Pornography is an ever-present reality in today’s age. With the prevalence of the internet and the lowering of society’s moral standards, porn is becoming more popular than ever before.

Now, Christian groups are using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to help battle porn addiction.

This artificial intelligence can tell when you’re looking at porn. It then informs chosen friends, family and spiritual leaders about your use.

This porn prevention software spots porn not only on device screens but also on websites, but also cover apps and messaging services.

One company that is a big player in this is Covenant Eyes, a Michigan-based firm whose software is available for Android and Apple devices. It can also run on desktop computers running Windows and Mac OS.

According to their website, they are designed to help you and those you love live life free from porn by having users partner us to defeat porn, facilitate life-changing conversations and break bad habits for good.

The target audience is not just individuals. It’s also religious leaders and communities.

The Covenant Eyes website addresses how deeply porn affects the Christian community.

“Porn affects your entire church — men, women, children, spouses, and singles,” the Covenant Eyes website says.

“It trains us to objectify others. It keeps us from fully engaging in relationships, the church, and purposeful lives. Enough! Download your free help today.”

So how does it work? If the user finds themselves searching for porn, the AI takes concerning screenshots of the content which are then sent to accountability partners for review.

Any transmitted screenshots that are sent to the accountability partners are blurred.

According to Covenant Eyes, this is not a negative, disciplinary action but a way foster support and address what they consider porn’s shame cycle.

‘The difference is having an ally to help you in the fight. The best way to break the cycle and remove the shame and isolation by opening up to a friend,’ a Covenant Eyes advertisement says.

The goal is similar to the technique used by Alcoholics Anonymous to help people overcome addiction by creating partnerships with sponsors who help those who are new to the program stay sober.

The company currently has about 300,000 active users who pay about $15.99 a month for unlimited use across multiple devices, Dan Armstrong, a spokesman for the company said. The user base is almost all men and about 62 percent are married.

Older technology relied on keyword filters to block access to websites based on words found embedded in a site’s code. Covenant Eyes now uses the latest in artificial intelligence, Armstrong said.

“We’ve developed our own image recognition and machine learning artificial intelligence to detect pornography on a screen,” Armstrong told CQ Roll Call.

According to their website, you can start a 14-day free trial. They also offer a 30-day money back guarantee.

There are other porn detection software companies in the game, including X3watch, an offshoot of a company called xxxchurch.com. This speaks to the growing call for this sort of technology to combat this destructive behavior.

What are your thoughts about artificial intelligence combatting porn use? Do you think it works?