“I will do something to stop this!” I thought, as a friend of mine from Colorado told me that in the school databases in her state and my state, she found XXX elicit pornography? In fact, there are two easy things that we can all do to stop this porn-pandemic in the schools and libraries. I will discuss how you can help below.
I contacted friends and leaders of organizations in my state. I arranged meetings and approached every angle to get the pornographic words, images, and videos out of the school and library databases that are used by children ages 5 and up to do their school projects and research.
After a call to a state senator, I went on the news, and the UETN temporarily shut the databases down. (This shutdown is proof the problem is real.) Sadly, after 3 weeks, the databases were declared “clean” and put back up for all to use. Within 15 minutes of that declaration, I found live links to Penthouse magazine, horrible images, and a story about a 6th grader having sex with his drama teacher in the Utah Online Library database called EBSCO.
Databases are not the same as the internet. They can’t be filtered by internet filters. They are promoted to states and school districts as the “safe way” for children to search because all the content in them has to be put there deliberately.
So, how does the content get there, you might ask? Well, the database companies like EBSCO and GALE solicit any kind of magazine who will pay to put their content in the database. The database companies promise these contributors that they will “find their target audience,” and “increase their subscriptions…”
What?!?! Our children are the “target audience?” Yes.
Then, the database companies solicit states and school districts to pay them millions of dollars annually to access these perfectly groomed databases. The database companies are taking money on both ends of the deal. They’re essentially selling our children to the magazine companies and paid contributors. This is called child exploitation.
Good News And Bad News
After two years of working to stop this problem, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that we’ve been able to locate the database-porn problem in schools and libraries all over the world. The good news is that some states are passing laws to stop this harmful content from reaching the children, and we are conducting studies right now to help every state and nation who wants to take steps to protect children to stop this problem.
How You Can Help!
Below are links to a petition and a survey. The survey will ask if anyone you know has ever accessed pornographic content at school, through a school tablet or portal at an offsite location, or in a library. And, the petition will allow you to show your concern and support for stopping the database companies from being able to exploit our children at safe places like the school and library.
Share these links with your friends and consider bravely sharing your stories with us.
Link to Petition (When you go to the petition, it will ask you for money to fund petitions. That money does not go to us. You don’t have to donate to sign the petition.)
When mothers and fathers know how porn is finding the children, they can do something about it. Now more people know. This is a fight we can win. Please help us! Share the petition, survey, podcast and blogpost with people who would care about keeping children safe from this.
If you’d like to find out more information about this situation and how to help, you can listen to our recent podcast.
Link to TSG Podcast With Additional Details
And, if you want even more information, these links will give greater insight.
- The database problem is exposed to the world at the World Congress of Families in Verona, Italy.
- Idaho passes bill to protect kids.
- Some write ups on EBSCO, one of the largest databases in the world.
- The American Library Association (ALA) does not want to protect children from porn.
- ALA Bill of Rights that the ALA feels is better than the UN Bill of Rights.