Sex Addiction Expert Craig Gross Sees Warning in Tiger Woods Case

ATLANTA, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The publicity surrounding Tiger Woods' reported treatment for sex addiction should raise public awareness of the problem's causes, including the fact that pornography is now just a click away on the Internet, according to anti-porn crusader and XXXchurch founder Craig Gross.

"We don't know if Tiger Woods struggled with online pornography, but most sex addicts do. It's often where their habit starts," said Gross, whose web-based XXXchurch ministry has helped hundreds of thousands of people combat pornography addiction. "You no longer have to surreptitiously buy a porn magazine from a newsstand or go through the embarrassment of renting a porn movie. There are 420 million pages of pornographic material online, and that is fueling the sex addiction problem."

The National Council on Sex Addiction estimates that 25 million Americans visit cyber-sex sites from one to 10 hours a week, with 18 to 24 million people in the U.S. qualifying as sex addicts. The Internet Filter Review estimates that 25% of all search engine requests are pornography-related, nearly 43% of all Internet users view porn, and there are 1.5 billion peer-to-peer pornography downloads per month.

Gross recommends using an Internet filtering program like InternetSafety.com's Safe Eyes to protect users from the lure of online sexual content. Safe Eyes bars access to sex-related sites, individually screens YouTube videos for sexual content, and blocks peer-to-peer file sharing programs like BitTorrent that typically are filled with sexual material. Sites in the pornography, sex, nudity, tasteless/gross categories are blocked by default, and additional sites can be blocked by category such as swimsuits and lingerie as well as by specific URL or keyword.

In addition, Safe Eyes allows 'accountability partners' such as a spouse, friend, pastor or mentor assigned by an anti-porn advocacy group to block Internet access altogether at specific times such as the highly vulnerable after-midnight hours, check online usage logs for attempts to access sites with sexual content, and receive alerts by phone or email when users attempt to bypass the filter.

Accountability partners can be given administrative control of Safe Eyes so that they can adjust settings and access usage logs from their own computers. Users can be prevented from removing the software from their computers by asking InternetSafety.com to scramble their passwords or by configuring the product to split passwords with accountability partners.

"Any addict needs tools to fight his or her addiction. The use of Safe Eyes to help pornography addicts break the habit has been growing steadily since we introduced the product in 2003," said InternetSafety.com CEO Forrest Collier. "Intervening in this way can help people avoid the spiraling effects of sexual addiction."

About XXXchurch

XXXchurch has helped hundreds of thousands of people combat pornography use and sex addiction through their web site, speaking engagements, events like Pornversation that give college students an inside look at the sex industry, and online offerings like the x3pure 30-day recovery program. XXXchurch is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that sits under the umbrella of Fireproof Ministries. For more information, visit www.xxxchurch.com.

About InternetSafety.com

InternetSafety.com™ has been a leading provider of web filtering solutions for consumers and businesses since 1999. The company's flagship software, Safe Eyes®, is the two-time recipient of the PC Magazine Editors' Choice Award, earned a separate Editor's Choice Award from LAPTOP Magazine, and was rated as the #1 parental control solution by America's leading consumer advocacy publication. Other products include Safe Eyes Mobile, the first family-safe browser for the iPhone; EtherShield, a network-level solution offering plug-and-play Internet filtering for business environments; and Safe Eyes Business, an end-point filtering service for businesses of any size. The company's products are used by customers in more than 150 countries. The company also supplies the technology for McAfee® Family Protection online safety software. For more information, visit www.internetsafety.com.

SOURCE InternetSafety.com