eGuide Archives: Educator Abuse

Kids and Pornography

Each year about 40 percent of teens and preteens visit sexually explicit sites either deliberately or accidentally, studies here and abroad show.  In a study in the February, 2007 Pediatrics (Vol. 119, No. 2, pages 247–257), for example, attorney Janis Wolak, psychologist Kimberly Mitchell, PhD, and sociologist David Finkelhor, PhD, director of the University of New Hampshire's (UNH) Crimes Against Children Research Center, found that 42 percent of a nationally representative sample of 1,500 Internet users ages 10 to 17 had been exposed to online porn in the last year, with two-thirds reporting only unwanted exposure.  In fact, the incidence of unwanted exposure has risen for this age group, from about 26 percent between 1999 and 2000, to 34 percent in 2005, the team has found.  APA monitor here

The two-thirds figure is important because while filtering software probably won’t stop a determined teen from finding pornography on the internet, it will help reduce accidental and incidental exposure.  That is important because accidental and incidental exposure, when repeated over time, helps desensitize children and makes them more susceptible to the allure of pornography.  (For more on online safety, including internet filtering options, visit eguide vol1_iss1)

In a study of convicted child molesters, 77 percent of those who molested boys and 87 percent of those who molested girls admitted to the habitual use of pornography in the commission of their crimes.  Besides stimulating the perpetrator, pornography facilitates child molestation in several ways.  For example, pedophiles use pornographic photos to demonstrate to their victims what they want them to do.  They also use them to arouse a child or to lower a child's inhibitions and communicate to the unsuspecting child that a particular sexual activity is okay:  "This person is enjoying it; so will you."  Protect Kids.com

This process of preparing a child to become a victim of molestation is called “grooming” and pornography plays an integral part in it.  (More on that next week.)

The statistics on pornography addiction are startling.  internet-filter-review statistics here

• Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography
• Every second - 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography
• Every second - 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines

Internet pornography is the new crack cocaine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction, according to clinicians and researchers testifying before a Senate committee in 2004.  Wired.com story here

Witnesses before the Senate Commerce Committee's Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee spared no superlative in their description of the negative effects of pornography.

Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy, called porn the "most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today."

"The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors," Layden said.  "To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it--it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind."

Pornography addicts have a more difficult time recovering from their addiction than cocaine addicts, since coke users can get the drug out of their system, but pornographic images stay in the brain forever, Layden said.

Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist and advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality echoed Layden's concern about the internet and the somatic effects of pornography.

"Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance," Satinover said.  "That is, it causes masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids.  It does what heroin can't do, in effect."

Similar to someone with a chemical or substance addiction, porn addicts tend to replace important relationships and commitments with Internet sex or other forms of porn.  Sexual Recovery Institute story here  Non-Internet porn addicts can be found in places like strip clubs and adult bookstores, but it is unlikely that they have a strip club addiction or an adult bookstore addiction, but rather that they have consistent and compulsive sexual problems that appear in a variety of settings.

Pornography addicts tend to isolate themselves when engaging in their sexual acting out.  They can typically spend many hours or even days lost in online images and experiences.  Some also lose time to Internet addictions such as online fantasy games and/or gambling sites.

Reminder of the week:  Research shows that two thirds of children 10-17 who are exposed to pornography on the internet were exposed accidentally.  Many porn sites are misspellings of popular children’s websites like Disney and Barbie.  If you haven’t already moved your computers to a public part of the house, such as a kitchen or a family room, DO IT NOW.  Talk to your children about pornography and the dangers associated with it, and let them know that sometimes they might come upon it without seeking it out.  It is important for your children to understand that you, as a parent, know that some exposure is accidental before they will tell you (or show you) when they have been accidentally exposed.