20 January 2010

By Al-Ikhwah Al-Mujahidun

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

The purpose of this article is to make us aware of the dangers that lurk behind the use of the Internet [especially for children] in the home. As opposed to sticking our heads in the ground like ostriches, it is time we had an honest assessment of the facts and figures associated with the use of the Internet and it being a tool for Shaytan.

DANGERS OF THE INTERNET; EASY OF ACCESS TO PORNOGRAPHY

With the help of a few clicks, pornographic content spreads rampantly across the Internet, carried over an innumerable number of web sites, through explicit images in spam, and through advertisements on search engines. Various statistics show children increasingly being exposed to pornographic content. The content can involve despicable and disgusting acts, sometimes even involving children. The annual revenue of the worldwide pornographic industry is over £60 billion – that’s more than even Hollywood. According to a study by the London School of Economics, 6 out of every 10 children in the UK [1] were regularly being exposed to pornography – that is the majority of children.

MAJORITY OF CHILDREN

Approximately 90 percent of children aged 8 to 16 have seen pornography on the Internet. There are many ways in which children are being exposed to this evil material. Anybody with an email account would know that they are constantly bombarded by emails explicitly advertising pornography or indirectly [by showing one thing and upon clicking re-directing to an explicit site].

There are many game sites on the internet which allow harmless games to be played but advertise sexually explicit websites. According to the TopTenReviews report, at least 26 names of cartoon characters were linked to porn sites, thus exposing children to adult content on the Web.

UNCOMFORTABLE STATISTICS [2]

[1] – 89 percent of youth in chat rooms receive sexual solicitations.

[2] – 73 percent of those exposures happened while searching or surfing the Internet and 27 percent while opening e-mail or clicking on links in e-mails or instant messages.

[3] – 67 percent happened while using the Internet at home; 15 percent at school; 3 percent in libraries; and the rest at other homes, such as friends’, and elsewhere.

[4] – most of the images were of nudity, 32 percent showed a sexual act,

[5] – web searches and search engines were the most common route to exposures (47 percent).

[6] – in 26 percent of the surfing incidents, the children surveyed were “mousetrapped” into another dirty site while trying to get out of the one they were in.

INTERNET – TOOL OF THE SHAYTAN

The Shaytan, who is our open and clear enemy, is using the Internet to corrupt the Believers and their children’s morals, Imaan [faith] and dignity. Allah [swt] says in the Qur’an,

‘Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to commit Fahishah’
al-Baqarah 2:268

WHAT DOES ‘FAHISHAH’ MEAN?

Linguistically ‘Fahishah’ means, ‘an excess or enormity, a thing excessively and enormously foul, evil, immoral, lewd, obscene, a sin or a crime which is excessively foul; adultery or fornication.’

One finds that the Internet is the marketplace for people indulging in ‘Fahishah’ and all the steps that lead to it – accumulating major sins in the sight of their Creator, Allah [swt]. The Shaytan has openly declared war on the children of Adam [due to his jealousy] and his primary aim is to drag as many of them as possible to the Hell-Fire with him – May Allah [swt] protect us and our children [ameen]

PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS

Repeated and long-term exposure of pornographic material is severely traumatic and damaging to children’s Imaan [faith] and leads to all sorts of psychological and behavioural problems. One must realise that you cannot delete from the memories of children what they have seen of these images or videos. These ‘evil seeds’ are planted into the hearts of the innocent resulting in producing adults who are sexually perverted, promiscuous, immoral, psychologically inept and corrupt Muslims who continue to battle with their sins.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

Parents must take active responsibility to ensure that their homes are safe from the influence of Fahishah – especially from the Internet. We recommend the following:

[1] – Do not have access to the internet anywhere in the house except in the main living/dining room with the computer monitor facing outwards – i.e., towards the rest of the room

[2] – Children do not need to have email addresses or accounts on Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Yahoo etc. Supervise access to YouTube.

[3] – do not allow them to use chatrooms

[4] – Only allow access to the internet while they are being supervised [or in groups of responsible children]

[5] – Setup bookmarks for your children and only allow them to visit these ‘approved’ sites – do not give them the opportunity to type in the address box

[6] – Putting a physical block on adult sites – this can be done by adjusting the settings in your internet explorer

[7] – Install internet protection software for children – available free online

[8] – Ensure that the history of the pages visited cannot be deleted.

WARNING

Please do not turn a blind eye to dangers that the Internet poses to our future – our children. Doing so would be tantamount to incompetence and irresponsibility on the part of the Parents. Is it logical that we would ever hand our children a 500 page encyclopaedia, that has 50 pages of explicit material and then expect our children never to stumble upon them? The astute parent would remove the 50 pages and then hand the book over or sit by their side and make sure nothing other than beneficial information is looked at.

We ask Allah [swt], the Lord of the Worlds, to protect us and our children from the fahishah [immorality] and fitnah [turmoil] that surrounds us and protects us all from the traps of the Shaytan [ameen]

[1] – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6336509.stm
[2] – Mainly taken from the key findings of U.S. Study “The Exposure of Youth to Unwanted Sexual Material on the Internet”