The sex trade comes to your doorstep
I have 367 Twitter followers, but in the last day or so, 16 young women who had no history on Twitter (but who were each instantly following 800 or more people) showed up as new followers with the exact same message: “Bored! Add me.” The fact that many of them had the same picture didn’t help their credibility. It’s the pornography industry finding a new way to tempt guys who thought they were safe just because they have downloaded some kind of screening software on their computer. It’s amazing how easily we men are drawn into the absurd fantasy that beautiful single women are just dying to throw themselves at us. The reality is that some greasy geek, probably sitting in a shady Eastern European back room, is using stock photos, made-up names, and Twitter name-scraping software to mass mail a bunch of slobs with nothing better to do than click on the accompanying links to a porn site.
Back in cold war times, spies had a name for this sort of temptation: “The honey trap.” Want to get secrets from an American agent who is loyal to his country? Place one of your own beautiful agents in his path and let her seduce him.
It’s an insidious thing. Guys aged 17-25, hormones already raging, don’t stand a chance. Unless they’re in a strict accountability relationship, the odds of them being able to resist are not good. We males are programmed to respond to anything visual. Most guys are probably in some way sexually frustrated, so they are easy targets. In fact, if you get one of these Twitter solicitations, you can see a bunch of the guys I’m talking about by looking at who the “followers” are. They’re either brazen, not caring who sees them, or just plain stupid enough to click the follower button. I saw one who was a Christian youth communicator (I can’t imagine being dumb enough to actually allow one’s name to show up like that).
This sort of thing happened about a year ago with Skype. One day women showed up on my Skype wanting to have “conversations” with me. Of course it wasn’t that at all – the reality is that the pimps are always trying to bring the sex trade to your doorstep using the latest technology. The common denominator between Twitter and Skype is that both come unsolicited to you. Unless you have your defenses up in advance, you’ll find yourself contending with the devil for your morality every day you’re on the computer.
How to fight it
- Both Twitter and Skype let you block addresses, so begin by blocking them.
- Go to “Settings,” then at the bottom click on “Protect my tweets” – this will ensure that only those followers whom you allow see your tweets. I’m going to do this for about a week, hoping that the porn spammers leave me alone after that.
- Alternatively, go to “Notices” and make sure you don’t get notified of new followers.
- Get someone you trust to review your Twitter history.
- Have someone hold you accountable by reviewing the history of the cookies on your computer.
- This scenario may be more prevalent for men, but it hits women as well – don’t let curiosity suck you in.
- Women – fight for your man. Don’t assume that he’s strong enough to handle this issue on his own.
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I stopped using twitter a couple of months back for just this reason and my facebook account is about to go the way of twitter and myspace too! Social networking is fun but the downside isn’t worth it. Everything seems to be tainted these days, you can’t even go into a christian chat room without finding these little bots and hateful people that do nothing but spew forth their nastiness.
Thanks for posting this. When I was a younger man, lust was a constant struggle, controlled me at times, even as a Christian. Brothers, don’t keep this in the dark. When I confessed this shame with those I could really trust, the darkness was broken, and freedom came. Am I still tempted? Sure. But being tempted is no sin. Jesus said the truth will set us free, and that’s not hyperbole. It’s real, I know, and so can any of His sons.
Thanks Seth for this article… I have come to believe that Jesus does set free, and that men,of all ages do not have to lust. The Spirit-controlled man or woman is led by the Holy Spirit and does not fulfill the desires of the flesh. I do not believe that we have to have a problem with lust because we are a man. I find no scripture that says men have to have a lust problem – rather it say many times over that we are to obey the Lord. We have been led to believe that we have to be this way, I want us to be led in the truth that Jesus has redeemed us from the curse – including lust. I acknowledge that our society has thus said, but I want to live my life and encourage young men/women that thus saith the Lord… And yes, accountability is a way to I John 1:7 in all areas…and lust starts with a lie. What I am trying to say here is that where our heart/treasure are – there is our Lord – let us all make Jesus that….
Thank you Seth for your straight talk.For anyone out there struggling with porn, God will forgive you of your sin through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. The consequences of living with sexual sin in your life can be filled with unhappiness and depression.
Sex sin defiles your body and damages its ability to fulfill God’s purposes.
Sex sin grieves God’s Spirit.
Practicing sin forms a stronghold for evil in our lives.
Sex sin can bring a curse on you, your partner and/or your children.
Sex sin can give evil spirits footholds to influence your life.
Sex sin can bring spiritual confusion.
Sex sin can cause emotional confusion.
Rebuke the devil and follow Christ!
It’s not just men who get unwanted attention – I have had some horribly explicit sexual suggestions turn up in my inbox on Facebook, but I simply report the person and as my settings are so private that you have to be an accepted friend to access my account, it doesn’t go any further.
I think it calls for wisdom all round to do the sensible thing and protect your online accessibility and safety. Especially you guys – take care of yourselves! Your women will do all they can, but the reluctance of most guys to tell us what’s going on makes it harder for us to do. Tell someone else who can help, whether it’s another guy or your girl. Better to be free than trapped simply because “guys don’t open up like that.”
I got a similar message a few days ago. Good advice. I turned off the notifications. You’re right — it’s more of a temptation than some ppl might think.
Thanks for your insight. It is very helpful, and you make some great points. I think I will look into doing some of these ways to fight it.