From Deseret News archives:

Porn is invading home, work

With sites just click away, addiction has become big concern

Published: Saturday, Aug. 7, 2004 11:27 p.m. MDT
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The first time Paul Turner tried to kill his wife, he baked her cookies laced with rat poison. When that didn't work, he cooked her spaghetti with mushrooms he believed were poisonous. On his final attempt, he put fish tank cleaner in her injected medication.

Turner told Provo police he wanted his pregnant wife dead because, among other things, she wouldn't allow him to look at Internet pornography.

On Jan. 26, supervisors at the Provo River Water Users Association suspended Louis Darrell Kinyon of American Fork from his job. At a meeting the next Monday to discuss the suspension, Kinyon, 49, flew into a rage and damaged a candy machine on his way out of the Pleasant Grove office.

Police were searching for Kinyon in the surrounding neighborhood when he returned to the building, chased co-workers outside and shot his 36-year-old boss, killing him. He then went in a bathroom and shot himself in the face.

Kinyon's suspension stemmed from "inappropriate material" found on his computer. Kinyon, who has recovered, has been charged with capital aggravated murder and third-degree felony sex exploitation of a minor.

The latter charge is related to the material found on his computer.

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It wasn't long ago finding pornography was a chore, especially in Utah. Even in big cities, buying pornographic videos or magazines required slipping into the back room of a seedy video store. Now on the Internet, in motel rooms and on pay-per-view television, porn can be just a click away.

As pornography has become more accessible, it has also become more popular. Last April, 29 million Americans viewed pornographic Web sites — there are nearly half a million of them — accounting for nearly one quarter of all Internet users, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, an Internet audience measurement and analysis agency.

Rentals of hard-core videos, which show real sex acts, soared from 79 million in 1985 to 759 million in 2001, according to Adult Video News. That's an increase of almost 1,000 percent. The porn industry now rakes in about $10 billion a year, roughly the same amount Hollywood makes on all major releases at the domestic box office.

"It's everywhere," says Rory Reid, a therapist who treats sex addicts at Provo's Gathering Place. "Some people feel like they can't escape it."

The explosion of porn, and mainstream tolerance, has created a whole new category of addicts, psychologists say. Men and women who view porn sometimes become so consumed by it they can't keep it out of the workplace.

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