Well, I guess I spent my teenage years in guilt/shame about these issues ('self-abuse' and the 'writing about prostitutes') so I couldn't see the same things in reading this article. But speaking from the somewhat recently post-virginity perspective, once you have the real thing, porn just isn't that important anymore.
Could be some JW wives are withholding 'marital due', eh? (Disclaimer: Women have the right to decide who gets access to their bodies, just so long as they don't withhold just for the sake of punishing their mate. That sucks. 22 days since last 'marital due' for me...and counting...) If so, they need to read my Adult Study Edition WT. Shameless plug. Anyway, I paid less attention to the porn references in this article than I did to the violent video games, movies with occult practices, etc. The picture they show looks like they're clearly trying to lampoon Harry Potter.
My wife blasted me again for watching Avatar--which I saw once two months ago--over one scene of tree worship. I mean, a lot of people and animals got killed in that movie, wasn't THAT a problem? She was also paranoid about my getting a Bob Dylan CD yesterday. "We need to be careful what we bring in the house," she said. Geez...Bob Dylan??? God's people, protected by him above all others, are worried about Avatar and Bob Dylan?
Anyway, I agree with all those here. In all my Internet surfing--and as an 18-year-old when the Internet was my life--I NEVER, NOT ONCE, "accidentally" encountered porn. If you find it, you must be looking for it. It is highly unlikely to get hit with it by a pop-up ad. Pop-up blockers block most ads anyway and they're standard for browsers on computers today. I got drawn down that road by my fascination with Natalie Portman, which led me to realize that wow, I could search for pictures of other really hot women. The rest just wrote itself.
And as for the story in the Young People Ask book, about 'Darryl', porn can be out on a newsstand somewhere. In the grocery store, I've seen the SI Swimsuit issue right at the checkout counter. In book stores, it's there. It could happen. I've found that over the years I freaked out about it at a book store, thinking people would see me as a pervert for buying those kinds of magazines. Felt a lot of guilt over that sort of thing over the years, even told the elders about it. One elder claimed to have broken said habit. They kept checking in with me about it, in my later days. It's hard to describe how creeped out I was by old men asking me, "So, how's the uh, pornography issue coming?"
But I think if all the mystique about sexual matters was taken away, it might prove less of a temptation for people. Create enough fear and you just invite curiosity by definition. Maybe they need an Adult Study Edition WT. We naturally develop awareness of our sexuality, and it's unlikely that you'll discover those feelings and simply repress them the moment they appear. I was overwhelmed by them before I fully understood much of anything. The only thing I knew about sex before I was high school aged was that it involved laying on top of each other or something. In my mind's eye, strangely enough, both parties were always fully clothed, certainly through junior high school, that's how I remember it.
Anyway, yes. Internet = porn & apostates. In fact, don't even try to go to jw.org. It's too dangerous!
