Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

Just WHO has the problem here?

[sparhawk-7 · 2/10 · 2 July 2005]

This horrible movie is ostensibly about some 16-year-old boy's fight with porn, or something. Apparently if you even once have a "LUST for BUST" you will become addicted to PORN! We are treated to scene after scene of Justin Petersen ogling at nearly fully clothed models while not pleasuring himself in any way, shape or form. Yeah, what a moron, right? And after even one night of looking at porn, he's not performing as well on the swim team and is beginning to notice CURVES on women! And then he wants to go ALL THE WAY with his Superchristian Switchfoot-listening girlfriend while he DOESN'T want to go all the way with Monica, who posts racy pictures of herself showing tiny bits of her bra to viewers on her website. I have personally been more aroused by the underwear section of the JC PENNEY CATALOG than any of the nonsensical and unbelievably lame "porn" in this movie.

But to digress from other commenters, I present to you, the reader, this conundrum: Who REALLY has the "problem" in this movie? Is it...

Justin's Mom, who obsesses over her sons desires for sexual pleasure to the point where she attempts to spy on his activities? And where a 3rd place finish in a state swim meet is so bad she refuses to cheer for her son or look at him in the face? What a great mom! (And WHY is she swimming in the SCHOOL pool during the school day? Doesn't she have a job involving computers although she has no idea how to use them?)

Justin's Dad, who goes from a total nonchalant couldn't care less attitude about Justin's desires for the...uhh...clothed....female body to the point where he becomes physically violent? This AFTER he says it's normal to want to look at these pictures? What a great dad! (As an aside, is anyone else reminded of Al Bundy by this guy?)

Justin's brother, who is apparently so stupid that he sticks a CD of porn in his underwear drawer (pssst, kid, your mom does your laundry) labeled "VIRGIN VAGINAS"? And hey, kid, stay out of your bro's room and stay off his computer. No wonder Justin's going crazy: he has NO PRIVACY FROM HIS FAMILY.

Justin's girlfriend, who is the queen of mixed signals in this movie? Oh, and after he admits he "has a problem" (which I think is his caffeine addiction, if I'm not mistaken), she pretty much refuses to help or talk to him....then says she'll help him. Uhhh...right.

The librarian (or "media assistant" if you will) who doesn't realize the "porn site" (actually it looks like something I'd see on some vain girl's xanga or livejournal) Justin is looking at in the library is MONICA'S OWN SITE who is sitting 10 FEET AWAY.

Or how about the letter-wearing seniors that jeremy befriends or his swim team teammates. Hey guys, in the showers, you make fun of the guy with the foreskin or whatever, not the guy who sends you "porn"!

Or perhaps the person with the REAL problem in this movie: Monica! This girl runs a web site of lame teases (I just can't bring myself to call it a "porn site") of herself and apparently likes to have sex in her parents' bad with her grandparents looking on from their portraits on the wall. Oh, and if some guy refuses her advances, she slams her head into the sink and beats herself up. Umm....and JUSTIN is the one with the problem?

Or perhaps the real problem is with Lifetime and the people who take this puerile garbage seriously. We are treated TWICE to scenes of a near-naked Jeremy Sumpter in all his shapely glory. Him in his underwear or tight swimpants with his naughty bits outlined for all the prepubescent girls to ogle over is arguably more pornographic than anything justin ever looks at on his computer. And at the commercials for this showing, I got treated to middle-aged women talking about having "SEX on the BEACH" in the most lurid ways possible. But it's apparently only a problem when a boy desires sexual pleasure, not women. Hypocrites.

Lifetime's Appeal to Panic is Parodical and Misinforming

[sneedy-1 · 3/10 · 23 June 2005]

This is someone's worst nightmare, be it eagle-eyed fundamentalist authoritarian parents, their wide-eyed naive offspring living in the cyber-age OR the casual Lifetime movie viewer looking for an aggravation-free evening. Lifetime has often dared to tackle modern living via their dramatic mothers-at-arms approach to parenting; but this is almost obscurely misinforming, and capable only of instilling groundless fear in overcautious mothers. Nobody really wins, Lifetime can and has done much better (see 2003's "On Thin Ice). The presentation of Lifetime films has become quite formulaic and stagnant as of late: Yesterday's A-List celeb is mother to Tomorrow's up-and-coming rising star. Drama ensues.

This type of Made-For-TV event seems beneath us as we discover the broad and careless strokes made early on. This may have worked better as a novel, since the convoluted 'my the son the sexual deviant' storyline needn't be divulged all at once. As is, it's an over-hyped production that lacked any memorable performances. Director Tom McLoughin is rather accomplished at the helm on this project; he's worked on many projects in TV and film over the past 25 years, but not one of his projects leaves a lasting impression or is worthy of owning ("Friday the 13th Part VI", anyone?). He's a capable director, generally filming with unobstructed aplomb.

It's hard to believe any film solely about teenagers addicted to porn, but these are the same two 50-year-old men writing such turgid and stagnant Lifetime films as the 'teenage sex awareness' modern flit-pieces like 'She's Too Young'[2002] and 'Odd Girl Out' [2005]. As you could imagine, it plays out as bad as you'd expect; all we learn is that teenagers are drawn to the internet like moths to a flame whenever it concerns women dancing lasciviously. We see our protagonist become increasingly addicted to pornography; he eventually becomes ostracized from his peers (like all the young counterparts in Lifetime films), initiates his mother's new authoritarian parental regime and frequently makes his father (the stereotypical 'don't ask, don't tell' permissive Lifetime dad) uncomfortable. Occasionally the young person even considers suicide as an answer to his problems, most of which are rooted in puberty.

The cast dynamic is awkward at best; Kelly Lynch is so frayed she looks literally like she's only a flat-tire away from a nervous breakdown in the breakdown lane. It's pretty disconcerting to see her resorting to such puritanical parenthood ideals in her mid-forties after a career sustained previously by so many steamy bedroom scenes. I imagine there's the need to prove she's still a capable actress, but this is not her defining moment as an actress, nor a memorable performance; this is merely histrionics, much like you'd expect when puberty and menopause collide in the dark alleys of Suburbia. *+ / ****

Oh sweet lord...

[ShanerMD · 2/10 · 30 June 2005]

I gave this movie a 2 only because a 1 would not signify the sheer comedy value of this total womynist attack on the evils of naked pictures of women, and women who use their freedoms in this country to voluntarily, and for profit, expose themselves on the internet.

These evils apparently drive this kid insane. Not pictures of naked women, for most of the movie, but pictures of CLOTHED women. May I quote Colonel Kurtz: The horror, the horror.

His mother is the epitome of a Lifetime heroine: Incredibly oversensitive, domineering, hyper-emotional(past the stereotype of the emotional woman), and absolutely traumatized by the presence of pictures of women in her house that aren't to be viewed as examples of feminist leadership. As in all Lifetime movies, the father is a dunce, because men are all pigs, right? The son gets violent after so much porn, or maybe it's the Red Bull. Or dominating mother. Or lack of a father as a positive role model. Or total repressive lifestyle imposed on him by his parents.

Hard to tell. Stick this in for a laugh if you are a normal, well adjusted individual. If not, get a six pack of Red Bull and watch it and then start the path to the destruction of your life through hotboobs.com. Don't say the movie didn't warn you.

Lifetime strikes again!

[fifi_st_michael · 1/10 · 26 July 2005]

When virgin swimmer Justin gets accepted by the popular kids, they turn him on to extremely soft-core porn, which makes him stare at girls and chug six-packs of Red Bull. Ironically, he's more naked in most of this movie than any of the internet girls he looks at so obsessively. His swimming stats suffer as a direct result, which is sad because his mother actually says that swim team is Justin's ONLY CHANCE of getting into a good school. He's only a sophomore! GEEZ! How about emphasizing academics? Help him with his homework or something. She even discourages study sessions with over-the-top virgin do-gooder Amy. No wonder Justin falls in with a "bad" crowd... This one kid, Tim, who introduces Justin to porn in the first place, delivers an Oscar-worthy performance. When he shakes Justin down in the locker room, screaming, "I'm getting perverted spam on account of you!" you really feel his pain. See, for Tim and the other jocks, porn was like a bicycle. They were okay with the training wheel phase, but latex catsuits? That's going too far! The Monica storyline is too stupid for words. Next time you see a beat-up, strung-out looking guy laying in a pile of garbage, don't just assume alcohol or drugs got him there - IT WAS PROBABLY PORN.

What Hath Playboy Wrought?

[rmax304823 · 1/10 · 28 June 2005]

Here is this perfect family -- nice Mom and Dad, clean-cut kids. The 13-year-old boy is not only a good student but a star of his high school swimming team. He's got a girl friend, Amy, who is as cute as a button, and moral too, since she won't go all the way with him. He does a lot of homework and things on the PC in his bedroom.

Enter pornography.

The boy discovers he can find pornography on the internet and meet girls of questionable values too. He arranges a date with one of them, who happens to be a fellow student, and five minutes after their first meeting -- no, LESS than five minutes -- she moves from her side of the drug store booth to sit next to him, presses his hand against her breast, and asks, "Why don't we go to my place? My parents aren't home." Well, I'll tell you. Things just go from bad to worse. This clean-cut, polite, industrious 13-year-old kid becomes "addicted to porn," as his Mum puts it. He can't stop. He neglects his clean-cut moral girl friend, he puts off studying and lies about it, his swimming deteriorates, he gets up in the middle of the night to creep with a demonic smile into the family room where his parents have moved his PC.

He somehow gets his friends' names on some email lists and they get snotty with him, slap him a little, and call him a "twisted freak" and complain that they get a lot of Spam now. He begins -- and I know this is difficult for us perfectly normal adolescent boys to believe -- he begins to dream of beautiful half-naked girls swimming around him in the pool. It gets even worse. He swipes him Mum's credit card and begins charging porn-site membership fees to her account.

Not that he's all bad, though. He finally winds up in the bedroom of this high-class slut from his high school. She jumps him on her parents bed and begins tearing at his clothes. "Can we go a little slower?" he begs. "Sure. We can go as SLOW as you like," the nubile nympho hisses. But it's no use. "This isn't how I imagined it would be," he says, disappointed and awed by the too-frank advances of this Jezebel. She throws him out, his virtue intact. I don't know how it ends. I couldn't sit through it. But anyone who is able to take "Reefer Madness" as a serious description of a social problem ought to enjoy "Cyberseduction."

As for criticisms, I wouldn't really know where to begin. I guess we could start with the generalization that every 13-year-old boy who has ever lived on the planet Earth loves to look at dirty pictures and masturbate. Also a goodly but undetermined portion of females of all ages and mature, happily married men.

It's not even arguable. I've asked everyone I've met, "Do you masturbate"? First, lots of total strangers on the street, then the nice police officers, now the other patients here at the Institute. They all say, "Sure." If that isn't "normal" I don't know what is.

When I was a kid we didn't have PCs, just the bra ads in a Sears and Roebuck's catalog. A classmate of mine was caught using one of the photos in such an add for an unintended purpose and was punished by being made to memorize Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" -- every line of it. That kid is a doctor today.

Theoretically, I suppose, it's possible to take any normal activity too far, so that it becomes an obsession. (This could be a movie about a kid who decides to eat nothing but rib eye steak -- and lots of it. He can't stop because he's "addicted to steak.") The media have been doing their level best to turn the internet into a social problem -- just as they tried to do with Satanism, hypodermic syringes in cans of Pepsi, and missing children on milk cartons.

I don't know why it hasn't taken off yet. It would seem to be fertile ground. Here we have this complicated machine which maybe the parents don't understand much about. Mum and Dad probably know there are "chat rooms" hanging around in the box somewhere, although who knows what goes on in them. Then too they must be aware of internet pornography. All they have to do is watch a movie like this, and there are a couple of them floating around.

There's no point in going on about it. It's a meretricious piece of trash designed to add to the worries of parents who are already stressed out over second-hand smoke, peanut allergies, and trans-fatty acids. I'd start to think about it, though, if my kid did nothing but watch slasher movies and play video games in which over-muscled behemoths made each other's heads explode in a shower of glee, gore and glia.

The "Reefer Madness" of online pornography!

[back2wsoc · 1/10 · 18 December 2009]

I can't spend too much time writing this review (on account that I'm laughing SOOOO hard at watching this movie at the present moment) so I'll sum it up in a nutshell: Chaste would be an extremely gross understatement of this cheesy exposé on how a model, All-American sophomore teenager (with a piously flirty c**ktease of a GF)--who is a popular swim champ--goes to a seniors' party and is introduced to the sinful demon seed of porn. This is some hilarious camp, and the emoting has to be seen to be believed. What's really sad is seeing how far Kelly Lynch, who made a great impact in 1989's "Drugstore Cowboy" (which, incidentally, treated that film's subject matter--pill addiction--with the brutal candor that this film painfully lacks) has sunk career-wise. And, ughhh...the obvious question: just how did this porn-surfing miscreant come to even exist? By procreative methods more graphic than ANYTHING in this dreck, I assure you; that's the hypocritical part. If you've ever wanted to see some G-rated porn, then this dud's for you.

*Note: One might just have to be a reefer addict to sit through this one.

The Evils of the Internet Can Destroy Children

[marcryan01 · 1/10 · 4 December 2005]

I don't think I've ever seen such a pile of Pro-Christian Right-Wing Conservative propaganda...Shame on you Lifetime! -- The basic moral of the story is that if a 16 year old boy is exposed to "internet pornography" then he will become addicted to it. He will ignore relationships and opportunities with real girls so he can stay up all night long and look at pop up ads. -- This is laughably bad. Bad writing. Bad acting. Just bad. Memorable quotes, "Internet porn destroyed my marriage." and "The Internet keeps getting scarier." -- The mother tells a close friend about her son and pornography...and they treat him like he diseased. He looks at girls in a leather bikini and the guys at his school say he's "sick." Pop-up adds "attack" the family's home computer. The main character obsesses about a high school senior that has her own provocative website...and when she offers sex to him TWICE...he decides he doesn't want to. The producers, writers and director of this movie want you to gain the opinion that internet porn is this evil, infectious thing that seeps it's way into "decent family's" homes and destroys the children. What a load of garbage. It seems like if the boy's girlfriend just gave him a little sex...there would be no issue. But instead, she talks about going to church and wanting her first time to be "magical." (Yeah, it'll be magical to watch you wince in pain and bleed all over the sheets.) The entire two hour movie avoids making any reference or suggestion or even saying the word "masturbate" which I find quite interesting given the content. I suppose they suggested the 16 year old boy either didn't masturbate or didn't know how to. Perhaps if he did...he might not have had all those sleepless nights thinking about naked girls. Sex is a natural, biological function in which curiosity should be met with education and understanding. Instead, this Lifetime movie thinks you should ignore those urges and just be "good" instead. Treat sex with the respect it deserves...instead of SHAMING those who want to explore their feelings. Stinker movie!

What the hell kind of crap is this?

[Peach_Braxton · 1/10 · 22 June 2005]

I, like many others, watched this movie because I'm a big Jeremy Sumpter fan. After giving incredible performances in "Frailty" and "Peter Pan," one has to wonder why he even bothered with this useless piece of crap. The script was lame, the story was unoriginal and unrealistic, the acting was atrocious, and the movie as a whole was just another vehicle to make young people feel ashamed to like sex. I've heard many arguments about this movie not being about masturbation, but about the horrors of addiction. If that were true, it would have helped if the writers had picked a real addiction, like some kind of chemical dependency. Being "addicted" to porn is like being addicted to a TV show: not an addiction at all, but a learned behavior that can be changed.

So what was wrong with this movie? Well, it started off with a very emotional scene of a teenage boy, bloodied and bruised, jumping into a pool, giving us the impression that his porn compulsion has led him to commit suicide. Right away, I knew this was going to be a Bible-thumping propaganda movie. Then we are introduced to 16-year-old Justin in happier times, as a rising swim star with a beautiful family, and an equally beautiful (but irritatingly religious) girlfriend. The unsuspecting dolt falls prey to the dark side when a swim mate sends him the link to a girlfriend's website, which displays her flirting to the camera and taking off her clothes. Intrigued, he starts exploring adult-oriented websites. Suddenly, he is in the throes of a full-blown obsession that quickly takes a toll on his schoolwork, swimming, and relationships. He becomes so consumed that he can't even sleep at night and relies on energy drinks to rejuvenate him.

It is hard to take a movie like this seriously, especially when our "victim" never once touches himself, and seems to be viewing rather tame material (except for the bondage, which was merely represented by leather/latex clad people). How can you even have a serious film about pornography on Lifetime anyway? Not only that, to expose the evils of smut peddling in the 21st century seems about 20 years out-of-date. Justin's mother freaking out and overreacting to finding her son looking at pictures of naked women was just hysterical. Imagine if she had caught him looking at pictures of naked men. Of course, that would have been a whole different movie.

There were also some unintentional, but very disturbing moments in the film: one is when Justin is watching his mother swim. By the way he's looking at her, it almost appears that he's checking her out. And two, the Grand Theft Auto reference. Justin's little brother sits at the dinner table, wide-eyed and catatonic after his first "porn" viewing. When the mother inquires about his behavior, Justin chimes in that he had just gotten a high score in Grand Theft Auto, to which the mother does not seem to mind at all. But, she'll be damned if she's having bikini clad girls on her son's monitor.

This movie is largely reminiscent of the early 20th century "scared straight" propaganda films renowned for being chocked full of misinformation. One that comes to mind specifically is "Reefer Madness." (Exchange marijuana for Internet porn.) Young boy was good until he became addicted to a powerful scurge (then=pot, now=porn). He ditches his uber-Christian girlfriend and hooks up with a crazy slut. Half the time, I was expecting to hear references to wild kids axing their parents to death while high on... paid porn sites.

It's rubbish, children. The fact is, porn is mainstream now. In fact, this WAS a porn movie. Jeremy spends about half of his on-screen time topless, soaking wet, and on top of two different girls. This was definitely porn for 15-year-old girls and 40-year-old pedophiles.

Woah...

[robosteve · 1/10 · 21 June 2005]

This movie was awful! I happened to be channel surfing and I caught a commercial half an hour before it came on. It was too good to be true.

I think that the people who made this movie 1) don't know much about computers, and 2) have little or no experience with porn. Astounding. While Jeremy enjoys looking at porn, he NEVER masturbates, even when he looks at it for the first time (guessing from how he looks, 17, which is entirely unrealistic). The porn in question is usually less hardcore than Sports illustrated, until he gets into bondage, which isn't the worst fetish out there.

The kids in his school reached a new level of comedy. Thete were only two black kids, and they kept showing up in the background everywhere. His swim team friends made fun of him for watching porn, and then they got mad because he somehow got their e-mail addresses on a spammer's list. They seemed to react as if none of them wanted to look at porn, although they seemed compelled to open the e-mail.

Another dumb part was that Jeremy used pay sites to get porn. Who does this? I'll tell you who: 50 year old men who have little experience with the computer.

But the pest part of the movie was the "Virgin Vaginas" CD. For those of you who haven't seen it yet: Jeremy's younger brother also gets "addicted" to porn, and for some reason he burns porn IMAGES onto a CD, then hides in in his dresser drawer, probably the worst hiding place ever.

Let me say that there are very few times when you should burn porn onto a CD. If you are, say, getting a new computer and you have a lot of videos or if you have something particularly memorable like if the man makes that Tim Allen grunting noise for all ten minutes (yes, I have it) then there might be some reason to make that CD.

However, this kid decided to burn a handful of *.jpgs onto a CD to use ON THE SAME COMPUTER! If he wanted to see these pictures again, all he had to do was copy the URLs to a *.txt and save it in some hidden place, like a game file with a title like "rules2.txt" and nobody would ever find it. It was just there to advance the plot. And what did he write of the CD? Did he leave it blank, or maybe write "Metallica" on it or just leave an "X" on it so he knows what it is? No. He writes "VIRGIN VAGINAS" on it in big, clear letters. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

Finally, I have one other problem with it: for a movie about porn addiction, there was no masturbation or sex - AT ALL. The "porn video" consisted of a woman in a lingerie outfit dancing. Dancing which would be allowed at a prom.

Nobody in this film acted the way a human being would act in real life. Jeremy pressuring his girlfriend with her bedroom door open and her mom in the next room was a good example. Who would do that? Another time was when he inserted a flash card into the computer and later it was called "hacking", or when it was implied that his swimming skills were affected because he had seen porn the night before. All of it was crap.

It was a pretty funny movie, and I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so I can put it next to "Playmate of the Apes".

Like porn, a guilty pleasure

[chapstick_101 · 1/10 · 3 July 2005]

My first-ever review! I can't believe IMDb even bothers with TV movies. My stepmom and her friend were watching this, and I overheard it while microwaving pizza, okay? Normally I would never watch Lifetime!

But what I saw of it was so dumb, I went to my room to watch it without them knowing. They were taking this movie seriously!

It's like a made-for-health-class special. This skinny swim-geek Justin makes all-state (like any kids care about swim team!), but next day, all the real jocks want to talk to him? They even decide he's cool enough for the lame porn they're into, and access to skank Monica's pathetic web-cam site. She's a senior, he's a sophomore, but hey, he made all-state swim team, so now she wants him.

What porn does to him: he blows off his church-going virgin girlfriend. He makes excuses to get out of family-rent-a-movie-night, he starts hoarding energy drinks so he can watch porn late at night (with his bedroom door open, dummy!)At swim meet, he's trying to get his porn fix on a PDA, which directly causes him to spill a drink on the floor and screw up his swim time???

Porn makes him want to go all the way with his platonic girlfriend, but later it makes him wimp out when slutty Monica tries to bag him.

Who wrote this crap? It doesn't make any sense! Justin does kind of okay keeping his free porn addiction secret, but later he charges it to his parents' credit card? Horny Monica's sitting across from him at the library, so he looks at her site instead of going for it? Hacks porn later at school? Gets caught! Duh. I smell an intervention...

The little brother gets exposed, I don't get this, first time the kid saves something it's as "a note to myself" like a 9-year old would ever write that, but next time he puts it on a disc he labels "Virgin Vaginas"; go figure. Oh right, porn makes you dumber. In just days!

And the "cool kid/real jocks" at school. They're watching pornos, getting Justin into that, but later after Justin shows one of them an"extreme" site with leather/latex FULLY CLOTHED girls, the other kid turns on him? This is one of the dumbest scenes in the movie - the guy grabs Justin, he's all angry and yells "I'm still getting perverted spam on account of you!I oughtta kick your warped *ss!" What a joke!

Since I crept off to room to see this crappy flick without anyone knowing (unlike Justin, I shut my door), I'm guessing my stepmom wonders if I'm looking at porn RIGHT NOW. Thanks a lot, Lifetime!

Best Comedy of 2005

[pcernea-1 · 10/10 · 22 February 2014]

I wonder if they made this intentionally funny. I'll bet the writers were told by their bosses to do a movie about porn addiction, and they sat around trying to come up with the zaniest plot they could imagine. How could the actors keep a straight face while saying lines like, "Pornography! I'm watching PORNOGRAPHY!"? Or: "Because you brought this pornography into our house...!"

I think the actors must've thought this was a big joke, because there are other Kelly Lynch movies (even a Lifetime one, I believe) where she does scenes which are quite R-rated.

I don't know that there's much I can say about this gem that hasn't already been said. I just want to emphasize the genius of choosing the Dad character. It's like they tried to have an uglier version of Al Bundy who hasn't taken a bath. One of the funniest scenes, I think, is when the mom (Kelly Lynch) is on his back giving him a massage. He's slovenly and unkempt while she's wearing a nice sweater. And why does he wear that shirt that's clearly too big for him if he cares enough about his appearance to wear a tie?

One observation I'd like to make: I think the Linkin' Park music knock-off reference has already been alluded to, but I think there's also a part of the movie where they rip off the intro of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears.

Sad, but watchable mainly because of that

[captgage-1 · 6/10 · 24 April 2015]

Man, this is one of the most unanimously-crucified TV movies ever! Many of the reviews make some fair enough points. That said, while it was none too subtle, this movie had me watching till the end because I kept thinking, what's gonna happen next? The extremes he goes to in the name of watching Internet porn at the expense of his real life become more and more foreboding. What it does to his relationship with his wonderful, if somewhat tight-assed, girlfriend is heartbreaking, with just a glimmer of hope. He was lucky it didn't damage their relationship more profoundly.

Part of the problem was, it was all on Justin. "Cyberseduction" carries the kind of frustration that many of the more contrived horror movies are notorious for. Most of us have likely yelled at the screen, "Don't go that way/Don't do that!" because we know someone is heading right toward the crazed slasher. Our protagonist just wasn't discreet enough due to his addiction. It's like, Close the door (more than once)! Clear the history on your girlfriend's PDA! Leave you mom's credit card alone! Haven't you ever heard of unusual activity reports?! There's plenty of FREE online porn out there! All those energy drinks will kill you if your indiscretion doesn't! The library?! Seriously?! Hellooo! Apparently the message was that Internet porn addiction makes you dumber and dumber until you can't think straight. He often doesn't, and it just makes things worse.

Can't really say much about the blatantly TV depictions of Internet porn. Most of the online models were fully clothed, and many of you thought this was a joke. What do you expect from a TV movie? If it were an FX movie, or if they've ever produced TV movies, there might have been a butt crack or two, but remember, this is Lifetime. Otherwise, many reviewers seemed to think it was a bit TOO Lifetime.

The acting has been frequently targeted too. Kelly Lynch does her best, and, let's just say that the voluptuous and pretty school slut was a solid casting choice. That at least created some sexual tension in her scenes. I always remember her last scene since I caught only the last half hour or less of this movie about 5 years ago. It showed up on Xfinity On Demand in the free movie section, and I thought the title sounded familiar. Of course, the description was the clincher.

Some reviewers have made fun of the scenes involving trying to close one porn window, only to end up inadvertently opening several more. When I was new to the Internet, I saw this enough times to be more cautious with my Internet surfing. The many reviews complaining that the writers didn't know enough about computers must have invalidated little brother Alex's lines about himself and his older brother knowing a lot about computers. Apparently, no one in the movie actually did.

Still, for a sensationalized TV movie, one could do worse. Not to trivialize the subject matter, though. In fact, those of us who found it creepy and disturbing may thank our lucky stars that not everyone who surfs Internet porn ends up this way.

Oh, this is so bad

[dawh1 · 1/10 · 22 June 2005]

It's a fact of life that we guys are hard-wired to be stimulated by visual images. Women apparently find that objectionable, but I'm tired of apologizing for being male. This movie depicts a teenage guy with raging hormones and no other outlet for his sexual energy who turns to Internet porn. He's naturally curious about the female body, and the Internet helps him explore that interest. Like all hobbies, this one can be over-indulged, and when he starts losing sleep and doing badly in school, then it's a sign that he needs to dial it back a little.

How dumb is it that he leaves his door open while he surfs the Net? Especially after being caught the first time? His father should have bought him, for his twelfth birthday, a lock for the inside of his bedroom door, and talked to him (and the rest of the family) about his right to privacy.

I don't normally watch this channel. I wonder if all of their programming is this silly.

Addicted to Lifetime?

[duncmoll · 1/10 · 2 September 2007]

Friends, I have a confession: LMN movies are SO preposterous and implausible that I can't stop watching them!!! "CyberSeduction" was my 5th straight LMN movie today...and it was the most hilarious.

STORY: Otherwise successful high school guy experiments with adult websites and immediately transmogrifies into zombied moron, saving images anywhere and everywhere, skulking around at 2:00am to peek at more sites, guzzling gallons of high-caffeine energy boosters, distancing himself from his squeaky-clean original girlfriend, dragging his poor younger brother down the same horrific road to ruin, "hacking" into the library's computer, lifting his Mom's credit card to get yet MORE "porn", lying a WHOLE lot to everyone, almost rolling with a senior class porn star, getting the everliving crap beaten out of him, and generally tying his Mom's undies in a big knot. Lifetime parents are usually always jackasses, especially dads, who are normally villains or molesters of some sort. Women are always shown as strong and in charge, albeit somewhat technologically challenged. My favorite scenes: watching the lead, Jeremy Sumpter pretend to be a fast swimmer and the porn CD that was conveniently labeled so Mom could crap in her pants when she finds it! This is a classic movie if you want to laugh your "warped #ss" off!

Holy S*it!

[jonace-2 · 1/10 · 21 February 2009]

How can this movie have a 4 star rating???? I just happened to watch this movie on TV while trying to get my son to sleep...

I must say it's the worst movie I have seen in ages....

Internet Porn Kills!!! Was the message.....

wow.... Is this movie made by any religious fanatics???? Be afraid... be very afraid....

The young boy who finds porn on the internet (or at least some sites with girls in panties and shirts..) And then starts to mess up in school, mess up at home... and mess up his relationship with his dry girlfriend... And he start swimming worse in the swimersteam to!!!

When his mom finds out you could swear that she just found out that her son has raped and killed about 100 people... based on the reaction... but its more worse than that!!! he has brought porn to there house!! and its just keep popping up!!

i thought i would see some T:s and A:s in this movie... but there was NONE!!! so now i have to go pornsurfing to see it... And after that my life will be ruined and I will have to try to kill at least myself...

You have to be having me on?

[slaine_dela · 1/10 · 4 April 2007]

Due to insomnia - must be to many energy drinks or no decent Internet porn perhaps - I found myself watching what must be the funniest movie this side of " Tell Your Children: Reefer Madness" (1939) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028346/ Seriously people, I am reading comments on here by people that seem to be taking this film seriously. This is some sort of American in-joke - right? We have a family and school so concerned about a lad watching a bit of porn and - shock horror - it is inferred that he may even be masturbating!!! And his parents and school want to send him to a therapist due to his...um...addiction? (By the way, the constant energy drinks he was taking was bloody hilarious - "this is USA TV. We'll have no direct references to masturbation here. O no. Like a Jane Austin novel when a couple ...um..consumate their relationship and a red rose is described on a table, we will just show the poor bugger drinking an energy drink.

There were moments in the this movie that could only be described as coming form a creator who has graduated form the Ed Wood School of film direction It will send you blind you know - which is oddly what I thought might have been an improvement to watching this bile of old horse poo.

A disgustingly fascinating view into Puritan America's world

[Salomoo · 1/10 · 2 November 2009]

This movie is so incredibly stupid that it defies any description. The only good and fascinating thing about the movie - the thing that actually kept me watching in disgust - is what it unintentionally shows about the people that made it and the people it was made for.

The movie portrays a world in which pornography is a super-addictive, highly dangerous drug that is the root of all evil. Due to watching porn, the protagonist's entire life is destroyed and in the end he tries to kill himself... The unintentional irony of the movie is that probably quite a few kids would indeed try to kill themselves - or at least try to run away from home - if they had parents so dumb, insensitive, controlling and puritan as the protagonist's.

Self-righteous without even disguising it

[TheEyeRoller · 1/10 · 24 November 2007]

I watched this terrible film on TV only because the plot synopsis made it sound like a genuine exploration of a wide-spread phenomenon. Little did I know that it would turn out to be nothing more than laughable, sanctimonious garbage. I get it that addiction is a real problem. But a teenage boy spiraling down to theft and deception due solely to internet porn? Give me a break. The simplistic juxtaposition between the sexy "bad girl", who, at only 18, has her own pornographic website, no less, and the virginal, church-going girlfriend is not only ridiculous, but also extremely infuriating. Naturally, the sexually active girl is also a liar and a cheat, and gets her rightful punishment, in the form of rejection. I haven't witnessed such double standard morality in ages. I wouldn't have bothered to comment on this film, but, in my opinion, it is dangerous - since what it ultimately teaches teenagers is that sex is evil, and can only lead to bad things. And that's a far cry from a supposedly realistic depiction of a serious problem. Shame on you for making such non-educational trash.

Trash

[JackRyan66 · 1/10 · 25 November 2006]

Never saw such a one-sided, stupid, prude botch. The only thing they forgot to tell is that masturbating causes blindness. But then it isn't even necessary as the main character just stares, and stares ... but let's assume the movie tries to imply he's masturbating. Let's repeat: Watching porn and probably masturbating has several consequences, for example:

• You look old and tired: Every teenager not sleeping enough looks like that. What does a typical geek look like?

• You'll fail at sports and school: Can be true, but it's not a consequence of porn, but of any obsessive behavior, computer games or sports (yes, too much training can have an impact on studies, but then we in Europe don't have a tradition of giving sportsmen and -women a free ticket through higher education) can also lead to the same results.

• You want to sleep with your GF: Hell, which teen boy doesn't want to? I would worry more if he wouldn't!

• Your friends turn against you: LOL! Usually it's more like who knows the dirtier jokes in any normal school :)

I really like the earlier comment about his small brother playing GTA. It's true, his Mum doesn't care her younger son just killed a "drug dealer" (Lesson: we don't need judges anymore). Doesn't our society have more problems with violence than with sexuality? Let's do a piece of logic (it's as wrong as this movie, but let's try). Islamic Terrorists don't watch porn, it's an affront against their religion. Ergo: NOT watching porn makes you a terrorist.

Well, all the uptight Victorian people out there will love this stupid flick.

Seductive for idiots only

[conoha · 1/10 · 14 July 2009]

It is incredible that something like this has been made in the 21st century. Firstly, the awful title initially sounds like some porn film. Think about it! Secondly, the script is so clichéd, clumsy and moralistic as to have absolutely no artistic merit whatsoever. Thirdly, the acting is wooden and terribly performed. Poor Kelly Lynch. Hard to believe how great she was in Drugstore Cowboy (1989).

I won't even bother going on about the actual plot. The creators of this have offered no original artistic voice, no real analysis of addiction, no depth to their characters and, well, no point. It smacks of cynical opportunistic filler between commercials.

If anything in this film disturbs you, it's the waste of talent, time and money.

Horrific stuff, really. All connected with it ought to be ashamed. But I bet they sleep like babies.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen.....

[zaur-2 · 10/10 · 24 July 2008]

Not just a movie mind you, but one of the funnest "things" I've ever seen... And the other user comments and the discussion board only make it all the more gut busting funny... Guy is addicted to Internet Porn... and he lusts after his mother, his religious girlfriend, and a Senior Slut named Monica who has a sexy web site... ya ya ya voom.... And she even meets him at the soda shop and lets him touch her boobie, even though she has a bad ass boyfriend who kicks our hero's ass in the end after she bangs her head and blames it on him after he can't seal the deal with her. Then when the boyfriend goes to kick his ass she's all "no no baby..." Anybody else notice that Monica the slut was played by Nicole "Dicker"? I mean if there is such a thing, and what computer guy hasn't spent the long nights in front of the Internet, most Internet porn you're looking at stuff a long long way away, probably in another country, and this guy is lucky and actually has a willing slut not only in the same town, but the same HIGH SCHOOL!!! It would have been a much better movie if it would have been about Monica's Internet sex addiction, after all she's the one with a naughty website and not just looking at porn like our boy. I was actually hoping when she hit her head and that long line of blood spilled out that she'd die and that he'd get convicted for murdering her after becoming obsessed by her naughty website; would have made a much better movie than the self-baptism that occurs instead.

And Kelly Lynch wasn't so self-righteous when she was getting it from Patrick Swazi in Road House and showing her naked "porn" body. And she goes ape over our boy's porn when his brother is playing GTA and she says nothing. Anyhow, this movie is still a great laugh if you're a slacker like me with nothing better to do.

So what is the message of this film?

[mike20955 · 6/10 · 4 July 2005]

I'm not quite sure what to make of this movie. While it is true that pornography can be addictive for some people, do all those who view porn actually end up losing almost everything in their lives? Kelly "I know I'm beautiful but I want you to view me as a serious actress" Lynch plays the stereotypical Lifetime Network mother -- tough, but also sensitive and caring. Her son, played by Jeremy Sumpter, is an overachieving and somewhat naive, but overall good, All-American kid. His girlfriend is the typical, sweet "good girl".

Sumpter runs across some softcore porn on the Internet one evening (although, truth be told, it's more like what you'd see in a Victoria's Secret catalog), and instantly, he becomes fixated on a mystery girl by the name of Monica. A closer look reveals that Monica is a little flirt who also attends his school.

So, apparently, Sumpter becomes so addicted to Monica and a host of other "porn" websites that he loses the ability to be an all-conference swimmer, an A student, and all-around model citizen. Instead, he turns into a grade A perv who stays up all night using his Mom's credit card to surf adult sites. He also decides to start downloading sexy pics into a PDA before swim meets in order to "psych himself up".

Where this film really swerves off the road is when he decides to meet Monica in-person at her home while her parents are gone. She's a curvy tease with "I'm all yours" eyes and curly tresses; but when Sumpter decides that the real thing isn't as good as the fantasy, Monica spins off into some sort of Glenn Close/Fatal Attraction/"I'm not going to be ignored" diatribe. After chasing Sumpter out of the house, Monica goes in the bathroom and intentionally smashes her head. Does she do this because she was abused as a child when she didn't sexually perform? After all, she told Sumpter that she enjoyed "getting busy" in the room with pictures of all her relatives. Are they perhaps "watching her"? Whatever the situation is, Monica is damaged goods, and she convinces her other boyfriends (which seems to be the whole swim team), that Sumpter attacked her (which he didn't). The jocks show up and teach Sumpter a lesson, while Monica gets a glazed-over, schizy look on her face.

I won't reveal any further details, but it's hard to take much of this seriously. Oh, addiction is indeed serious, but when a typical teenage boy sees a pretty young thing on the Web, or in a magazine, does he automatically became a drooling, evil, oppressive male that is so often portrayed in these Lifetime movies? Then again, the "black widow" character of Monica is a strong wake-up call to males that just because a girl is a hottie, her heart and character may be seriously flawed, and you have to be careful of who you associate with. There are plenty of Monicas in the world who file false rape reports, and intentionally deceive and hurt people like Sumpter's character.

On a final note, some have said that this movie carries a "conservative" and "Christian" message. Actually, it's more of the opposite. As usual, most of the female characters are smart and strong and generally superior, while the male characters are dumb and weak, and need to be "rescued" by women. Conservative? Try liberal with feminist overtones throughout.

Pretty bad film

[tsias · 3/10 · 23 June 2005]

This movie was so ridiculous that I actually got some enjoyment out of watching it. I saw this movie as painting a very exaggerated view of porn addiction. It seems as if they are trying to say that any porn is a bad thing and that porn itself destroys lives. This kid's experience with porn is rather atypical. Most people (including gasp teenagers) can occasionally enjoy adult material without it adversely affecting their lives.

I'll echo the sentiments of other posters who saw this movie as employing scare tactics. This script for this movie might as well have been written by the Christian Coalition or the Republican National Committee.

So freaking bad...it's almost good...it's so bad though still

[nobetter03 · 3/10 · 20 June 2005]

I hate lifetime movies, we were forced to watch them in high school health classes ugh. the only reason i saw this movie, is that i read it's plot description from a newspaper, it sounded too awful to be true. The acting in this movie is so cheesy and over-dramatic, extremely over-dramatic and wooden. The mother character was horrible, she was so dense to everything (such as how she didn't know kids could clear the computers history), the little brother was also annoying, the plugs for switchfoot...pointless. The overall message was loud and clear...porn is evil...and going to church will make everything better along with some hugs and alittle therapy (in the words of the main character, "it would be radical"). Overall an awful film, but it retains a certain so bad it's good humor.

A cybersex "Reefer Madness" - Hilarious

[brainfood-1 · 1/10 · 22 February 2009]

Hilarious. This is better thought of as something akin to a particularly bad "ABC After School Special" than an actual film. It also does for internet porn what the original "Reefer Madness" did for marijuana, meaning it is completely laughable, has a one sided, religious moral agenda, and appears to have been written by people with no first hand understanding of the subject matter. And if you have no sense of humor about this because addiction can be such serious business, then I suggest you should be angry instead at the makers of this film for producing something so unrealistic, preachy and silly.

One part that had me laughing was when our hero is berated by his fellow MALE TEENAGE teammates for being into "freaky porn" stuff on the internet. But is this film set at Liberty Baptist University and or some such puritanical environment? Nope. It's a regular school, a school where completely unrealistic male teenage boys live, apparently. Oh, and despite this aversion to porn, one of these same teammates has a psycho nymphomaniac exhibitionist girlfriend who features in the plot. Confused? Well, how about a teenage boy addicted to porn on the internet, who knows "a lot about computers" (according to his little brother) and how to get around parental lock programs and spy ware on a computer, but apparently doesn't know how to find porn on the internet WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT? And he also can't pay for it without using his Mom's credit card. But my favorite unintentionally funny scene shows Mom and Dad desperately trying to close incessant porno pop up ads on the family computer, treating it with such drama as to make you think this incident will scar them both irrevocably.

In a sickeningly transparent scene near the end, our swimmer hero porn addict tries to apologize to his girlfriend (who happens to have a prominently displayed Jesus poster in her bedroom) and says he wants to go to church. Note the ridiculous use of the word "radical," and how it is suggested that going to church is tied in with redeeming oneself (in particular how the girlfriend offers hope they will have a future, but only AFTER he says he'll go to church). And in the end when our swimmer hero plunges into the water and has his moment where he decides he "wants to live," the baptism/born again metaphor is rather thick, as is the cheesy music. And I've never seen anyone smile so soon after attempting suicide. He must be thinking of going to church. I also find it interesting that this film has so much sympathy for a boy addicted to cyber porn (maybe because he grows a conscience when faced with actual sex?) but seems to have nothing but contempt for the girl he's drawn to in his mania, even though she is apparently the same age and has not only a addiction to sex but also a mental illness. We're only supposed to like our spineless hero and the girl with the Jesus poster, I guess.