Enough is Enough
Back in 2016, the organization Enough is Enough sent a pledge, titled the “Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge,” to all of the presidential candidates. This was the first-ever Internet anti-porn presidential pledge, and the mission behind it (and the organization) is to make the Internet a safer place for all children and families. The pledge called upon candidates to commit to defending the dignity and innocence of children should they be elected to the presidency. Trump signed the pledge back in August of 16, declaring (if he should be elected) he would support efforts that would help stop the current pornography epidemic. And while Clinton’s campaign stated that it support the goals of the pledge, she declined signing the pledge because of campaign policies.
The majority of the pledge concentrates on enforcing laws and stopping porn’s detrimental impact on young men and women. With this pledge, and potentially presidential support behind it, Enough is Enough wants to bring the nation’s attention to the growing public health issue that is pornography.
Mrs. Hughes, Internet safety pioneer, author of “Kids Online” and CEO of Enough is Enough stated in a press release from August 2016, “Governments can't parent and parents can't enforce the law. Parents alone cannot prevent Internet crimes against their children. Government must also do its part and enforce all the laws on the books, not just some of them! Over the last two decades America's children have paid an unnecessarily steep price for the lax enforcement of federal obscenity laws. Obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment, and the failure to enforce the law is harming children across the nation and around the world. Strong leadership to protect vulnerable children from unscrupulous Internet pornographers, predators and traffickers must begin at the top.”
She went on to describe how sexual exploitation of young men and women will be prevented through a multi-prong relationship and strategy between the public, industry and government.
A key area of the pledge also seeks an appointment of an Attorney General who will make forceful prosecution of child pornography, sexual predation, child trafficking laws and obscenity a top priority. The pledge also seeks the potential appointment of a Presidential Commission that would study and analyze the negative impact Internet pornography is having on younger generations and how the sexual exploitation of children can be prevented.
The pledge contains an abundance of peer-reviewed research that highlights the severity of child pornography and sexual exploitation that is currently occurring in our country, including:
Children in America being sold every day over the Internet for sex on sites such as www.Backpage.com
774% increase in child porn pictures and videos being reviewed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Victim Identification Program from 2005 to 2011. Many of these victims were prepubescent, with a trend veering toward infants.
Teen pornography searches tripling between 2005 and 2013.
More women and children being prostituted and trafficked because of porn demands to show new, violent and fetish-style pornography.
America now being number one in production and export of hardcore pornography via the Internet and DVDs.
To learn more about the pledge and how you can take action alongside Enough is Enough, read the Presidential Pledge in its entirety here.
To learn more about Trees of Hope and our prevention program, please click here.
