Seeing Clearly: A Christian Guide to Pornography

A Christian Guide to Pornography Seeing Clearly

“Porn does not show us the joy of human love and commitment; the deep nurturing satisfaction of two people made one flesh; the fulfilment and fruitfulness of two lives lived together to the glory of God; and the nurture of a family. Porn is the equivalent of burning a priceless Stradivarius violin for a few moments of warmth, and missing out on a lifetime of beautiful, glorious music. And by setting the bar, and our expectations, so low, it impoverishes and demeans us all. This is not freedom; it’s slavery.”

Vaughan Roberts

Jesus deepens the command to an attitude of the heart. Committing adultery is found not only in sleeping with someone other than your spouse. It is also found in a lustful look.

What does the Bible say about pornography?

Search the Bible for the word ‘pornography’, and you will come across a problem: it doesn’t appear. That’s actually not surprising, since the word only appears in Greek from the third century AD (and the mid-19th century in English). However, pornographic images have existed for millennia, and would have been known in Bible times.

Pornography can be tricky to define. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said, “I know it when I see it.” The word originally described writing about prostitution, and its meaning was later expanded to include other material designed for sexual arousal, such as photography and video content.

The New Testament uses the umbrella term of ‘sexual immorality’ (‘porneia’ in Greek). This refers to any sexual acts which are outside God’s purposes for sexual expression. Pornography falls into this category.

Looking lustfully

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes several commandments from the Old Testament Law and reveals their deeper purpose, such as the command against adultery: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

Lust means focusing attention towards someone else for sexual arousal. The Bible repeatedly warns about its dangers. Proverbs warns men: “Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.” (Proverbs 6:23-25). Whether the person is physically present, or on a screen or magazine, the principle is the same.

Jesus shows that the heart is of primary importance. Battling pornography must happen from the inside out: redirecting our hearts towards new desires will mean we can redirect our eyes too.

Pornography and Greed

Using pornography is a sign of a misdirected heart. The Bible makes a connection between sexual immorality and greed. Paul writes: “Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” (Ephesians 5:3) ‘Porneia’, ‘impurity’ and greed are closely connected. To pursue sexual impurity implies that you are also pursuing greed. Both relate to our appetites and desires. A person who is greedy for food is not greedy because food is bad, but because their desire for food is misdirected. Pornography is wrong not because sexual desire is bad, but because it is feeding that desire in a destructive fashion.

C. S. Lewis once wrote: “There is nothing to be ashamed of in enjoying your food: there would be everything to be ashamed of if half the world made food the main interest of their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food and dribbling and smacking their lips.” Pornography takes our good desire for sex and perverts it. It makes it something we consume, whenever we want, and however we want.

Something to flee from

When we turn to Christ, we no longer belong to ourselves, but to God. Paul writes: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

What we do with our bodies, and what we feed into our eyes and minds, matters to God. He calls us to flee from all that tempts us away from a life of holiness. Paul uses strong words in Colossians: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…” (Colossians 3:5). Jesus is equally strong: “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29)

Some have taken Jesus’ words very literally: the Church Father Origen castrated himself to avoid sexual temptation. (We don’t believe that they need to be taken quite that literally!) But we should not remove the sting from Jesus’ words. All temptation is worthy of a serious battle, and making sacrifices. We should not sneak a peek, but turn and run, and put it to death. Like a tumour, it needs to be excised before it causes any more damage.

Love your neighbour

Pornography harms more than the person who views it. Jesus said that the Law consisted of both loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself. Using pornography fails to love God with all our being. But we also cannot love our neighbour if we don’t see them as a person, made in God’s image.

Pornography treats people as objects: we use the word ‘objectification’ for exactly this reason. It dehumanises people, making them nothing more than a commodity to be bought. Pope John Paul II once said that “there is no dignity when the human dimension is eliminated from the person. In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little.”

Sadly, many people involved in pornography are exploited. A 2024 report from CEASE concluded: “Regardless of the method of pornography production, exploitation and human trafficking are inherent. Women are often forced or coerced into this industry and once in it, even the most famous pornography ‘performers’ are exploited.”

For those in porn, performing sexual acts for other people’s pleasure is often not a choice they make for themselves, and it can lead to other forms of exploitation, like prostitution. Those who argue that porn is just ‘harmless fun’ shut their eyes to the harm caused to those in front of the camera.

10 things you should know about pornography

1 Porn usage is very high in the UK

The UK has the second highest incidence of internet pornography searches in the world. Ofcom estimates that 29% of UK adults (approximately 13.8 million) access online pornography each month, of which 73% (10.1 million) are men.

2 Pornography is a problem for Christians too

Polling by Premier Christianity found that 30% of church leaders access porn on the Internet more than once a month, and 42% of Christian men say they have a ‘porn addiction’. Many more watch it regularly.

3 Porn has been easy for young people to access

The average age at which children first see pornography is 13. By age 9, 10% had seen pornography, rising to 27% by age 11. Many young people watch pornography to learn about sex. One boy, who first watched pornography at age 12, said: “Sexual education is lacking in schools and thus young people turn to online to learn about how to express themselves sexually.”

4

This is not all from porn sites

38% of 16-21-year-olds said they had accidentally come across pornography online. X (formerly known as Twitter) is the online platform where young people are most likely to have seen pornography: 41% of young people have seen it here, and 13% of Twitter content is estimated to be pornographic. 33% have seen it on Instagram, and 32% on Snapchat.

5 Lots of pornography is violent or degrading…

Young people are often exposed to violent pornography, depicting degrading or painful sex acts: 79% have seen violent pornography before age 18. 36% of young people have actively sought out violent content.

6 …Which then impacts the real world

47% of young people stated that girls ‘expect’ sex to involve violent behaviour such as slapping and choking, and 42% suggested that girls ‘enjoy’ such behaviour. Young people are 50% more likely to experience a violent sex act if they are frequent users of pornography.

7

Porn harms the person who watches it

Research shows neurological similarities between forms of substance addiction and compulsive pornography consumption. A number of studies suggest a link between pornography and poor sexual performance from the consumer, including erectile dysfunction. 66% of girls believe that ‘viewing online pornography affects children and young people’s body image’.

8

Not all pornography is consensual

According to cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, pornography was the 3rd-most common form of sex trafficking, after escort services and illicit massage businesses. One report found that of 854 women in prostitution, across 9 countries, 49% were forced to make pornography while being enslaved in sex trafficking.

9

New technologies are reshaping the porn industry

By 2023, there were over 95,000 deepfake videos online, of which around 98% were pornographic. Across the top ten dedicated deepfake pornography websites, videos have been viewed more than 300 million times.

10 The Online Safety Act has had a real impact

In the month immediately following the Online Safety Act coming into force, Pornhub experienced a 47% fall in traffic (from 3.2 million daily visits to 2 million). Other sites saw similar declines: XVideos also fell by 47% and xHamster by 39% over the same period.

Understanding addictions

Wells joined CARE as Content Writer in 2025, after a number of years in ordained ministry, including at All Souls, Langham Place, and Holy Trinity Church, Richmond.

WRITTEN BY our relationship with it — has been distorted by humanity’s sin. The Fall has caused all of our relationships to break, including our relationship with our own bodies, leading to chronic health conditions, and ultimately, death. Disease, including addiction, is a consequence of living in a fallen world.

A newspaper interviewee recently confessed, “Porn was so essential to me. For years, in order to feel calm and to function, I had to view pornography first thing in the morning and last thing at night”. Very soon “every waking thought became ‘porn, porn, porn’”. They had become addicted to pornography.

What is addiction?

Studies have shown that the brains of compulsive porn users resemble the brains of alcoholics. People who watch pornography develop habits over time: some won’t become addicted, but many will.

The NHS defines addiction as “not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you”. A habit becomes an addiction when there is a compulsion to continue even when there are negative consequences. The writer of that article describes how he was always late because of his porn use, even missing a family member’s birthday. His marriage almost ended in divorce because of it.

Addiction as a disease

The most common way of understanding addiction is as a disease. This view was recently expressed by Catherine, Princess of Wales:

“Addiction is not a choice, or a personal failing, but a complex mental health condition that should be met with empathy and support.”

Addiction as a disease makes a great deal of sense, since we know that addiction works on the brain’s neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which control the pathways to pleasure. These pathways can be rewired under the influence of addictive behaviours, such as pornography use, producing cravings and weakening resistance.

As Christians, we know that creation — and

Addiction as temptation

Understanding addiction purely as a disease, however, can leave the addict feeling like a victim. There are physical compulsions in addiction, but an addict also has some responsibility over their choices. A porn addict chooses to switch on the computer, visit that website, or download that video.

Addiction pursues a pleasurable experience while ignoring the inevitable cost. As such, addiction is also temptation. The addict is lured by the promise of pleasure, then trapped in a spiral of desire and destruction. James describes this spiral:

“Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is fullgrown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15)

A desire for pleasure, or to numb pain, entices us into pornography. We are hooked, much like a fish on an angler’s line, and dragged away. It draws us deeper, wanting more and more, until desire gives birth to sin and then to death.

Addiction as slavery

While a porn addict has choice over their actions, they don’t feel like it. Addicts feel out of control, trapped and without choice. They feel like slaves.

The word ‘addict’ has its roots in slavery. In the Roman world, someone who ran up a debt they couldn’t pay would be known as an ‘addictus’. They would be handed over to be a slave, no longer a person but property. Paul also talks about handing ourselves over to be slaves:

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey.” (Romans 6:16)

In choosing to use pornography, we offer ourselves in obedience to it. As it works on our bodies, we become slaves. We obey the desire for that addiction rather than choose for ourselves.

Addiction as idolatry

Addiction works on us as a disease and as a temptation. But, ultimately, all addictions are really about God. Addiction is also idolatry.

The Bible tells us that an idol is anything that takes the place of God in our worship and devotion. Idolatry lies at the heart of all sin: a choice to turn from God and toward another to give what only God can.

We want an idol to give us good things and protect us during difficulties. We choose pornography as our idol because we think it will reward us with pleasure and shield us from struggles. One porn addict said: “it had been destroying my life from the inside out, but it was the thing from a very early age that I was running to as a response to a trauma.”

However, pornography cannot deliver what we desire, other than a brief initial high. Jeremiah describes the foolishness of idolatry like this:

“They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

(Jeremiah 2:13)

God’s people have abandoned the spring of living water, and have tried to provide their own nourishment. Addictions promise joy and life but are nothing more than broken cisterns, cracked and dry, unable to quench our thirst.

Freedom for the addict

The Bible’s view of addiction goes deeper than popular culture, and offers a deeper solution. When an addict is enslaved to their compulsions, the situation seems hopeless. But Jesus came to set the captives free: “Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” (Romans 6:17-18)

The answer to the slavery of addiction is devotion to something better: being slaves of Christ and being slaves to righteousness through the power of God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”, says Paul (Romans 6:23). The good news for the porn addict is that in Christ there can be an end to addiction.

This is an abridged excerpt of an upcoming resource from CARE, called ‘Addiction: A Biblical Deepdive’. To order a complete copy, please contact us at mail@care.org.uk, or check out the Resources section of our website.

People or profits: the grim reality of the porn industry

Content Warning: this article contains accounts which some readers may find distressing, including descriptions of sex-trafficking and sexual assault.

The porn industry is being glamorised today like never before. Whereas historically feminists had opposed the sex industry as a hangover from the patriarchy, now the sexpositive movement celebrates ‘freedom’ and autonomy.

Content creators like Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips (who have hit headlines for sleeping with hundreds of men in a single day) are featured in tv documentaries. Platforms like OnlyFans give ‘performers’ the opportunity to monetise their sexuality in the online world, and supposedly promise a quick path to riches.

The reality of the pornography industry is often very different. At CARE, we have long campaigned on behalf of women and girls who are at risk of sexual exploitation. We have supported legislation that criminalises the purchase of sex, such as the Morrow Bill in

When is it really consent?

Vanessa Belmond was a ‘performer’ in pornographic videos for around eight years, and filmed about 100 scenes. When she was in contact with ‘fans’, they thought that she really enjoyed her career. In reality, she regularly performed sexual acts she didn’t want to do in order to stay in work, and she could not afford to turn the work down.

She writes: “The porn performers I knew did it because they craved attention they never received growing up. They did it because they felt like they had no other options. They did it because they thought it would make them famous, and that maybe they could

Northern Ireland, and continue to advocate for greater protections for those who are trapped in prostitution.

The porn industry is the next frontier in this battle. Many of the stories featured here first appeared as part of Reuters’ series of articles investigating OnlyFans in 2024, which contains many other similar accounts, and can still be found online.

As Christians, we believe that every person is of infinite dignity and worth. As we were preparing this article, one quote particularly jumped out at us: “[He] exposed my entire body for $5. I can’t even buy a full meal at McDonald’s for $5.”

The stories which follow expose the way in which the porn industry has put simple profits before people, made in the image of God…

Turned into a sex slave

Austin Koeckeritz met a young woman from Wisconsin in August 2020, and convinced her that they were in love, and to move in with him. Having isolated her from family and friends, he soon became violent.

A few months later, he began forcing her to perform sex acts online, which were uploaded to OnlyFans and several other platforms. She was compelled to work 60 hour-weeks, and was refused breaks when she was sick. If she wanted to end work early, Koeckeritz demanded oral sex. She said: “My body was ready to croak. I wasn’t sure if I was going to die from the physical exhaustion and abuse of nonstop sex stuff or if I was just going to end it all on my own.”

Although her accounts earned $422,000 from selling sexually explicit content, Koeckeritz funnelled the earnings into bank accounts he controlled, leaving her with just $2,000. He also threatened to shoot her family if they tried to rescue her. Shortly after he poured hot grease down her back, she managed to escape and went to the police. Her abuse had lasted for two years.

Sites which monetise sexually-explicit content provide sexual predators with the opportunity to create a fortune, simply by uploading footage of their abuse.

‘cross over’ into legitimate movies. They did it because they had been sexually abused as children or teens, so when they became adults, having sex for money seemed like a natural progression.”

When is consent really consent? Is it consent if someone feels like they have no other options? And if a video has already been filmed and uploaded online, and someone changes their mind, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to get it taken down. Vanessa Belmond is now an outspoken campaigner against the pornography industry.

“They made money off my biggest trauma”

Sammy was a music production student in America. She met Bendjy Charles on a dating app. He invited her to a party at his apartment, but when they arrived (together with Charles’ friend, Michelson Romulus), no one else was there.

She described how the two men became sexually aggressive, and stripped, slapped, and forced themselves upon her, which happened repeatedly. She said: “I was disoriented, shocked, scared. I was just overwhelmed with how powerless I felt.”

All the while, the assault had been recorded on Romulus’ phone. He then posted it to

OnlyFans, with the caption: “The full train video is here guys…Who wants it?” ‘Train sex’ is a term meaning multiple men having sex with one woman. OnlyFans have said that 100% of its content is reviewed by human moderators, helped by artificial intelligence. But in the recording, police said they could hear Sammy saying: “No, stop.”

In OnlyFans’ model, they keep 20% of the revenue earned, while content creators keep the remaining 80%. As Sammy put it: “A whole company has made money off of my biggest trauma.”

Adreiona Prater was an 18-year-old college student when she met and dated Anthony Scott. One time when they had sex, Scott asked if he could film them, which Prater agreed to. However, she asked him to delete the video afterwards, which he said he did. A few months later, Prater discovered the video on Pornhub, and contacted the police. She dropped proceedings when Scott promised to take the video down. However, she then discovered it on OnlyFans, where it received much more attention. Later that year, he posted a clip from it on Twitter, revealing her face and naked body, along with the caption: “Check out my onlyfans with over 200+ girls.”

The video was also posted to Reddit, where someone identified Prater and posted her social media information. She received a message on Instagram: “That was you in that onlyfans vid?” She received unwanted attention from online stalkers, and felt compelled to install a home security system and change her phone number, as she felt so unsafe.

Scott later pleaded guilty to publishing intimate visual material without consent. Prater herself wrote to OnlyFans to complain about the video; the company promised that the video would be removed if it was confirmed to be nonconsensual. She never heard from them again.

Versions of the video remain online today, still featuring the OnlyFans watermark. Prater said: “I still get harassed about it to this day. It never ends.”

Trafficking gangs

Andrew Tate is well-known as a self-professed misogynist, whose form of masculinity has attracted a following among teenage boys today. Tate is a British and American citizen.

In December 2022, he, along with his brother Tristan and two women, was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and forming an organised crime group, through which they forced women to create sexual content which could be uploaded to OnlyFans. Tate once described OnlyFans as “the greatest hustle in the world”.

In 2024, the investigation was expanded to include trafficking minors, amongst other things. It is alleged that the investigation involves 35 victims, and that the accused have made in the region of $2.8 million through sexual exploitation. The UK began its own proceedings against the Tates in May 2025.

According to cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, pornography is the 3rd-most common form of sex trafficking, after escort services and illicit massage businesses. Another report found that of 854 women in prostitution, across 9 countries, 49% had been forced to make pornography while being enslaved in sex trafficking.

How can we respond?

The porn industry tries to market itself as harmless fun, a virtual world of pleasure where no one gets hurt, when it is a fundamentally damaging and misogynistic industry which leaves itself open to abuse. Platforms claim that they have the most stringent checks, to ensure that everyone is over-age and is happy to be featured. This is often far from the truth, and consumers of pornography are unlikely to be able to distinguish between content which has been produced consensually and other content which has not.

We know that pornography and prostitution often go hand in hand. At CARE, we are campaigning to ban pimping websites, and for law enforcement to be provided with full access to websites like OnlyFans (which often shields content behind a paywall).

Content featuring minors

Unlike some of the other categories featured here, we have chosen not to print a story about children on porn sites: this is not because these stories do not exist, but because some of the details we encountered were so distressing.

The major and best-known adult sites all illegally host child sexual abuse content. No major website adequately verifies the age of people depicted in adult content online.

Although platforms like OnlyFans state that they have a “zero tolerance approach” to child sexual abuse, in their 2024 exposé, Reuters cited more than 200 explicit videos and images of children which had been presented to law enforcement in America from their site. It is likely that many more had gone undetected.

Separately, Reuters identified almost 50 OnlyFans accounts for which the (nonexplicit) profile pictures appeared to be childlike. Some of these profiles included words like “innocent” or “inexperienced”. Others included emojis like lollipops or teddy bears, to convey youth. Lori Cohen, the CEO of Protect All Children from Trafficking, said of one image: “She doesn’t even look 15.”

And we are trying to change the laws so that subscribers cannot commission customised content, where they pay people to perform specific sex acts for their benefit.

At CARE, we often come back to Proverbs 31:8-9: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

As Christians, we know that Jesus reached out to, and spent time with, those whose bodies had been sold for money, and our God is on the side of the marginalised and the oppressed. Everyone who has been featured in sexually explicit content is an individual who is known, valued and loved by Him. And we will continue to advocate on their behalf, until we see a world where evil is judged, and the powerless are protected.

“Any violation of a woman’s body can become sex for men: this is the essential truth of pornography.”

Andrea Dworkin

Protecting children online: the story of the Online Safety Act

“Porn is the starting point for young people when it comes to sex.”

Those are the words of a young girl in a recent report by the Children’s Commissioner about the impact of pornography upon our young people. Her words are not hyperbolic. The average age at which children first encounter pornography here in the UK is just 13. With increased access to smartphones, some children have accessed it at just 5 years old. Not all of this is deliberate: 38% of 16-21-yearolds said they had accidentally come across pornography online, and 41% of young people have come across it on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

But its impact is far-reaching; we live in a world where almost 4 in 5 young people have seen violent pornography before the age of 18. The Children’s Commissioner’s report into the effects of pornography on young people was simply titled, ‘A lot of it is actually just abuse’.

A long journey

At CARE, we have long been concerned about the easy availability of pornography and about online safety for our children and young people; sexually explicit content - often featuring violent and misogynistic themes -

is just a couple of clicks away.

For more than seven years, we campaigned for age verification on online pornography, which would require anyone who wants to watch porn to prove they are over 18. There were setbacks along the way: the Digital Economy Act in 2017 should have meant the introduction of age verification, only for the Government to abandon it in October 2019.

But we refused to let the matter lie, and the introduction of the Online Safety Act, which finally passed in 2023, gave websites a finite timeline to introduce age verification.

CARE has played a key role throughout this process; our work has involved multiple briefings, meetings, letters to Ministers, polling and partnerships with like-minded organisations. Our friend Simon Calvert, who is Deputy Director for Public Affairs at the Christian Institute, said: “Age verification would not have happened were it not for CARE.”

What has happened since?

The Online Safety Act, which also targets material related to self-harm, eating

disorders and suicide, was fully enacted in July 2025. Since then, every pornography website has had to verify the ages of those who are viewing its content, to ensure that they are 18 or over. Methods can include verifying credit card details, mobile phone data, or other official documents.

New technologies mean that while it is not an impenetrable system, it is more effective than ever, and should stop the majority of children from stumbling across pornography online accidently. Failure to comply can lead to fines of up to £18m or 10% of annual global revenue.

The impact of its introduction was felt almost immediately: between 24 July and 8 August 2025 (i.e. in the fortnight after the Act was enacted), Pornhub — the UK’s most visited adult site — experienced a 47% fall in traffic, according to data from web analytics firm Similarweb. This translated to a drop from an average of 3.2 million daily visits in July to just 2.0 million in early August. Other major sites saw similar declines: across the same period, XVideos also saw traffic fall by 47%, and xHamster by 39%.

By October 2025, Pornhub said that its visitors from the UK were down by 77%. In January 2026, it announced that it would restrict access to its site in the UK altogether, and only people who already had an account would be able to reach it.

What next?

However, this does not mean that our work is done: the introduction of the Act has led to a spike in downloads of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which hide a user’s location, allowing them to bypass UK age verification requirements.

Last July, the government said it will not ban VPNs but acknowledged that “some people will always find a way around the law”.

Then-Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said when the measures were first introduced that it marked a “huge, giant, unprecedented step forward in stopping harmful content finding its way into children’s feeds.”

He added: “If we can take a big step forward—70, 80, maybe even 90%—when it comes to stopping harmful content getting into kids’ feeds, I’ll bank that. That’s a good day at work. That 10% that remains - we will go on figuring it out as we go forward.”

Additionally, we hope to see Ofcom, which enforces the Online Safety Act, making good on threats to fine companies which do not comply with the Act. In December 2025, it issued the biggest fine yet, saying that the AVS Group, which runs 18 adult websites, had failed to provide sufficiently robust age checks. They issued the company with a fine of £1 million, with an extra £50,000 fine for failing to respond to information requests, and AVS had 72 hours to implement adequate age verification measures or face an additional fine of £1,000 every day.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s online safety group director, said: “This year has seen important changes for people, with new measures across many sites and apps now better protecting children from harmful content.”

He concluded: “But we need to see much more from tech companies next year and we’ll use our full powers if they fall short.”

The battle to protect children online in the same way that they are protected offline has been long. But by God’s grace, in Oliver Griffiths’ words, “the tide on online safety” is finally starting to turn.

The impact of violent pornography

In March 2025, the BBC published an article entitled: “‘He strangled me without asking’experts say choking during sex now normal for many.”

It told the story of Rachel, aged 26. She had not had sex with the man before. The sex was consensual. But the act he went on to perform was not.

She said: “He was on top of me - we were kissing and having sex, then suddenly he put his forearm on my neck and pressed hard with his full weight. I just froze…I didn’t lose consciousness, but this numbness came over me and I just waited for it to stop.”

Two weeks later, a similar situation happened again, with a different man. Again, they had sex consensually. They had not discussed choking first.

Strangulation cuts off blood supply to the brain. The level of oxygen in the body drops, and the level of carbon dioxide increases. It can cause loss of consciousness, strokes, and speech disorders. It can lead to brain damage. And it can lead to death.

The final sentence from Rachel was particularly troubling: “It felt like it was - in their minds - just a normal part of sex.”

The pornographic landscape

Behaviours which are normalised in the virtual world become normalised in the actual world. Several studies suggest that the more that people watch pornography, the

Gone are the days when pornography consisted of hiding a Playboy magazine under the bed. Interests which were once fringe have entered the mainstream. The theme of today is ‘choice’: watch whatever you want, whenever you want, like picking a

This has resulted in graphic depictions of violent themes. Baroness Bertin’s Pornography Review has sections on the following subjects: Violent and Misogynistic Pornography, Strangulation & ‘Choking’ Content, Content that depicts Coercion and Exploitation, ‘Age-play’, ‘Teen Pornography’, Racism & Fetishisation of Minority Groups, and Incest & Step-

Research from a 2021 report found that 1 in 8 titles shown to first-time users on the homepage of the largest porn sites contained descriptions of sexual

violence, including words like ‘brutal’, ‘attack’, ‘kidnap’, ‘force’, ‘torture’, and ‘violate’. The most common category featured was physical aggression and sexual assault.

Another study found that visible aggression was present in 40% of porn videos in a random sample; a study of PornHub, one of the largest porn sites, found that 45% of scenes contained at least one act of aggression. Women were the target in 97% of such scenes.

The impact on the real world

In the Children’s Commissioner’s Report into pornography, a number of those interviewed said they watched it to learn more about sex. Several said they felt that pornography had warped their expectations.

Dr Kate Howells, member of the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine, explains: “They’re almost looking to porn to learn about sex and what to do to be good at sex…If young people are seeing that kind of messaging from pornography rather than loving or caring, respectful messages then they’ll think that’s what they need to do - whether they feel comfortable with it or not.”

72% of young people agreed with the statement that ‘Viewing online pornography affects young people’s expectations around sex and relationships’. Just 4% disagreed. 47% of young people stated that girls ‘expect’ sex to involve violent behaviour such as slapping and choking. And 47% of people between the ages of 18 and 21 have experienced a violent sex act; they were 50% more likely to have experienced that if they were frequent users of pornography.

Professor Hannah Bows, from the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse, said that pornography’s influence has led to strangulation becoming ‘standard behaviour’: “What we’ve seen in the last 10 to 15 years is that it’s become a glamorised, fantasised and celebrated form of ‘normal’ sexual encounters”.

The survey also flagged how pornography shaped teenagers’ views of women. One 18-year-old boy said: “Many heterosexual men grow up to have certain expectations of how to treat women when having sex, and in general. A lot of that is actually just abuse.”

Others - again, particularly teenage girlswrote about how they felt pressure to perform particular sex acts. One girl, who first watched

pornography at age 10, said: “It makes boys think they can do everything they see in porn in real life. Some things like anal are everywhere in porn but most girls don’t want to do that.”

The Government response

The Conservative Government launched a Pornography Review in 2023, which CARE was instrumental in securing. The review makes more than 30 recommendations to the government, including:

• Making online porn involving choking illegal

• Making porn including adults dressing as children illegal

• Making porn featuring degrading, violent and misogynistic themes illegal

• Banning so-called ‘nudification’ apps

• Making it an offence to take nonconsensual intimate images, or create them via AI

• Establishing a body to audit online platforms and punish non-compliance

In November 2025, the Labour Government announced that it would put forward amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to ban both the possession and publication of images featuring strangulation and suffocation, with a maximum penalty of five years in jail. Duties would also be placed on online platforms to prevent the spread of such images, under threat of fines or even jail-time for senior executives.

A better story

Violent pornography cheapens God’s good gift of sex. Sex should not be about acting out fantasies, for sex does not exist in the world of fantasy, but the world of reality.

We long to see a society which recognises sex for what it is: about giving, rather than taking. In the C of E’s marriage liturgy, couples say, “With my body, I honour you”, a sign that whatever they do, say or think will be in service of the other person, particularly when it comes to sex.

Our world has degraded sex to mean little more than shadowy pleasures and cheap thrills, when it should be based around the deepest of loves and the most enduring of commitments. Sex should never be about power dynamics, or shameful and dehumanising, in the way that violent pornography so often is.

How technology is altering the porn industry

In 2021, Jodie* received an email from an anonymous sender. It contained a link directing her to a pornographic site, featuring dozens of images and videos of herself, naked.

But the photos weren’t real. It was her face in them. But it wasn’t her body; she had been ‘deepfaked’, a victim of technology that allows users to stitch someone’s face onto the body of another person, including in pornographic content.

A friend had posted regular, innocent photos onto an online forum without her consent, with the message: “She makes me really horny, have never done this before, would love to see her faked.” Others, skilled at using the technology, created the images in response.

Jodie told ‘The Telegraph’: “I was completely freaking out, I thought my whole life was over. I broke down and was screaming and crying, I practically blacked out.”

A growing problem

“They invent new ways of doing evil.” (Romans 1:30)

Erotic content has been an ever-present throughout human history. But technology has led not simply to an increase in its volume, but to new ways of creating material. The term ‘deepfaking’ was only coined in 2017. It derives from the Reddit profile ‘deepfakes’, who created pornographic videos with celebrities’ faces being inserted onto other people’s bodies.

A misogynistic industry

“The problem of sexually explicit deepfakes is one that is inherently sexist and rapidly proliferating…They have been described as the new frontier of violence against women.” (Baroness Charlotte Owen)

One new form of technology, nudification apps, has become particularly widely used. This software takes an image of a person who is fully-clothed, and uses AI to picture them naked. One site, ClothOff, produces around 200,000 pictures a day.

It is a deeply misogynistic industry: many deepfake apps only work on women’s bodies, meaning that around 99% of sexually explicit deepfakes accessible online are of women or girls.

The Labour MP, Jess Asato, who chairs the APPG on perpetrators of domestic abuse, said that such apps “digitally strip women and girls”. Her assessment was damning: “I think this is a tool that facilitates digital sexual assault.”

The links with real-world assault are easy to draw. In July 2024, Gavin Plumb was jailed for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby: he had downloaded around 10,000 images of the TV presenter, including deepfaked pornographic content.

“deepfake, sexually explicit videos” within the last year. Around 75% of those incidents involved children aged 14 or younger.

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, has compared the way teenage girls feel about deepfaking to the anxiety they feel when walking home at night, and said: “Children have told me they are frightened by the very idea of this technology even being available, let alone used.”

A report from Internet Matters in October 2024 revealed that 55% of teenagers believed it would be worse to have a deepfake nude of them shared than a real nude image, citing a lack of consent, the removal of autonomy, and the fear that friends or family might believe it was real.

What does the law say?

Some of the images depicted her naked. Others had her dressed as a schoolgirl. Many featured her having sex. She said in 2025: “The shock and devastation haunts me to this day.”

*Not her real name

Since then, the number of deepfakes has exploded. By 2023, there were over 95,000 deepfake videos online, of which 98% were pornographic. That marked a 550% increase in just four years. Across the top ten dedicated deepfake pornography websites, videos have been viewed more than 300 million times.

The problem is getting worse: analysis in 2024 from ‘My Image, My Choice’, who combat image abuse, found that 80% of deepfaking apps were launched within the previous year: one created 600,000 images within its first three weeks. Seven of the top ten pornographic websites now host deepfaked content.

Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, described the impact which deepfakes can have upon a victim: “It feels like someone has taken you and done something to you and there is nothing you can do about it. Watching a video of yourself being violated without your consent is an almost out-of-body experience.”

Terrifyingly, around 25% of people either support or feel neutral about the legal and moral acceptability of creating, sharing or viewing such deepfakes, according to a recent survey.

Ease of access

“It worries me that it’s so normalised. He obviously wasn’t hiding it. He didn’t feel this was something he shouldn’t be doing. It was in the open and people saw it. That’s what was quite shocking.”

Those are the words of a headteacher, who described how one of his students pulled out his phone on the bus, selected an image of a girl from a neighbouring school from her social media profile, and used a nudifying app to create an image of her.

A recent poll of 4,300 secondary school teachers in England found that around 1 in 10 were aware of their students creating

When Jodie learnt about her deepfaked images, there were no laws against deepfake intimate image abuse. She compiled a 60page dossier of evidence for the police and was initially told that no crime had been committed. Her abuser was eventually convicted, but under the Communications Act.

The pace of change in technology has outstripped progress in the law; the Intimate Image Abuse report in 2022 recommended that sharing deepfake abuse should be criminalised - something enacted through the Online Safety Act - but initially stopped short of suggesting that creating sexually explicit deepfakes without consent should be outlawed.

However, in 2025, Baroness Owen led a campaign to both criminalise creation of deepfakes and the soliciting of them. The Bill, which passed in June 2025, mandates forced deletion of any images created without consent. Breaking it carries the risk of a criminal sentence.

But there is no time to rest on our laurels. AI is not a static industry; when one loophole is closed, another springs up. If the rapid rise of deepfakes illustrates anything, it is this: humans will always find new ways of doing evil.

How to help somebody struggling with pornography

You probably know someone who is battling pornography. Perhaps you have a friend who has just asked you for help. Or perhaps you are married and your spouse has relapsed into using porn.

Augustine was a church leader in north Africa in the fourth century AD who struggled with lust. When he was a young man, he prayed: “Give me chastity…only not yet.” For many, using pornography can feel similar. The nature of addictions is that someone both wants, and does not want, to give up their behaviour. Pornography is powerful: once hooked, it can be difficult to give up.

We can’t fight temptation for another person, but here are seven ways we can encourage Christians as they battle pornography…

1. Reassure them they’re not alone

Repentance is only possible when we bring sin into the light and are honest with God. D. H. Lawrence noted: “The whole question of pornography seems to me a question of secrecy. Without secrecy there would be no pornography.”

This is particularly so in our internet age. To consume porn you no longer need to sneak into a newsagent. Pornographic material is just a mouse-click away. The internet has allowed it to flourish in the darkness.

Porn use thrives in secrecy. For this reason, it can feel as if you are the only person struggling with it. But a Premier Christianity survey suggests that 75% of Christian men and 40% of Christian women struggle with watching porn on a regular basis. Our friends are not alone in going through this battle.

2. Encourage them that purity is possible

Getting hold of porn today is easy, but breaking the habit of watching it can be much more difficult, with setbacks and relapses. It can feel as if victory is impossible.

The Biblical image of repentance is to ‘turn around’. With any sin, this is easier said than done. We might repent, only to fall back again and again. We tend to view repentance as a quick thing, when it rarely is. For most of us, it is a path with highs and lows, setbacks and victories, barriers and breakthroughs. It is a lifelong process.

But there is hope. Jesus came to bring forgiveness and set us free from slavery to sin. He has given us the Holy Spirit who helps us to say no to ungodliness and to lead selfcontrolled lives. Freedom from pornography is possible.

3. Help them into community

People battling pornography can withdraw and cut themselves off from Christian community. They can feel ashamed of their sin and afraid of being found out. But we need each other to spur us on to holy living. God has created us to be in community with others, and we battle our temptations in community as well.

If the person you are helping isn’t attending a church small-group, encourage them to do so. These can be really helpful places to share life with other Christians in an open and vulnerable way. Someone may not feel able to share their struggles straight away, but over time they can become a supportive community who can help.

4. Walk alongside them and

hold them accountable

Ask your friend for permission to ask them how they are doing with resisting porn. How tempted have they been recently? Have they watched it this week? Don’t just ask them once, but make it a recurring habit. Of course, it is possible that they might lie; if they think they might, there are other ways of being accountable. Software like Covenant Eyes allows your internet history to be shared continually with another person.

Equally, if all you are doing is asking your friend if they have failed, your relationship will become rather negative! Encourage them to keep going: give them a call, send them a message, meet up for coffee. Speak about your own areas of weakness too. Be an example of Christ-like faithfulness, showing them that you won’t abandon them because they battle with porn, and God won’t either.

5. Give them practical advice

It is helpful to be honest about our weak spots. Are there particular times and places when you are especially vulnerable? Where is your battle fiercest, and your resistance weakest?

After identifying these areas, talk together about how to combat those vulnerabilities. If social media is a weak point, can they remove their account? Can they put a content blocker on their computer? Can they buy a ‘dumb’ phone instead of a smartphone? These might seem drastic, but drastic action is what Jesus advises to avoid sin.

6. Help them find Jesus

In a comedy sketch, Bob Newhart plays a therapist who charges little and only has one piece of advice: he simply says “Stop it!” It reveals an important truth. We cannot resist temptation simply by saying ‘stop it’. If you have tried, you will know that it often fails. We grit our teeth, but just trying harder does not seem to work.

You might want to share with your friend every verse you can think of about sexual purity. But what they need more than anything is Jesus.

Winning the battle with porn is not just about willpower; it is about worship. It’s about being so captured by the greatness of Jesus that pornography looks pathetic in comparison. Tim Chester once wrote a book about battling addictions, which he called ‘Captured by a Better Vision’. Don’t just share verses about sex. Help them to love Jesus more every day.

7. Remind them of God’s grace

Any battle with sin will be marked by both victory and failure. When we stumble, we might believe we have exhausted God’s patience. Surely God can’t forgive us again? When we sin, we are presented with two choices: we can run towards God or away from Him. We need to know that there is full forgiveness, safety and security for all who trust in Jesus. John writes: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:5-9)

On the cross, Jesus died to bring forgiveness for every sin. God is our heavenly Father, who looks down the road for His prodigal child. Remind your friend that God comes running towards us as soon as we turn towards home.

Why women use pornography and how the Church can help

WRITTEN BY

Helen Thorne-Allenson

Helen is the director of training and resources at Biblical Counselling UK. She is the author of ‘Track: A (Female) Student’s Guide to Purity in a Porn-Saturated Culture’, ‘Hope in an Anxious World’, and ‘5 Things to Pray for a Suffering Friend’.

In years past, conversations about pornography were often considered a male preserve. If a book was written, a talk given, or a Bible study application offered, it usually had men in view. There was a consensus that women wouldn’t be drawn to online pornmaybe to a few romantic novels but nothing more explicit than that.

Recent years, however, have brought a greater understanding that both men and women struggle in this area. Resources, support groups, and conferences for women now exist. Many churches are wrestling with the

implications of estimates that one in six Christian women is watching pornography at least once a month.

But while we’re beginning to grasp the reality of pornography use, many of us still struggle to understand why it’s popular among women. What drives so many women who love Jesus to engage in pornography?

Why women turn to porn

We often assume that women watching pornography is the sin of lust manifesting itself, and sometimes it is. But with Psalm 139 echoing in our ears, we’re wise to ask God to search us—to go beyond the obvious and apparent—and show us where the human heart is going astray.

As I’ve spoken to women about their pornography use over the past 10 years as a friend, small group leader, and biblical counsellor, lust hasn’t been the dominant theme. A more complex picture has come into view.

1. Comfort

The biggest driver of pornography use among the women I’ve met with is anxiety. Life feels overwhelming at times; pornography brings some relief. Most of the strategies we use in times of stress take a while to bring us a sense of peace. As we turn to the Lord in prayer, he gradually changes us. As we exercise or rest, such practices begin to bring respite but have greater effect over time.

But pornography has an intensity and immediacy to it, and in times of extreme pressure, it seems to bring relief quicker than other options. That relief comes at a devastating cost, but in the middle of pain, it appeals to many women.

2. Curiosity

Maybe unsurprisingly, another big driver among the women I’ve walked alongside (particularly younger women) is a desire to know what sex is like. We live in a culture where we have a search engine with us at all times, and if we want to know something, we go online. Want a recipe? Search. Want an idea for an evening out? Search. Want to find a good sermon or podcast? Search.

So when the normal and natural desire to understand more about God’s good gift of sex crosses a woman’s mind, the first instinct is often to search. It’s not wise, but for some, it feels less embarrassing than speaking to another human being.

3. Control

The driver we probably miss most often in the church is that of managing pain. From sexual abuse in childhood and sexual assault as an adult to the horrors of domestic abuse, sex can be used as a weapon, and many women worldwide have endured such pain. For some, the idea of sex with a man may fill them with terror. For others, their experiences may have left them wrestling with anger.

When sexual encounters in the past have been a deeply out-of-control experience, they can in some small ways be brought under control by going online and exercising choice over what to watch and what to feel. It’s a hollow control—there’s no true healing or hope in pornography—but for a few fleeting moments, hurting women taste a sense that sexual activity isn’t something done to them but something they can choose, and that has a draw.

Tailoring support

Why is it important to consider these potential drivers and the many other underlying factors that may lead women to pornography? Not simply to pursue introspection but because, if we’re to help women lift their eyes to Christ’s glory, we need to acknowledge the human heart’s complexities.

Everyone using pornography may benefit from strategies like accountability software, grace-filled relationships, prayer, liturgies for repentance, reminders of God’s call to a countercultural life, and a community that models purity and wholeheartedness toward Christ. But we need various approaches for walking alongside women with different stories and experiences.

The woman who uses pornography for stress relief may need support to persevere through her anxiety—pointing her to God’s character and promises to help her know God as her rock and refuge, to come to trust her good shepherd more. She may also find help in

God-given relaxation techniques that have an effect over time.

The woman who uses pornography for curiosity may be helped by a series of calm and appropriate conversations about sex and continued encouragement about the joy of waiting in trust.

The woman who uses pornography to engender a sense of control after abuse may be helped by support to seek justice, space to express her pain in a safe environment, and opportunities to process her experiences through skilled conversation with others.

As we all understand our precious sisters rightly, as we apply God’s Word to heart struggles (not just outward behavior), as we walk alongside them in true wisdom, lives begin to change. Hope begins to build. Women come to see afresh the wonder of Jesus and, by His power, grow in holiness day by day.

This article was originally published in 2024 at thegospelcoalition.org, and is reprinted with permission.

Parenting a “Pornin-the-Pocket” generation

WRITTEN BY

Sheralyn Cloete

Sheralyn works for The Naked Truth Project, a charity aiming to Open Eyes and Free Lives from the damaging impact of porn. They offer a variety of educational and recovery programmes, including online parenting workshops. For more info visit nakedtruthproject.com

You would not hand your child the keys to a car before they were ready to drive. And yet many of us hand our children internet access with little preparation for the world that comes with it.

In the UK, 55% of 8-11-year-olds now own a mobile phone (Ofcom, 2023). By 12-15, nearly half (47%) have uploaded their own videos to platforms like TikTok or Snapchat. More than half of 12-15-year-old gamers (58%) talk to people they do not know online.

The digital world offers creativity, connection and opportunity. But it also carries risk.

The Children’s Commissioner for England reported in 2024 that 10% of children have seen pornography by age 9. By 11, that figure rises to 27%. The NSPCC has found that 44% of boys aged 11-16 who consumed pornography said it gave them ideas about the type of sex they wanted to try.

The Online Safety Act has been introduced to address some of these harms. But legislation alone cannot parent our children. The digital world moves fast, and sexually explicit content remains anonymous and easily accessible. The question is not whether our children will encounter harms in the online world. It’s how can we prepare them.

Controls - Tools That Help

Even with new legislation, we need to ensure our devices are well-protected, particularly

when children are young. This reduces accidental exposure, not only to pornography, but to other online harms.

Most devices, such as phones, tablets and smart TVs, have built-in parental controls that limit explicit content and set age filters. Apple’s Screen Time and Android’s Digital Wellbeing allow parents to set time limits, block content and pause usage at night. YouTube Restricted Mode and Google SafeSearch can reduce inappropriate results. Monitoring apps such as Ever Accountable or Covenant Eyes can flag risky language or images, helping parents step in early and begin conversations.

So when do we start these conversations?

Earlier than you think. Children are encountering explicit content in primary school. A simple starting point is what we call the Three T’s.

Tell your child that if they ever see something online that makes them feel confused or uncomfortable, you want them to do three things:

Turn it off: close the screen or your eyes.

Turn away: physically move away from the device (especially when curiosity kicks in).

Digital Family Agreements

Another helpful tool is a family agreement, formed through conversation about how you interact with technology. There are many templates online, but you might discuss: Where are devices kept during meals or at night?

How much screen time is reasonable?

What content is off-limits?

Who can check settings or messages?

Clear expectations reduce confusion and help children understand that boundaries are about protection, not punishment.

When It Feels Hard

Another protective step is delaying phone access as much as possible. When you do say yes, it can be a “yes, but”:

• Yes to a phone - but no unrestricted browser.

• Yes to certain apps - but only with parental approval.

• Yes to messaging - but with regular check-ins.

But these tools only work if we use them and stay involved. Even then, tools are like training wheels. Helpful? Absolutely. Enough on their own? No. Because this is not just about managing devices. We are shaping values and hearts. That means we must move from controls to conversations.

From Controls to Conversations

Most of us didn’t grow up with this level of access to technology, but our children need parents willing to enter their world, ask hard questions, listen without shock, and set boundaries with warmth. Silence is not neutral. If we do not speak into their digital world, someone else will.

Tell me: God gave you to me to look after and help when things get tricky.

When a child tells you, take a breath. Thank them. They have done something brave. Your calm response teaches them that they can come back again.

As children grow, those conversations must grow too. Proverbs 22 reminds us to “train up a child in the way they should go”. Training is not instant. It is patient, repetitive and often thankless. It involves guidance, correction, modelling and grace. One big conversation is not enough. Frequent, ordinary check-ins send a powerful message: this is safe to talk about. Shoulder-to-shoulder conversations often work best. In the car. Walking the dog. Washing up together.

You might say: “I read that children your age are seeing things online they didn’t mean to. Has that ever happened to you?” Or: “I heard some children are being asked to send nudes. Does that happen at your school?”

Start small. Stay curious. Keep asking open questions.

Parenting in the digital age can feel overwhelming. But Scripture reminds us that the God who works miracles is also the God who helps us through an ordinary Tuesday. Isaiah 41:10 says, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

We often read verses like that and imagine things like dramatic callings or extraordinary circumstances. And yet sometimes the impossible is simply getting through the day without losing your temper. Sometimes it is finding the courage to start a conversation. Sometimes it is staying calm when your child tells you something that shocks you.

It is the same God. However overwhelmed we may feel, God is not. He is not surprised by algorithms or social media trends. He is present, generous with wisdom, and faithful in the long obedience of parenting.

And above all, remember this: we are not doing this alone.

A better story for sex

It’s all very well saying that as Christians we are against pornography, and that it distorts God’s gift of sexual intimacy; but we also need to make the case for what we are for. Christian sexual ethics have always been counter-cultural: in the Greco-Roman world the earliest Christians inhabited, all kinds of sexual relationships were permissible, including many which were abusive. At CARE, our mission is to speak God’s better story to a broken world: so what is God’s better story for sex in particular?

Sex is good

By opposing pornography, Christians can be accused of being ‘prudes’. But Christians should be the most positive people about sex, since it is God’s idea!

In Genesis, we read that God created all things, declaring them to be ‘very good’. Since sexual expression was part of that creation, sex is affirmed to be good by God. God tells humanity to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28) and sex as a means of procreation is a direct response to this command.

In Genesis 2, we read the first love-song, as Adam responds to his wife Eve: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23). In the next verse, we read about how sex has been designed by God to be a ‘one-flesh’ union, where two become one. In fact, far from being negative about sex, the Bible devotes a whole book to talking about sexual pleasure, in Song of Songs!

In the Bible story, we see how sin enters the world and corrupts every part of our lives, including our sex lives. Humans have used sex in lots of sinful ways, including pornography. But while sex can be used for sin, sex is not itself sinful. It is a good gift from God.

Sex is intimate

Sex has various purposes, including pleasure and procreation. But at its core, it is about intimacy. The Bible uses the word “united” to describe it (1 Corinthians 6:15). In Eden, we are told that “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25). It is a picture of intimacy and vulnerability, which includes sexual intimacy.

Tim Keller describes sexual intimacy like this: “Sex, as prescribed in the Bible, is a way of saying, I see all of your imperfections and I am still completely, exclusively, and permanently committed to you. You are naked to me in all ways, and I still accept you forever.”

It is also a picture of the intimacy that Adam and Eve enjoy with God. But in the next chapter, as Adam and Eve sin, they become ashamed and cover up their nakedness. They hide from each other, and they attempt to hide from God. The rest of the Bible is the story of how humanity can be restored to intimacy with God once more.

Writing to the Ephesians, Paul talks about the union of husband and wife in marriage, and says: “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32). Marriage points us towards Jesus and, since sex is part of God’s design for marriage, sex does so too.

Because of our sin and brokenness, married couples are never completely ‘naked and unashamed’ with one another. However, sexual intimacy at its best is a picture of the intimacy and closeness that God desires with every person.

“If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency.”

Sam Allberry

Sex should be practised safely

The Bible talks a lot about sexual intimacy. It speaks of sexual love between a husband and wife like this: “It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame” (Song of Songs 8:6).

Fire is a positive thing when used properly. It can bring light and warmth, cook food and even drive machinery. But fire that is used in an improper or uncontrolled fashion is dangerous. It can get out of control, destroy possessions and damage lives.

God views sex like fire, powerful and needing caution. It is to be enjoyed but also respected. It needs to be treated in the right way to produce the positive benefits for which it was intended.

In RSE classes today, young people will be taught about ‘safe’ sex, including various forms of physical protection. But God’s view of safe sex is far wider. Precisely because it is so powerful, He has given us boundaries for His good gift of sex: He creates marriage, a lifelong union between one man and one woman, as the context for sexual expression.

The Bishop of Lancaster Jill Duff explains: “Local women my age were astonished that I believed sex is for marriage. ‘You mean I’m worth it?’ Our inherited Christian ethics on sex speak preciously into our culture which is craving intimacy and worth.”

Sex is not ultimate

When Jesus is quizzed about marriage at the resurrection, He replies to those who tried to trap Him: “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30). Marriage will not last into the New Creation, and so neither will sex, but the relationship to which it points, between us and God, will last forever.

The pastor Sam Allberry writes: “If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency.” Our relationship with Jesus helps us to see that, while sex is good, sexual expression is not the most important thing. Sexual pleasure is not the ultimate goal in life. It is quite possible to be fully and completely human without sexual activity.

We know this because of Jesus. He lived a perfect life which was the fullest humanity has ever seen, without having sex. Our culture says sexual fulfilment, whether through pornography or other means, is crucial. The Bible helps us to see that fulfilment comes not through sex but through knowing Jesus Christ. Sexual pleasure does not complete us; Jesus does.

The sexualisation of society

Holy Lord, please have mercy on us in today’s godless culture where restraint is thrown off, lust is acceptable, children are robbed of innocence and Your gift of sex is abused. We intercede for transformation in the minds and hearts of influencers and trend-setters who promote this worldview and for people’s attitudes to be changed. In Your mercy. Amen.

7 ways to pray about pornography Resources for further reading

The pornography industry

Righteous God, we grieve at how the global pornography industry, netting around $100 billion each year, abuses and uses human beings. We know nothing escapes Your all-seeing gaze and that one day justice will come, but meanwhile please cause many of these organisations to fail and mercifully draw many who are caught up in them to repentance and salvation. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

Stronger regulation

Father, we intercede that the compulsory age verification required by the Online Safety Act will succeed in preventing children and young people from accessing harmful material from pornography websites. May further protections be put in place and please grant that the stringent penalties for breaking the law will be effectively applied. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Protecting children from harm

Saviour, please rescue this generation, many of whom are deeply troubled through their exposure to pornographic, violent images, and behaviours that reject the truth and beauty of Your gift of sex. We pray for a U-turn across society, insisting that children and young people must be helped to turn from harmful attitudes and actions to follow in Your ways of goodness and life. In Your mercy. Amen.

Healing relationships

Lord, we pray for anyone who has learned that their spouse or someone else close to them regularly accesses pornography, making them feel betrayed, dishonoured, angry and sad. May Your Spirit grant them wisdom and strength to confront this behaviour and find a way forward that protects everyone involved but is also open to healing and forgiveness. Through Your powerful love and grace. Amen.

Protection for the vulnerable

Father, we pray about the common practice of teenagers’ ‘peer-to-peer’ sharing of pornographic and personal sexual images and messages on social media; and we pray about the consequent disrespectful and aggressive attitudes and behaviour towards women. Please help girls and boys who feel trapped and bullied by this culture, many being driven to self-harming and other dangers. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Freedom from addiction

Jesus our Redeemer, please help individuals wanting to stop accessing pornography to take decisive action that can lead to hope, transformation, and recovery. Lead them to people and organisations, such as nakedtruthproject.com, that offer support to break free. Please draw many into the truth of Your unconditional love and forgiveness. By Your powerful name. Amen.

For everyone

Tim Chester has written two books that help Christians think about how to change. ‘You can change’ (IVP 2024) is a general book about the battle for holiness while ‘Captured by a better vision’ (IVP 1994) is focused specifically on the battle with pornography. The Gospel Coalition has a wide range of helpful articles about pornography which can be found on their website ( thegospelcoalition.org/topics/ pornography). Marc Sim’s ‘Escape the little hell of porn’ (October 13, 2025) and David M. Cook’s ‘The real reason you can’t quit porn’ (September 29, 2025) are great places to start.

For specific advice for men and women, take a look at Ray Ortlund’s ‘The death of porn’ (Crossway 2021) for men and ‘Purity is possible’ (Good Book Company 2014) by Helen Thorne for women.

For parents

For pastors

Themelios theological journal Volume 41 Issue 3 has an article by Andrew David Naselli looking at the theological reasons behind resisting pornography. Download it or read it on The Gospel Coalition website.

If you want to understand how porn works on our brains, a 2013 article by Morgan Bennett, ‘The New Narcotic’, provides a helpful explanation, which can be found at: thepublicdiscourse. com/2013/10/10846

For further reading, Vaughan Roberts’ book ‘The Porn Problem’ (Good Book Company 2018) is a good introduction to what the Bible says about pornography, while Glynn Harrison’s ‘A better story’ (IVP 2017) and Jonathan Grant’s ‘Divine sex’ (Brazos 2015) set out a Christian vision of sex and relationships.

The Children’s Commissioner’s reports are not easy reading but provide an honest picture of what it means for children and young people to grow up in a digital age. The 2023 report ‘A lot of it is actually just abuse’ and the 2025 follow-up ‘Sex is kind of broken now’ can both be downloaded at childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource, where you can also find ‘What I wish my parents or carers knew…’, a guide to children’s digital lives. Resources to help speak to teens about pornography include Jennifer Kvamme’s book ‘Deep Answers to Real Questions on Attraction, Identity, and Relationships’ (Good Book Company 2024) and ‘Purity in a Porn–Saturated Culture’ (Christian Focus 2024) by Helen Thorne-Allenson, which is aimed at students.

Care for the Family’s ‘Raising Teens: Off Script’ series includes a video looking at what to do when parents find their teenage children viewing porn or sleeping around. You can find it on their website (careforthefamily.org.uk).

“Let

us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

Hebrews 12:1-2

CARE’s role in the fight against pornography

Ross Hendry, CEO of CARE

For well over a decade, CARE has been making the case that our laws online should be the same as our laws offline.

Along the way, we’ve made some major steps forward, and I hope you’ve been encouraged to read about the real-world impact which the Online Safety Act has had.

But as this Topic Guide shows, there is much more to be done. As I write this, our Policy Team are working with Parliamentarians to develop amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, which would ban pornography depicting incest and content that mimics child sexual abuse. These amendments would be in addition to successfully lobbying for strangulation to be banned, which the Government has already added to the Bill. These changes were recommended by Baroness Bertin’s Pornography Review, which CARE was instrumental in securing. But the review made 32 recommendations, and the Crime and Policing Bill is only likely to deliver a handful of them; to that end, we remain significant members of Baroness Bertin’s taskforce, which seeks to implement many more.

Online Safety is about more than just protecting children from watching material; we also want to protect those featured in content, many of whom have not truly appeared in it through a free choice.

At CARE, we have a long history of speaking on behalf of those who have been sexually exploited. We see our work around pornography to be a vital extension of this campaigning: pornography and prostitution go together hand in hand.

We want to work with Parliamentarians to help the Government see the importance of introducing age and consent checks. We also want to see additional protections put in place by which people can withdraw consent later down the line, if they choose,

and where porn sites would be forced to take down content.

It is inevitable that any piece of legislation, such as the Online Safety Act, will have blind spots. This is particularly so in today’s world, where we must ensure that the law keeps up with the rate of technological advances. It is also important to ensure that laws are fully implemented: it can be easy to think that it’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ when you pass a law, when it’s really only the beginning.

But we won’t just be plugging holes in the law; we also want to cut demand. Our God ‘sets the captives free’, and it is not part of His good design for humans to be addicted to anything (including pornography). Yet we know that this is the reality for so many people, and it can be so difficult to find support. We believe that pornography addiction, like gambling addiction, should be seen as a Public Health issue, and will campaign for support services to be put in place by the NHS, to which GPs can refer patients.

And we believe in a God who tells a better story about how we are to use our sexuality. Our world has cheapened love for lust, and has traded intimacy for sexual kicks. Schools teach a hollowed-out story about relationships, and children do not grow up learning about the true value of sex, or the dangers of misusing it through pornography. This is a battle not just for the education system, but for churches and youth-groups up and down the country too, for we know that Christian families can be impacted by pornography like everyone else.

The path ahead will not be short or easy, and nor should we expect it to be. We know that the teaching of Jesus has always been counter-cultural, and there are few areas which expose our own sinful desires more deeply than sex. But we also know that God wants us as humans to flourish, and that the narrow way is the path to life. How we long to see our world recognise that again!

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If you’d like to order more copies of this Topic Guide or any of our other resources, including Biblical Deepdives, Topic Guides on Assisted Suicide and relating to your MP, and our Prayer Diary, you can phone us at 020 7233 0455 or email mail@care.org.uk, and we’ll send you them for free.

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If you’d like to donate towards the costs of this resource, please scan here, or visit care.org.uk/donate. You can also phone us or send a cheque to our Romney Street office. Your donation to CARE enables us to continue to work towards a culture and society reflecting a better story for everyone.

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CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) | Chief Executive Ross Hendry | Co-Founder Rev Lyndon Bowring | 53 Romney St, London, SW1P 3RF | 020 7233 0455 | mail@care.org.uk

CARE is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales at 53 Romney Street, London, SW1P 3RF Company No: 3481417 | Charity No: 1066963 | Scottish Charity No: SC038911

CARE is strictly politically neutral and does not advocate on behalf of any particular party or candidate. All content in this booklet is accurate as of February 2026.