Bethel Church Pastor Richie Yagomate says some churches have joined forces to address the growing issue of pornography, which they believe is contributing to the rise in sexual crimes across Fiji.

Yagomate warns that exposure to pornography can alter perceptions, fostering harmful attitudes and behaviors.

He also highlights that children are especially vulnerable, as they can easily access explicit content online, urging parents to closely monitor their children’s internet activities.

“There’s just a lot of things that the sex industry is trying to come in to get right into the young ages, into the young kids lives, because if they can get them at a very young age, they can start influencing them when they grow up. And one of the things for us as a small nation, we’ve just got to be alert with this.”

He adds that church leaders involved in the initiative are uncovering stories linked to pornography’s negative impact and are confronting these issues directly.

“With the amount of work that we’ve seen and getting to know pastors and the things that, to hear their stories, pornography is not just affecting Bethel, it’s affecting all the churches around, and not just Christians, it’s affecting everyone and anyone, you know. And the thing about new statistics coming out shows that pornography, watching too much pornography, is linked to a lot of abusers and violence and all these other things that start popping up.”

Home of Hopes Team Leader for Communities, Inieta Benaca, emphasizes the importance of breaking the silence around issues such as pornography and sex trafficking. She calls for open discussions to promote the well-being of the nation.

“We really need to amplify, you know. We really need to shout louder if we need to. You know, there needs to be great awareness because we are crossing cultural taboo lines, whether you’re a church or you’re a civil society or you’re an NGO or the government in itself, no one can do it alone.”

In 2023, one of the country’s major internet providers reported that 626.13 terabytes of data were used to access pornographic content in the last quarter alone, this is equivalent to the information stored in 100 million books.

In response, the government has formed a task force to address this growing concern.