Writer: Joan Yakubu
(200Level student, Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). Internship with New Telegraph Newspaper)
Pornography depicts erotic behavior in pictures or writings, intended to cause sexual excitement or arousal
FACTS ABOUT PORNOGRAPHY
Pornography influences everything from teens’ language and frame sexuality, to how and why they pierce certain body parts, to what they expect to give and receive in intimate relationships.
“Although prevention is needed, social change is needed even more to combat the normalization of demeaning, harmful sexual images. It is obvious that this change will be difficult to implement given the rapid and pervasive impact of internet related technology,” noted Prentky et al. 2010
Pornography is moving from an individual and couples problem to a public health problem.
“In-depth interviews with 458 Cambodian children 12.5 – 17.5 years old found that not only does pornography have a strong impact on the behaviors of the children who view it, but on other children as well, due to increased levels of physical and verbal sexual harassment of girls, and the general increase in sexualized discourse among children.” (Fordham, 2006)
According to Michael Flood, pornography is a poor sex educator. Most pornography is too explicit for younger children; most shows sex in unrealistic ways and neglects intimacy and romance. Most pornography is sexist and some is based on eroticses violence.
Shelley, an ex-porn star, founder and president of The Pink Cross Foundation, is reaching out to adult industry workers offering emotional, financial, and transitional support for those who want out of porn.
She also provides help for those struggling with pornography and victims of pornography.
She said: “I have been working with adult industry workers since 2002, when I began volunteering as a teacher and counselor at local rescue missions and prisons in the State of California. My team and I currently work with hundreds of people struggling with pornography addiction in the Pink Cross Foundation Help Forums.”
She further said: “ In my daily work of assisting women and men recovering from the pornography industry as well as those struggling with pornography addiction and gathering research over a period of several years, I have learned significant facts to prove that pornography industry is causing severe secondary negative effects on adult industry workers as well as the general public, which is involuntarily exposed to pornography, especially children, whose average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old.”
It is estimated that there are 4.2 million porn Web sites—12% of the total amount of sites—allowing access to 72 million worldwide visitors monthly.
One-quarter of the total daily search engine requests, or 68 million, are for pornographic materials.
According to ComScore Media Metrix, 71.9 million people visited adult sites in August 2005, reaching 42.7 percent of the Internet audience.
Adult film performers engage in prolonged and repeated sexual acts with multiple sexual partners over short periods of time, creating ideal conditions for transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
At the same time, condom use is reportedly low in heterosexual adult films. These practices lead to high transmission rates of STDs and occasionally HIV among performers.
Porn addiction is considered a behavioral addiction that is characterized by an ever-growing compulsion to view pornographic content or material. In the past, a person suffering from an addiction to pornography would primarily satisfy his or her craving for pornographic content by viewing or storing pornographic videos, magazines, and photos.
Now, the tools available to feed a porn addiction have since evolved thanks to the internet and other technologies, allowing anonymous access to unlimited pornography at all levels of explicitness.
The internet, a range of others means, such as social media and smart phones, now enables and increase porn addiction by providing an outlet to view pornography anywhere and at any time. These devices allow you to store and view porn in higher volumes than ever before, leaving little or no visible physical evidence of your porn use.
Symptoms of porn addiction:
Unable to stop using porn or stop engaging in the behaviors associated with porn, despite repeated attempts to do so. Experiencing cravings to view porn, much like substance users report feeling strong urges to use drugs; porn addicts can experience strong urges to view porn.
Becoming angry, hostile, or irritable when asked to stop using porn. Porn addicts may deny their porn viewing or be upset when loved ones request that they stop.
Keeping all or part of one’s porn use secret from loved ones. Porn addiction has been shown to lead to increased secrecy in relationships.
Feeling as though one is living a double or secret life because of porn use. A person with a porn addiction may feel guilty or ashamed and work hard to hide his or her porn viewing from others.
Continuing to view porn despite negative consequences, such as broken relationships or a job loss. Relationships where one partner is addicted to porn can lead to a reduction in intimacy, emotional distance, reduced sexual satisfaction, and an overall poorer quality of relationship.
CONSEQUENCES OF PORNOGRAPHY
Pornography is the theory and rape is the practice. Pornography significantly contributes to child abuse, rape, violence against women, drug abuse, and broken relationships, among others. From shrinking the brain to sabotaging relationships
It can even lead to acting out what one views in pornography as well, which may be deviant and degraded. It also leads to masturbation.
SOLUTIONS
You need to want to quit watching porn.
The first part to quitting porn is you really have to want to quit porn. You need to be sick and tired of porn and the sickness that it causes you in order to quit.
You have to be willing to try a different way.
You have to be willing to do things you haven’t done before. To quit, you have to give up what you’ve been doing and do what you have to do.
You need to be brutally honest with another person.
You have to tell someone else about your struggle and desire to get free. This person may be a male friend, your wife, a person of clergy, a life coach, or a 12-step group person. Somebody has to know the truth about your porn usage for you to get and stay free.
You need to get rid of all your porn.
You have to get rid of the porn you have. Throw away the discs, magazines, anything you have used as pornography, and make sure to dump and clean out your computer.
You also need to block porn from coming in.
If you have people sending you compromising e-mails, block them. Unsubscribe from porn websites. You may have to decide if credit cards are a problem.
As a youth, especially if you are in school, porn can because a distraction, leading to academic failure.
First Published 2017
