Why I Use Porn-Blocking Software as a Christian Man

I am a Christian husband and father who used to struggle with the sin of looking at pornography. I haven’t looked at anything pornographic since November 4, 2021, but that doesn’t mean I’m not tempted today. That’s why I have porn-blocking software installed on all of my electronic devices (desktop PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone).

I happen to use Covenant Eyes because it works for me. Covenant Eyes is a porn blocker, also known as a porn filter. It filters out explicit content by blocking millions of explicit websites. If I enter any of these website addresses into my browser, Covenant Eyes blocks them so I can’t reach them. If I receive an email with a link in it to an explicit site, and if I click that link, Covenant Eyes blocks that, too. This is my first line of defense.

Covenant Eyes also offers custom blocking. If I happen upon a website that is not pornographic but is nevertheless inappropriate, I add it to my list of inappropriate sites. Covenant Eyes blocks my access to this site from then on. My list of voluntarily blocked sites includes 105 sites that I have added over the years. These include Twitter, Dailymotion, Flickr, TikTok, Maxim, and Instagram. Covenant Eyes also comes with Safe Search, which protects all major search engines and locks in YouTube Restricted Mode so that I cannot access any inappropriate YouTube videos.

I have Covenant Eyes installed on all of my devices for two reasons: porn is pervasive, and I am weak. Porn is always just a click away, 24 hours a day, no matter where I am in the world. It’s easy to find in seconds. And I am weak. If I see something inappropriate, I am strongly tempted to look twice, and that’s where I run into trouble. I have discovered the hard way that, if I don’t see it, I am less tempted to search for it.

Porn-blocking software protects me against seeing pornography accidently or on purpose. I can’t stay sexually pure without this software, or, at least I haven’t tried to. I know many Christian men who walk about all day with a smartphone that has no porn blocker installed. They have unlimited, unfiltered access to the worst porn in the world, right in their pocket, 24/7. I have no idea how they do that and stay sexually pure. I know I couldn’t.