Few sins are more present and devestating to the modern church than pornography. Sexual sin is not a new development, but increased accessibility has created a world in which sexual sin thrives. Pornography is particularly deadly because it is the cheapest sexual sin. It’s cheap financially, but it is also appears to have cheap consequences. Physical adultery will likely destroy a marriage and is easily uncovered. Pornography damages your marriage, but even the most permissive view of divorce would treat it differently than full-fledged adultery. Private browsing, cell phones, and anonymity have also contributed to the problem by allowing pornography use to be easy to hide.

While sitting in a small group, listening to a sermon, or having a conversation with our spouse, most Christians are wise enough to recognize the sinfulness of pornography and to see that abstaining from it is their best choice. So, why don’t they? Simply, sometimes we don’t listen to wisdom. Installing a filter or accountability software allows wisdom to speak to the folly in our heart, and it puts teeth on wisdom’s message. This battle between wisdom and folly in our hearts is consistent with biblical teaching on our struggle with our sin nature. Accountability and filtering software do not disarm our sin nature, but they do better arm the new man.

With that in mind, I wanted to give some recommendations that I think allow you to talk to yourself about pornography.

PC/Mac/Android

These are the easiest platforms to deal with. Rather than give you a list of options (there are many) I’m going to give you one that gets my absolute recommendation. Accountable2You (A2Y) is by far the best solution I’ve used.

It’s effective

A2Y uses accountability rather than filtration. There are three reasons why I prefer accountability. First, if a user beats a filter, they know immediately that they’ve succeeded. They can see the site they were looking for and probably get away with what they were doing. Second, accountability doesn’t limit good things. Filters can and do block safe websites; accountability software doesn’t. Finally, Accountability creates an atmosphere of discernment. A filter makes moral judgements for you. Everything is either black or white. It passes or it doesn’t. Accountability software forces the user to make a decision whether something is right or wrong. If pornography is a heart issue, turning the decision over to the heart rather than a programmer seems like a good idea.

A2Y is also effective because it sends near instant text notifications. Your accountability partner receives a notification within 5 minutes of a violation. This is so much more effective than a weekly email! A2Y also uses email notifications (they can be scheduled daily, weekly, or monthly) which provide a more thorough representation. These emails are helpful and easy to peruse quickly without needing to look at every site that the user has visited.

A2Y also works at the system level so that different browsers, private browsing/incognito mode, and non-browser apps cannot bypass it. It even sends notifications if you create a new user account (which could access the internet without installing A2Y) or login on a guest account (same as creating a new user).

It’s versatile

A2Y is available on all major platforms (Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS). It’s also available on iOS, but it’s not a great solution (more on that later).

It’s cheap

$4.99 a month for all your devices. $8.99 if you want multiple user accounts.

It’s well supported

The developer is continually working on the product and is very responsive. I’ve never had a problem with it blocking me from accessing the internet.

It’s Christian owned

I don’t restrict my software purchases to Christian developers. Based on the church software I use, I would spend my life in constant tears if I did. On this issue though, a Christian company brings a unique perspective. The developer is a Christian who developed the software for himself. He has a note on his site that explains this and I found his testimony encouraging and robsustly biblical.

iOS

Android is easy to deal with. A2Y works exactly the same on Android as it does on Windows/Mac. iOS is different though. My main recommendation would be to switch to Android. Those who know me, might be surprised by this as I am as big an Apple user as there is, but this issue is more important than software preferences. In the next few weeks I will be making the switch primarily for this reason.

There are, however, relatively helpful steps that you can take on iOS. Most accountability services provide a web browser. Any internet use through that browser will be reported. The user/accountability passwords just needs to disable the default browser and disable app downloads to restrict use to that one browser. In my experience this is clunky and ineffective. It’s clunky because designing a browser is hard and I’ve never seen an accountability browser which is actually a good browser. It’s ineffective because any app that has internet access can easily bypass the accountability software (for example, Facebook).

The solution that I’ve found to be most effective is the default filter. As I said before, I think accountablity is far superior to filtration, but in this case, filtration is better. The built in filter can be found in [Settings ➡ General ➡ Restrictions]. Under allowed content you can change [Websites] to [Limit Adult Content]. Make sure only the accountability partner knows the passcode for restrictions so that this can’t be easily turned off. For more detailed instructions, the Apple website has an article.

In addition to restricting websites, I also recommending disabling [Installing Apps]. The filter can be bypassed using apps which access the internet without the standard web-view (for example an RSS Feed Reader or digital magazine app).

Those two steps will do a reasonably good job. Using a filter instead of accountability software is one downside. The need to disable (and, crucially, re-enable) restrictions to download perfectly harmless apps is another.

Conclusion

Pornography is an issue of the heart. Like all sin, it is a matter of idolatry. Any attempt to deal with pornography without dealing with the heart will ultimately fall short of gospel change, and will end in failure or self-righteous legalism. The danger of technological solutoins is that we create an environment where pornography is a technological problem. That said, technological tools can be helpful in dealing with pornography as a way of talking to yourself. I hope that the recommendations I’ve provided can be a help to you and your family.

Note: I have received nothing in exchange for my endorsement of Accountable2You. My recommendation is based solely on my own research and experience.