A State of the Internet Report
By Steve Ensley

Why do people not understand or ignore the dangers of the Internet?  What is it that allows our culture to march blindly into the ovens of permanent destruction?  What drug or magic causes us as a people to justify or just tolerate the immoral and criminal activity on the Internet?

Current Status of the Internet

There are an estimated 68 million homes and businesses that have Internet access of some sort.  There are an estimated 330 million web sites world wide with over one billion (yes billion) pages of information.  Two hundred thousand  new web sites are registered every day.

At AFO we currently have over 20 million sites blocked in categories including porn, vulgarity, gambling, violent games, chat rooms. etc.  Seven to ten thousand additional sites are added to the filter list each day. 

There are currently almost seven thousand Internet Service Providers nationwide and only three hundred offer a filtering of any kind.   Some interesting comparisons of Internet site content tells us who “owns” the Internet.  These statistics were taken straight from the AltaVista search engine and can be duplicated by anyone.  They are very revealing.  The web contains:

• 7.9 million game sites compared to one million churches

• 5.7 million adult  sites as opposed to 1.9 million ministry sites

• 3.2 million gay and only a little over 13,000 pro-family sites

• 179,000 occult  sites competing against 47,000 youth groups of any kind

• 44,500 Howard Stern sites to 11,700  sites for Dr. James Dobson

• 1 million Madonna (material girl) sites mocking 13,900 for Mother Theresa

• 305,000 Bill Clinton sites versus 49,000 for Pope John Paul II

It is clear that Satan and the secular humanist world “own” the Internet.

General Usage

In a released copy of a pirated Yahoo search engine statistical report, 184 out of the top 200 search terms for their search engine were sexual.  The report had to go to the top two hundred because one hundred of the first one hundred terms were sexual.  We had to go to the first two hundred search terms to even find terms that were not sexual.

It is generally known that an estimated 80% of the newsgroup activities are porn related and some have estimated that 65% regular web activity is sexual, adult or pornographic.   Even with this widely-known data, less than two million Internet users have filters and of those it is estimated that less than one million of the filters are in use.

A quick search by anyone reveals that almost all game sites contain games that are violent or erotic or both.  Chat rooms are one of the most popular activities on the net and yet almost all chat rooms are vulgar at best and downright dangerous at worst.  Gambling is one of the fastest growing and most financially destructive activities on the Internet that has developed so far.  These are just some of the destructive activities on the net.  We haven’t even begun to talk about vulgarity or hate or illegal activities such as guns and alcohol.

How About Christians

How about us Christians?  Are we doing any better on the net than the rest of the world.  What are we called to? I think the following verses make it quite clear:

EPH 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; [23] to be made new in the attitude of your minds; [24] and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

2COR 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

ROM 6:19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

But how are we doing?  The answer is not good!   In fact, it appears that we are no different than the rest of the world.  Shouldn’t we be different? Shouldn’t our statistics reflect the holiness that we are called to by Jesus whom we profess as God?  Here is some interesting data:

In four informal polls taken at Christian World View Conferences, 75% of families by our polling have access to the Internet, however less than 5% have filtering of any kind.  These are Christians that care about their families, their country and their culture and yet less than 5% have any kind of Internet protection for themselves and their families!

In data captured from our own subscribers, who do use filtering services, we see that from 8% to 18% of the sites requested were for sites that are and should be blocked.  

Statistically speaking, every major destructive behavior in this country is the same for Christians as it is for the secular world.  Proof of this is the letters we get every week from victims of Internet material.  These letters are tragic and they break our hearts.  Why are we Christians a victim to this?  I wish I knew, but it seems that Christians either don’t know or won’t admit there is a problem.

What do we do?

We can offer filtered Internet service and we do, but Satan did not find it hard to beat filtering.   He just started giving away free unfiltered Internet.  So now Christians are trading their values for their pocket book and using free Internet instead of paying for and supporting  filtered Christian Internet service. 

We can also help pass legislation and we have, but Satan owns the courts and the media and the laws get thrown out.  And laws that do not get thrown out are not enforced.

Scripture gives us clear testimony on what is expected from us.  We will be held accountable.

HEB 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. [15] See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. [16] See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. [17] Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

HEB 12:10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. [11] No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

I hope this report has given you some idea of the scope of the problem and the battle.  It is very discouraging, but there is an answer.  JESUS!

KNOW THAT THE VICTORY BELONGS TO JESUS! 

OUR CALL IS TO

• BE HOLY OURSELVES

• FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT

• HELP PROTECT AS MANY AS WE CAN AND TAKE AS MANY WITH US AS WE CAN

THE ANSWER IS JESUS AND HE IS USING AFA, AFR and AFO TO FIGHT THIS BATTLE.   THE VICTORY IS ULTIMATELY HIS!!