The case of former New Zealand Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming has drawn widespread attention. His guilty plea for possessing objectionable publications, including child sexual exploitation material and bestiality content, has triggered an unprecedented move by the New Zealand Police Commissioner to audit 12 months of internet use for every senior officer. The audit includes the Commissioner himself, his deputies, assistant commissioners, district commanders, and others in positions of authority.
This response acknowledges the scale of the breach. When someone at the highest level of policing misuses public resources in this way, it shakes confidence in the integrity of leadership. Internal reviews have already uncovered further misconduct among staff. More investigations are underway.
Although this incident occurred abroad, it mirrors a pattern familiar across Samoa and the wider region. Cases involving inappropriate digital behaviour, sexual misconduct, and abuse of position have surfaced across public service, politics, and community leadership. The problem is not isolated. It is growing.
Filthy content is accessible to everyone and the world is normalising it
Today, everyone carries a device in their pocket capable of accessing anything. People sit, wait, rest, and travel with their eyes fixed on their phones. All forms of content, good and bad, are delivered directly to the individual without effort.
Access to explicit material is not only easy; it is constant. Social media, advertising algorithms, and unfiltered platforms push sexualised images to people without them asking for it. Filthy content no longer hides in the dark corners of the internet. It sits openly in the palm of every hand.
This is only one part of the problem.
The deeper issue is normalisation.
Society has reached a point where explicit imagery is treated as harmless entertainment. What used to be a secret vice is now a public, daily experience. This shift in attitude erodes self-discipline and weakens the boundaries that once protected individuals from their own impulses.
The Carnal Mindset is not new but technology has magnified it
The behaviour we see today is the modern form of an ancient problem. Long before smartphones, Christ described the people of His time as an adulterous generation. Human weakness has not changed. What has changed is the speed, frequency, and volume with which temptation is delivered.
The Carnal Mindset describes a mental state where sexual imagery, fantasy, and appetite dominate the inner world. It forms when a person repeatedly feeds their impulses. Over time, the appetite becomes identity. The inner world becomes polluted. And the actions eventually follow.
A fall from honour does not begin with the scandal.
It begins with the thoughts a person entertains daily, alone and unseen.
Leaders fall privately long before they fall publicly
A person in authority does not collapse on the day their misconduct is exposed. The collapse happens over months and years, when their private life becomes inconsistent with their public responsibilities. A leader who feeds a carnal mindset will eventually act according to that mindset.
This is why scandals often come as a shock to the public, but not to the individual involved. They know what they have been feeding inside themselves. Their fall is the natural result of their inner world.
Authority cannot protect anyone from the consequences of their private habits.
Power does not cleanse the mind.
Uniforms, titles, and ranks do not erase internal weaknesses.
Leadership demands discipline, clarity, and honour — qualities that come from a clean mental world, not from public status.
Samoa is not exempt from this pattern
Samoa has seen cases of misconduct from individuals in positions of influence, where private indulgence led to public disgrace. The tools may be modern, but the pattern is the same. The accessibility of explicit material and the collapse of internal boundaries have created a generation vulnerable to dishonour.
The cultural shield of shame — once a strong protector — has weakened. Shame used to remind people of family honour, reputation, and community responsibility. Today, the screen replaces the village. The feed replaces the elders. And shame loses its force in the digital world.
Once shame fades, discipline collapses behind it.
Identity is now shaped by feelings instead of discipline
Modern society encourages people to define themselves by what they feel. When the world pushes sexual imagery constantly, it turns sexual appetite into identity. The daily focus on intercourse and fantasy influences decisions, relationships, and self-perception. This contributes to wider confusion around sexuality and gender, as the mind becomes shaped by desire rather than clarity.
A mind ruled by appetite cannot lead with stability.
A mind defined by impulse cannot serve with integrity.
A clean mindset is the foundation of honour
This opinion is not about moral condemnation. It is about mental discipline. People do not have to define themselves by their impulses. The mind can be trained to rise above appetite. It can be shaped toward clarity, purpose, service, and contribution.
A clean mind creates honourable leadership.
A polluted mind leads to collapse.
Clearing the inner world is not about rejecting humanity. It is about recognising that sexual thoughts, when fed daily, become a controlling influence. They distract, distort, and weaken judgement.
Those in positions of influence must guard their minds deliberately. Honour is impossible without inner discipline. A leader’s greatest protection is not policy, audit, or institutional oversight, but the state of their own mind.
Media reports the fall but society must address the cause
Journalists will always cover the collapse of individuals in power. That is expected. But the deeper work belongs to society: understanding why these collapses occur, why they are increasing, and what it takes to prevent them.
The McSkimming case is not just a story about misconduct.
It is an example of what happens when a human mind is not guarded in a world filled with temptation.
The real issue behind every scandal is simple:
A polluted mind cannot produce honourable leadership.
A clean mind is the beginning of service, clarity, and trust.
This is the message individuals, leaders, and communities need to understand as the world continues to change and temptations become more accessible than ever before.
