie that shows every conceivable step of a sex scene, all except for the minor detail of penetration. I know what you might be thinking, "that's normal". Or "we've all seen that stuff before". And I am not arguing that it isn't normal, or if you have or have not seen it. However, I am questioning why this stuff is "normal" in the first place, and at what age does seeing nudity online become normal? Why is that acceptable?

Did you know that until the 1960's, MARRIED couples slept in separate beds on network television shows? The Brady Bunch is reportedly the first married couple to have regularly slept in the same bed, as opposed to sleeping separately on two twin beds. Can you even imagine? In 2016, unwed teenagers are getting in bed together on TV every week, and more often than not, they are doing a lot more than just sleeping. The reason nudity or soft-core pornography is normal for us is because our eyes, and more accurately, our brains have grown accustomed to it. We have built up such a high tolerance to nudity, that seeing a movie WITHOUT a sex scene almost feels wrong in a sense.

I say all this to go back to my original point. Why is Facebook loading up on the pornographic content? And more importantly, who is this affecting? According to a study done on Webroot, 34 percent of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads, pop-up ads, misdirected links, or emails. And while I agree, that is pretty disturbing, it made me think, what about the kids who might be affected? Adults cannot be the only ones who are unintentionally exposed to porn or content containing nudity. Children these days, sometimes even toddlers, can work an iPad or iPhone more efficiently than some adults. They can unlock your phone, click on Safari, and find their way to any random website faster than you can turn around and swipe the phone out of their little hands. My question is, who is making an effort to protect these tiny humans and their minds from the potentially harmful material?

In a 2001 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, they discovered that from youth between the ages of 15-17 surveyed, 70 percent say that they have accidentally stumbled across pornography online, and nine percent of those say that it happens often.

And then nine years later, in 2010, a Youth Internet Safety Survey was conducted to find out more specifically which age groups were unwillingly exposed to nudity online. 15 percent were exposed from the ages of 10-12. 23 percent were exposed from the ages of 13-15. And 28 percent were exposed from the ages of 16-17. Meaning that according to this specific survey, 66 percent of children were unwillingly exposed to nudity online by the age of seventeen. This is a huge percentage of our youth whose minds are being polluted UNWILLINGLY. They are not looking it up, or asking for trouble. They are not walking into the world of pornography, they are being dragged into it at the hands of the world wide web. So why does it matter? It matters because children's minds can be highly impressionable. What effects will nudity and other adult content have on young boys or young girls? What kind of unhealthy desensitization is happening here? Let us think about how fragile and delicate a child's mind can be, and how important their innocence truly is. If this stuff is everywhere, and children are growing more and more knowledgeable of the internet and how to operate new devices, what is in store for these perceptive, new-age kids?

The U.S. Department of Justice says this, “Never before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene) material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions.”

Covenant Eyes also laid out the potential damages pornographic content can have on children, stating that direct exposure can lead to a lasting negative or traumatic emotional response, an earlier onset of sexual intercourse (increasing the risk of STD's over a lifespan), or an increased risk for developing sexual compulsions and addictive behavior. And in 2005, they did a study of youth between the ages of 10-17 concluding that there is a significant relationship between frequent pornography usage and feelings of major loneliness and depression in these children.

I'm sorry, but our children's lives matter, and their psychological and mental safety should be more important than a pretty girl's twerking video. I am not here to throw any symbolic stones or to talk down to anyone for their lifestyle choices. What you do and what you watch behind closed doors is not really my concern, (unless it involves the endangerment or exploitation of humans or animals, but that is beside the point). Why has pornographic content leaked into our social media lives, our movies and our television shows? Why does nudity (or borderline nudity) have to be so normalized to the point that we refuse to support a movie or social media account without it?

I know just as well as anyone in this country that we have a serious rape problem going on, and more particularly, a rape culture problem. We blame the victim, we take the perpetrator's side, and we do not dare question what made this man want to rape someone in the first place. Dr. James Weaver says, “In men, prolonged exposure to pornography creates and enhances sexual callousness toward women […] Prolonged exposure to pornography [...] must be remembered, [resulting] in both a loss of respect for female sexual autonomy and the dis-inhibition of men in the expression of aggression against women.” I'm not saying that every guy out there who seeks to fill sexual desires online is a rapist, but it is a cold hard fact that MOST pornographic material promotes violence and aggression against women. Do you want to know why we have a "rape problem" in this country (and particularly in THIS generation)? Think about the accessibility of the internet in most American households as time has progressed over the last few decades. According to a publication from the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1984, only 8.2 percent of American households reported having a "home computer". However, in 2003, 61.8 percent of households reported having a "home computer". And in 2011, 71.7 percent of households reported either having a "home computer" or having internet access at home. That is a HUGE difference in internet accessibility in just a twenty-seven year gap! Prior to the 1990's, for the most part, little boys (or girls) would have to sneak into their dad's office or the garage, etc. to find a provocative magazine or occasionally an old tape. But in our generation, all you had to do was type something like "boobs" or "butt" into a search engine, and then you are instantaneously surrounded with a surplus of all your wildest fantasies. And with some children, it is not nearly as intentional. The more internet access a person has, the easier it is to accidentally access pornography. Statistically, the kids in generations to come will have a greater risk of "accidental exposure" through ads, links, emails, social media, and so much more.

In a meta-analysis of 24 studies conducted between 1980 and 1993, with a total of 4,268 participants, studies show that among perpetrators of sex crimes, adolescent exposure to pornography is a significant predictor of elevated violence and victim humiliation. In other words, this study shows a direct correlation between early onset pornography exposure and sex crimes. Maybe we do not have a rape problem in this country at all, maybe we have a pornography problem DISGUISED as a rape problem. In my honest opinion, our "rape culture" may just a bi-product of our pornography-saturated world. It makes me wonder how many other undesirable "bi-products" pornography has filled our culture with.

So Facebook, I ask you, why aren't you taking this serious? Why don't you care about the effect pornographic images can cause? And why don't you listen when your users are consistently reporting specific photos and specific pages? I did not sign up for pornographic content. I signed up for social networking (you know, like the actual title suggests). According to the Facebook Help Center, you must be at least thirteen years old to sign up for an account. And by most standards, thirteen is DEFINITELY still considered a child. If Facebook wanted to have a social network specifically dedicated to adult content, that would be a different story. But you cannot allow thirteen-year-olds to legally have access to this material, and expect no ramifications at all. I deserve to have a porn-free news feed without having to report and/or block content every time I scroll down. Every Facebook user deserves this, young or old. There are not many "safe spaces" left these days that are entirely free of nudity or overly sexualized content. And personally, I feel as though a social network, most commonly used to connect with friends and family should be one of those designated "safe spaces". So I encourage you, if you see pornographic material on a social network, PLEASE report it. The content might not personally offend you, so you might be tempted to just keep scrolling. But I urge you to ask yourself: if you had a 13 year old child, would you want them to view this? Or think back to when you were 13 years old, and ask yourself if YOU would have been offended, scared, or disturbed by this particular pornographic post. I think our youth deserve to be protected from the world of pornography online. What do you think?