Is Internet pornography the new crack cocaine?

Nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet.

In many cases, the porn sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing homework, used a seemingly innocent-sounding word to search for information or pictures". (London School of Economics, January 2002)

It is widely accepted that children should be protected from viewing unsuitable material (sex, violence etc) on TV. In the UK the '9 PM watershed' was introduced so that potentially harmful 'adult' material could not be broadcast before that time.

But no such control is applied to the vast amounts of 'extreme' Internet pornography, freely available day and night. Some parents download controls from a service provider or install blocking software in an attempt to prevent children's access to porn, but these measures cannot succeed. It is all too easy for a child from a family with these safeguards to visit a friend where no such limitations are in place.

Young children can, and frequently do, find themselves inadvertently confronted by 'teaser pop-ups' containing porn when innocently sending emails or using search engines. According to a study in England, 26 popular children's characters, such as 'Action Man' and 'My Little Pony' revealed thousands of links to porn sites. 30% of the sites were hard-core. (Envisional 2000). Enticing minors to porn sites is illegal, but this is largely ignored by the immensely wealthy international porn industry.

Neither are there any widespread effective filtering systems on mobile phones and Ipods, despite their popularity among youngsters. This has given rise to the terms "podnography" and "sexting"(sending porn in text messages). Many parents are blissfully unaware of these developments or that they are mostly used by children.

The average age of first exposure to Internet pornography is eleven, but for many it is as young as seven. One prominent porn site offers over fifty "categories" of sexual activity, including various perversions, orgies and violence towards women. No checks are in place to prevent children from seeing this material; access to it is free.

So, what's the harm?

According to Judith Coche, who teaches psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, "We have an epidemic on our hands". The menace is huge, and growing. It is estimated that the UK pornography industry makes over £1.5 billion annually - worldwide it is about $100 billion or more. Any child, boy or girl, is at risk of psychological, physical, and/or emotional, damage from watching porn. Statistics aren't easy to obtain but there is no doubt that children are far more exposed to it than ever before - and they are the most vulnerable.

It is important to realise that today's pornography is much, much more powerful than in former years. It is instantaneously available; it is more realistic and more hard core; and its consumption in the UK has increased exponentially over the past decade.

Studies show that pornography is linked to the following dangers:

Distorted sexual perceptions

For many children, their sex education is gained from porn websites. They are far too young and immature to separate fantasy from reality. Hardcore Internet material includes videos of anal and oral sex, rape (including gang rape) and bondage, and it invariably depicts women as sexual objects, commodities to be used solely for male sexual gratification. One psychologist describes it as "a brutal way to be introduced to sexuality". The messages carried in these portrayals can, and do, lead to behavioural problems and a vicious circle of isolation and unhappiness. It is natural for children to imitate things they see on porn sites and sexually act them out with other children. One piece of Italian research concluded that boys who viewed pornography were significantly more likely to report having "sexually harassed a peer or having forced somebody to have sex" (Bornino S. Et al, "Use of Pornography and Self-reported Engagement in Sexual violence among Adolescents" European Journal of Developmental Psychology 2006).

Parents, teachers, health professionals etc must wake up to what is happening in the cyberworld, which is exerting such powerful influences in our children's lives.

Addiction

Strong evidence exists that the human brain can become just as addicted to pornography as it can to cocaine, alcohol and similar substances. Research shows that neurological changes occur in the brain of a porn addict - of the same kind that occur in that of a drug addict. It becomes 'rewired' to crave more and more, and typically, graduates to more extreme material. (Donald L. Hilton Jr. "Can Pornography use Become an Actual Brain Addiction?" S.A. Lifeline Foundation, 2010). The peculiar nature of Internet porn makes addiction more likely. Many children will become addicted and never be treated, causing lifelong harm to themselves and others. It is known that children in the US as young as thirteen have been so troubled by their porn addiction that they have referred themselves for treatment.

Desensitisation

Children can become visually desensitised to the pornography shown on the Internet. They become bored with what they have seen and to seek material that they would once have regarded as taboo. (Also, see "Peer Pressure" below).

Habituation

Typically, a child who watches Internet porn may then believe that certain sexual practices are more common than they actually are. A consequence of this is that the child becomes more willing to do formerly unacceptable things "because everybody does it". 'Such behaviour was rarely associated with pornography until the Internet made its instantaneous acquisition possible at any time'. (The Social Costs of Pornography, 2010).

Peer Pressure

Whilst a larger percentage of boys than girls views online pornography, the latter are nevertheless seriously at risk. They, in a similar way to boys, are more likely to regard females, including themselves, as sexual objects, with a corresponding reduction in their self-respect.

They may be pressed to accept the concept of "f--k buddies" (having casual sex as a matter of course, without any commitment or sensitivity for their emotional needs) which, in turn, leads to hazardous sexual behaviour. There is a strong link between habitual porn consumption and anal and oral sex, with girls at greater risk than boys of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. These include bacterial vaginosis, chancroid, chlamydia, hepatitis, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV. But even where girls do not actually view Internet porn, they may be subjected, and submit, to the demands of others who have been damaged in the ways described above.

Sexual dysfunction

Studies in the fields of neurology and psychology show that those who continually visit Internet pornsites develop deep insecurity about their own sexual performance. It can reach the stage where they find real sexual interaction with a partner difficult, or even impossible, and so they turn to the self-defeating spiral of more and more, increasingly hardcore, pornography. In later life this can be devastating to their partners who find themselves unwanted and their own needs unfulfilled. Therein lies disaster. The emotional isolation brought about by addiction to porn adds to a diminished ability to relate successfully to others, including any children they may have. This has been shown to contribute significantly to marital breakdown with the consequential emotional trauma inflicted on children.

And so the cycle is established. Children of the present generation grow up, unprotected from the insidious corruption of pornography thrust upon them day after day, while adults fool themselves that it isn't really a serious problem. Tomorrow's generation, the produce of today's kids grown up, find consistent, demonstrated love mostly unavailable at a stage in their development when it is vitally important.

It is depressingly clear that, for children who have been allowed free access to the fantasy world of Internet pornography, long before they have the capacity to understand the difference between lust ("me") and love ("us"), their future is a bleak prospect.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)

Condom use is virtually unheard of in porn film-making. Children, imitating what they see, tend to follow this dreadful example and put themselves at increased risk of contracting STDs. This situation is becoming all the more worrying because a new gonorrhea 'superbug' has appeared in several countries, resistant to cephalosporin antibiotics .

"The trends are concerning because cephalosporin drugs are the fourth type of antibiotic used to treat gonorrhea since the 1940s. Resistance to penicillin and tetracycline occurred during the 1970s and became widespred during the early 1980s .... More recently, the disease became resistant to a class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones, and in 2007 the [US] government stopped recommending those drugs for gonorrhea treatment. That left cephalasporin as the last line of defence against gonorrhea". (New York Times July 12 2011). It is anticipated that it is only a matter of time before antibiotic treatment becomes ineffective. The disease may then lead to further complications, including kidney failure, inflammatory pelvic disease and meningitis.

Hollywood's porn filming industry has been shut down after an adult performer tested positive for HIV. The identity of the individual has not been made public, nor whether male or female. An industry statement said "Until we know for sure [the results of further medical tests], we've asked the industry to have a moratorium. Re-testing and confirmation is under way, as is the process of identifying and testing first- and second-generation partners [of the individual]". (The Independent. 31 August, 2011).