The effect of porn on teenage boys and young men

[DeviTheGaelet]

Did anyone else hear the section on R5 about porn addiction the other day? They spoke to a doctor who is looking into the defects of porn on men. A study in Italy found 40% of young men were having erectile issued, of those 60% were psychologically caused ( I think those were the stats).
The doctor suggested that watching porn during adolescence is training men to be aroused by purely visual stimuli and the visual stimuli are not realistic. As a result they are not being wired to find the smells and touch of actual sex arousing. As a result they are having election issues.
He described porn as "stunt sex" and said it was creating a generation of men who's sexual relationships were with their hand and a screen rather than another person.
I found it really interesting. We talk a lot on here about the harm porn causes women and girls but I've not heard so much about the impact on boys.
I think this should be discussed in PSHE in schools. Maybe this will be the personal impact many men need to see how harmful porn can be.

Agree beachcomer. It is hate speech.

Beach, I entirely agree with you that many teens and children are not very good at making ethical decisions about sex and pornography.

So people under 18 shouldn't be exposed to pornography (by which we appear to mean largely violent and abusive sexual acts on film).

One of the main ways people under 18 are exposed to pornography is through hubs, which are widely available because adults choose to use illegal pornography.

It is not a complex moral decision for adults to chose not to use illegal pornography.

While there may also be complex moral arguments about the subjugation of women, choosing not to watch sexual violence is also not complex for most adults.

There is a very great difference between saying this is a complex area to be unpicked and saying that the average person cannot make a judgement about porn that is a. violent, b. illegal or c. both.

I mean, there's complex ethical issue and then there's crossing an ethical line and waving from a very great distance.

I haven't read all the pages here but I'd also add that porn is harmful to males of ALL ages.

Eeeww

It does seem extraordinary that no action is being taken regarding pornography. All this hardcore pornography is being accessed all the time, even by children, becoming a new normality. And in the process all sorts of damage is being done to viewers and performers. Do people not realise how many porn actresses are trafficked? Do they just not care?

All government do is once in a while make a silly, unenforceable law concerning which sex acts can and cannot be depicted. They never address the root issue of access.

Is this because politicians have friends with a vested interest in the multi-billion dollar porn industry remaining unregulated I wonder?

No, very many people do not care at all about the wellbeing of the performers.

There are some amazing posts here. I completely agree with beach, pax, qwerty, et al.

I copied some of the posts and sent them to my husband and a friend (and told them where they are from) who are anti-porn and they loved them.

I can never get my thoughts across as well as you all did, so thank you for taking the time to post such insightful and thoughtful posts.

My husband doesn't watch porn. It's 100% true, I know he doesn't because for the longest time I didn't give a fuck. It isn't a moral thing.

I cannot say this anywhere, I am not allowed. If I tell anybody that my husband doesn't watch porn I am mocked as gullible and naive. Of course all men watch porn, of course all women would hate this, of course all husbands lie to their wives about it, of course wives are stupid enough to believe them.

After typing the above out of curiosity I just Googled "porn" and hit the top link. Seriously, what is the fucking point of even caring anymore?

I showed my son age appropriate videos about the effects of porn from the age of 13 upwards for a couple of years. I did the same for prostitution and the affects on women and what led them down that path. Ditto for consent and drugs. We talked about how porn did not reflect reality and that women generally did not want that type of sex. It was embarrassing but I pretended I was unfazed and he asked loads of questions. At 16 he was in a relationship and after a few months asked about the best contraception to use as they were ready to take things forward. It would be each others first time. She talked to her mother too who took her to the doctors. They decided on the pill jointly as did not want to risk pregnancy and there was no STD risk. I was really proud of their approach and that he could talk to me, and also that it was a joint decision between them. I think tackling it head on when puberty hits is the only answer before sexual tastes get hard wired. Also explaining there's not two types of women, the ones that do "that" and the ones that are mothers, sisters, daughters etc is important.

I showed my son age appropriate videos about the effects of porn

Do you have any videos that you recommend? I have spoken to my sons about this since they were young as well, but I know for a fact that one of them clearly didn't take much notice. Videos might be a good idea because it isn't then just coming from mum.

Yep would be interested in the videos too

I'll find them and post them.