Category: Pornography

Research indicates that consuming porn can normalize sexual objectification, which can have profound consequences in the ways porn consumers view and treat others. Sexual objectification occurs when people perceive others as sex objects rather than complex human beings deserving of dignity and respect. In fact, in a review of research on sexual violence, two leading experts called sexual objectification the “common thread” that connects different forms of sexual violence.

As few as 1 in 3 and as many as 9 in 10 porn videos depict sexual violence or aggression. That’s especially concerning, considering that research indicates that these sexually violent narratives can bleed into consumers’ attitudes and behaviors.

Judge Andrew Tam said at sentencing that because Mark Keenan’s child porn collection was not large, his case was different from others. A Canadian judge declined to give a man caught with child pornography on his electronic devices jail time and instead placed him under house arrest because he said the man’s porn collection was “relatively modest” in size.

Have you ever watched a movie and thought, “That is not what happens in real life.” When people watch movies or TV shows, they expect some reflection of reality. Even though they know what they’re seeing is fake. Human brains seek realism and logic in content, despite entertainment media like movies being for entertainment, not education. Hollywood rarely ever cares about informing viewers more than getting money from them.

Sex trafficking shares a variety of symbiotic connections to pornography. Even in the production of mainstream porn, sex trafficking can still occur—and it happens more often than most people think.

As the amount of pornography produced increases and becomes more normalized, the intensity of the degradation it portrays does, too.

The issue of pornography and whether it is a benign or malignant influence on society has been a persistent and controversial topic in American society since at least the emergence of Hugh Hefner and the Playboy “philosophy” in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As the sexual revolution of the 1960s progressed, pornography became a part of the revolution’s public relations campaign. Porn’s detractors were caricatured as “prudes” and uptight, religious bigots who wanted to repress healthy sexual expression.

There has been a fundamental shift in the public debate on pornography over the past decade. In 2017, I took the affirmative side in a radio debate with a queer studies professor on the question “Is pornography inherently harmful to society?” Much of what I highlighted then—the normalization and mainstreaming of sexual violence, pervasive porn addiction beginning in preadolescence, the consequent inability to engage in or even understand healthy intimacy—is now the position of panicky government officials from the U.K. to France.

Financial sextortion is the fastest-growing cybercrime against youth in the U.S., and predators are specifically targeting teen boys. Learn how this blackmail scam works, how it’s tied to online culture, and how to protect yourself and others.