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Pornography Has Victims


Pornography has Victims
There are many people who believe that unfettered access to pornographic materials is both harmless and victimless in our society. A new report commissioned by the Witherspoon Institute refutes this assertion by exposing the negative impact pornography has on culture. 
The report, The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Finding and Recommendations*(see warning below), explains that we must rethink prior assumptions concerning pornography. Contributing author and licensed marriage and family therapist Dr. Jill C. Manning states, “In today’s internet-era, the debate [regarding pornography] and its core assumptions desperately need revising, if not a major overhaul, in order to address the fact that people of all ages, genders, and socio-economic groups are being exposed to and impacted [negatively] by pornography.”
After countless hours of interviews, discussions and scholarly exploration by experts in the fields of psychiatry, philosophy, sociology and others, this report identified several primary findings regarding the instantaneous accessibility of pornography and its detrimental impact to the most vulnerable members of society.
Findings:
  1. Unlike at any other time in history, pornography is now available and consumed widely in our society, due in large part to the internet. No one remains untouched by it.
  2. Empirical evidence suggests that electronically-distributed pornography is qualitatively different from historic pornography: Pornography is everywhere, the use of increasingly realistic streaming images, and the increasingly “hard-core” nature of what is consumed is pervasive.
  3. Today’s consumption of internet pornography particularly harms women.
  4. Today’s consumption of internet pornography particularly harms children.
  5. The consumption of internet pornography definitely harms its consumers.
  6. The fact that not everyone is harmed by pornography does not mean that pornography should not be regulated.
The experts agree that pornographic consumption – particularly consumption of hard-core, violent imagery – has extensive negative effects on the culture. Psychological addiction adversely affects the quality of marital relationships, sexual health, and performance and individual expectations regarding sexual behavior. 
In addition, Dr. Mary Anne Layden, director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania further explains how “[Pornography] functions as a teacher, a permission-giver, and a trigger of these negative behaviors and attitudes. The damage is seen in men, women, and children, and to both married and single adults.”  It involves some behaviors that are both pathological and illegal.
The report recognized the severity of pornography’s impact and provided five recommendations to mitigate its consequences. While the experts are not in agreement on the recommendations, they nonetheless agree that a multi-faceted approach is needed to effectively reduce the social harms caused by the consumption of pornography. 
Recommendations:
  1. The therapeutic community needs to expand its knowledge-base on the impact of pornography use and its additive nature, and further study the connection between pornography and prostitution.
  2. Educators, teachers, journalists, editors, and bloggers should learn the causes and implications of pornographic viewing and use their spheres of influence to educate the public regarding the dangers of pornography.
  3. Pop-culture icons and celebrities should use their influence to discourage the glamorization of pornography within the music and movie industries. The report also suggests creating a public service and education campaign as an option.
  4. Government should encourage internet service providers to create servers that exclude all obscene and pornographic material; or encourage service providers to police their servers by directing penalties to those who produce obscene material. The authors also suggest government entities should create a public campaign against pornography, which would require “adult” or obscene material to display a warning about the addictive nature of pornography.
  5. State Legislatures should create legal remedies that permit parents of children exposed to obscene material an ability to sue pornography providers. 
The report thoroughly discusses empirical evidence, provided by leading experts, showing how the rise in the consumption of pornography is harmful to American society. The expert co-signers of the report all agree that the prevalent nature of pornography, as a result of the internet, has created serious problems for society and is detrimental to family life. Experts also agree that people of all beliefs and political and societal backgrounds must become aware of the research and cooperate to combat pornography’s distribution.

* Warning: The content of the report contains graphic language, please consider before sharing with children.
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