Ethics & Religion
Column #1,971
May 30, 2019
The Addictive Nature of Pornography
By Mike McManus

"Until 2002, the incidence of men under 40 with erectile dysfunction was around 2-3%," said Mary Sharpe of the Reward Foundation. "Since 2008, when free-streaming high-definition porn became so readily available, it has steadily risen.

"Porn is changing how children become sexually aroused," she added. And it is happening "at an age when they're most vulnerable to mental health disorders and addictions. Most addictions and mental health disorders start in adolescence."

According to a British newspaper, "The Guardian, "Up to a third of young men now experience erectile dysfunction."

The phenomenon has grown so common that it has a name, "Porn-Induced Erectile Dysfunction (PIED)

The Guardian quotes an instructive video, "Adolescent Brain Meets High-Speed Internet Porn:" "Instead of wiring his sexual arousal to real people, today's adolescent is often found in front of a screen, and he's wiring his brain's sexual circuits to being alone in his room, to voyeurism, rather than participation."

One young man quoted in the video, says "Alien is the word I'd use to describe how it felt when I tried to have sex with real women. It felt artificial and foreign to me. It's like I've gotten so conditioned to sitting in front of a screen masturbating that my mind considers that to be normal sex, instead of real actual sex."

The scale of the problem is daunting. Dr. Donald Hilton, a professor at the University of Texas Medical School, wrote an article, "Pornography: Fueling the Fire of Sexual Toxicity:"

"It's everywhere. Pornhub, the second most visited site on the net, had 92 billion people visit in 2016, enough for 12.5 videos for every person in the world! It has become the primary mode of sexual education for teens and even preteens now, with many teens having seen having seen sexual intercourse including between more than two people."

He adds, "This unloading of toxic sexuality on humanity is damaging those who view it and is addictive to those who continue to use it."

Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, in a statement delivered to a U.S. Senate committee, argued, "It is as though we have devised a form of heroin 100 times more powerful than before, usable in the privacy of one's own home and injected directly to the brain through the eyes. It is now available in unlimited supply via a self-replicating distribution network, glorified as art and protected by the Constitution."

Fortunately, the movement to fight porn has won some battles. The Utah Legislature recently declared that "Pornography is a Public Health Hazard." Four other states have passed similar resolutions and 15 more are considering it. The Utah law cited 45 pieces of evidence of porn's harm. For example, it noted that the average age of exposure to porn is 11-12, prompting these young kids to want to engage in risky sexual behavior.

When Pat Trueman led the fight against obscenity for the Reagan and Bush I Administrations, he got 120 convictions in five years. Reuben Sturman, a giant porn promoter, went to jail as did all 20 major pornographers.

However, there have been no prosecutions for decades under more recent Democratic and Republican Presidents - Clinton, Bush II, Obama or Trump. Yet Federal law clearly labels obscenity to be illegal.

The evidence is clear that today's hardcore porn is significantly linked to increases in sexual violence, along with decreased brain matter for regular users. Harm is acute in areas of the brain used for motivation and decision-making and sexual dysfunction is on the rise. Porn alters the pathways of the brain and actually reduces grey matter or intelligence.

A December 2014 survey reported that most young men aged 21-31 did not want to marry because pornography was meeting their sexual needs!

No wonder the marriage rate has plunged!

Even more alarming, a 2003 study reports that 56% of divorces involve the addiction of one spouse to pornography. Undoubtedly, that percentage has grown over nearly two decades since the study.

In fact, users of porn are 300 times more likely to have an affair, reports one study.

Proverbs 6:27 warns "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?"

Pat Trueman now leads the National Center for Sexual Exploitation (https://endsexualexploitation.org), and has organized a Coalition To End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit for June 13-15 at Dulles National Airport. To learn more, call 202 393-7245.

Join the battle to fight the porn plague!

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Copyright (c) 2018 Michael J. McManus, a syndicated columnist and past president of Marriage Savers. To read past columns, go to www.ethicsandreligion.com. Hit Search for any topic.