2024-05-06
Donna Rice Hughes is known from the 1980s tabloids for the alleged affair with political hopeful and Democratic frontrunner Gary Hart in 1987. The scandal changed journalism, along with how we view political leaders. Hughes is making news as the CEO of her company Enough is Enough to keep kids safe from Internet porn since 1994. Featured as a guest on The Today Show, Oprah, The Factor, and Fox News, also testifying before Congress, the headlines are a lot different for the 56-year-old today.

“We are really the first Internet safety organization in the country, and we’ve been focused on protecting children and families on the Internet since then,” said Hughes, who was tapped for the 2013 Women in Technology Award for Social Impact. “At that time we were concerned that children had access to pornography online, accidentally.”

With social media, mobile technology and the Internet more accessible, so is pornography and so are the opportunities for predators.

“Our overall strategy is what I call a three-pronged approach, and we went out with this in 1995, and it’s a strategy that’s been used nationally here and overseas. And that is the whole concept that it takes a shared responsibility to protect kids on the Internet.” This is by law enforcement, the arms of the government dealing with public policy and by updating current laws. Hughes said the obscenity statutes are not being observed at all. States make the law on pornography or what is considered obscene, it is not a national law.

“Kids have access to material that is prosecutable under the law, and this is hardcore graphic pornography. And we’re the largest exporter of this material. “Our failure to enforce the obscenity laws in this country, which is a top-down issue…That kind of material has run rampant, and the child pornography explosion is a big issue.”

This is not just an assault on kids, it’s adults as well. A 2014 survey conducted by Barna Group and Proven Men Ministries found that 388 self-indentified Christian men admitted to accessing pornography on a daily or monthly basis. About 77 percent of the surveys were exposed to porn before they were 16.

Hughes also launched the campaign “P*orn Free Wifi" asking companies like Starbucks and Mc Donald’s, which offer free Internet , to use pornography filters in the U.S. with a combined 25,000 locations. In the UK both companies use pornography filters, unlike in the U.S. Check out Enough is Enough  and  track updates on this and more. Also take a peek at “Mom and Dad What is Your Internet Safety IQ” quiz.

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