Morality in Media [MIM] is reporting that adult porn adversely affects children. This report is needed since, among other reasons, many public libraries need to be reminded why they should not allow legal porn on the Internet computers. Besides, as
US v. ALA points out, it is perfectly legal to block legal pornography from public libraries. Yes, that case is about libraries that accept certain federal funding, but the principles remain true even if funding is not at issue.
Here is a MIM press release about the report, then possibly related links of my own authorship, then the full article referenced in the press release.
MIM Press Release
NEWS RELEASE from MORALITY IN MEDIA, INC.
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1264, New York, NY 10115
Contact: Robert Peters 1-212-870-3210
MIM paper shows that online exposure to adult pornography adversely affects children’s sexual behavior and attitudes
NEW YORK (January 13, 2010) – Morality in Media has published a 10-page paper reporting evidence that exposure to hardcore adult pornography on the Internet can adversely affect children’s sexual behavior and attitudes about sex. The evidence includes published observations of clinical psychologists, police and prosecutors, educators, rape crisis professionals, social workers and others, as well as social science research.
The paper is the second MIM publication in recent months exposing the connection between adult pornography and harm to children. The paper is a complement to “How Adult Pornography Contributes to Sexual Exploitation of Children,” a 215-page report published in September 2009. Both the paper and report are posted at www.obscenitycrimes.org (“Porn Problem & Solutions” and “Help for Parents” pages).
The January paper, “Harm to Children from Online Exposure to Hardcore Adult Pornography,” asserts that when it comes to the Internet in the United States there are “at present NO legal safeguards to protect children from exposure to pornography, and in large measure we can thank the Supreme Court itself for this tragic state of affairs.”
The paper continues, “In 1997, the Supreme Court invalidated a law intended to restrict children’s online access to content that is ‘indecent.’ In 2009, the Court also refused to review a lower court decision which had invalidated a law intended to restrict children’s online access to sexual content that is ‘harmful to minors.’ Today, if a child were to walk into an ‘adult bookstore,’ he would normally be told to leave...But if that same child were to ‘click’ to most commercial websites that distribute adult pornography, he could view hardcore adult pornography free of charge and without restriction, because when it comes to cyberspace, the courts think parental use of filters is an adequate solution to the problem.”
The January paper adds, “But it isn’t just the Courts who are to blame for the failure to protect children from exposure to Internet pornography. Congress, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI also share responsibility...Under the Bush administration there were successful prosecutions against online commercial distributors of hardcore adult pornography, proving that obscenity laws can be enforced. But these prosecutions were too few and far between to effectively deter online distribution of hardcore adult pornography. Since the 2008 presidential election, the Justice Department (including the FBI) has not initiated any new adult obscenity cases. Furthermore, Congress hasn’t uttered a peep about the lack of enforcement.”
MIM’s January paper addresses this question:
“What then are the consequences of our nation’s failure to protect children from online exposure to hardcore adult pornography? Common sense should inform us that when children are exposed to graphic depictions of adultery, bestiality, bondage, excretory activities, group sex, incest, prostitution, pseudo child porn, rape, sexual murders, teen sex, torture, and unsafe sex galore, their attitudes about sex, their sexual desires and their sexual behavior can be influenced for the worst. The evidence compiled in this paper supports that assessment...”
Published reports cited in the January paper ran under such headlines as these:
In the general press
Five-Year Olds ‘Are Imitating Net Porn’
This is your kid’s brain on Internet porn; it can disrupt normal thought processes…
Mothers urge action on child-against-child sex abuse
The Pornification of a Generation
Web is blamed for 20% leap in sex attacks by children
Young rape offenders on the rise
Psychiatrists consider impact of Internet pornography
Violent Pornography blamed for turning boy aged 14 into a rapist
Teenage Rape: The hidden story
Porn gave kids know how to assault their friends
Net helps children start sex attacks
Many sex offenders begin young
Web skews sex education, U.S. psychiatrist warns
In academic and professional publications
Pornography use as a marker for an aggressive pattern of behavior among sexually
reactive children & adolescents
The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth
Adolescent pornographic Internet site use: A multivariate regression analysis of the
predictive factors of use and psychosocial implications
Early Sexual Experiences: The Role of Internet Access and Sexually Explicit Material
Web Pornography’s Effect on Children
Characteristics of young children with sexual behavior problems: A pilot study
The January paper concludes:
“It has been said that exposing children to hardcore adult pornography is a form of child abuse. There is truth in that...Those responsible for this abuse include Internet pornographers that allow children to view hardcore adult pornography free of charge and without proof of age. Those responsible also include prosecutors and law enforcement agents who have turned a blind eye to the proliferation of obscene materials on the Internet, and Congress for failing to hold the Justice Department and FBI accountable for their failure to...enforce federal Internet obscenity laws.”
Morality in Media, Inc.
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1264
New York, NY 10115
1-212-870-3222 Phone
1-212-870-2765 Fax
mim@moralityinmedia.org
http://www.moralityinmedia.org
http://www.obscenitycrimes.org
MORALITY IN MEDIA, INC is a national, [501(c)(3)], interfaith organization established in 1962 to combat obscenity and uphold decency standards in the media. It maintains the National Obscenity Law Center, a clearinghouse of legal materials on obscenity law. MIM operates the ObscenityCrimes.org Web site, where citizens can report possible violations of federal Internet obscenity laws to Federal prosecutors. Donations are tax-deductible.
Possibly Related Blog Posts
See also these blog posts of mine:
Republication of MIM's Research on Porn's Harm to Children
For convenience, here is a republication of the paper named in the press release above:
Harm to Children from Online Exposure to
Hardcore Adult Pornography
By Robert Peters
President of Morality in Media January 2010
Introduction
In Paris Adult Theater I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 57 (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court held that there are “legitimate [governmental] interests at stake in stemming the tide of commercialized obscenity, even assuming it is feasible to enforce effective safeguards against exposure to juveniles.” [Italics added] In other words, even if we were to succeed in shielding children from exposure to hardcore adult pornography on the Internet and elsewhere, the federal and state governments would still be justified in enforcing obscenity laws.
When it comes to the Internet, however, in the United States there are at present NO legal safeguards to protect children from exposure to pornography, and in large measure we can thank the Supreme Court itself for this tragic state of affairs. In 1997, the Supreme Court invalidated a law intended to restrict children’s online access to content that is “indecent.” In 2009, the Court also refused to review a lower court decision which had invalidated a law intended to restrict children’s online access to sexual content that is “harmful to minors.”
Today, if a child were to walk into an “adult bookstore,” he would normally be told to leave, because it is against the law to sell pornography to children in real space. But if that same child were to “click” to most commercial websites that distribute adult pornography, he could view hardcore adult pornography free of charge and without restriction, because when it comes to cyberspace, the courts think parental use of filters is an adequate solution to the problem.
Moreover, most children can access the Internet outside the home at a school, library, friend or relative’s house, at a job or via a mobile device (e.g., laptop or cell phone); and all it takes is one child in a group of friends to have unrestricted access to the Internet for all to have access.
But it isn’t just the Courts who are to blame for the failure to protect children from exposure to Internet pornography. Congress, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI also share responsibility.
In 1996, Congress amended two sections of the criminal obscenity laws [18 USC 1462 & 1465]
Witnesses appearing before the COPA Commission testified that distribution over the Internet of obscene material…and harmful to minors material continues to grow in a troubling manner. Law enforcement resources at the state and federal level have been focused nearly exclusively on child pornography and child stalking…
Specifically, the Commission recommends that Government at all levels fund aggressive programs to investigate and prosecute violations of obscenity laws…This investigation and prosecution program should supplement the Government's existing effort to investigate and prosecute child sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and child pornography…Such a program should be of sufficient magnitude to deter effectively illegal activity on the Internet.
Despite this recommendation, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI continue to focus almost exclusively on child pornography and child stalking. Under the Bush administration there were successful prosecutions against online commercial distributors of hardcore adult pornography, proving that obscenity laws can be enforced. But these prosecutions were too few and far between to effectively deter online distribution of hardcore adult pornography. Since the 2008 presidential election, the Justice Department and FBI have not initiated any new adult obscenity cases. Furthermore, Congress hasn’t uttered a peep about the lack of enforcement.
What then are the consequences of our nation’s failure to protect children from online exposure to hardcore adult pornography? Common sense should inform us that when children are exposed to graphic depictions of adultery, bestiality, bondage, excretory activities, group sex, incest, prostitution, pseudo child porn, rape, sexual murders, teen sex, torture, and unsafe sex galore, their attitudes about sex, their sexual desires and their sexual behavior can be influenced for the worst. The evidence compiled in this paper supports that assessment; and make no mistake about it, many, many children are being exposed to this vile material on the Internet.
Statements from experts
Staff reporter, “Five-Year Olds ‘Are Imitating Net Porn,’” Daily Mail (London), 11/20/09 (“Children as young as 5 are imitating sex acts at school because they are being allowed to stay up late and watch pornography, a senior MP has warned… Barry Sheerman, chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee…blamed… pornography that could easily be watched by children on satellite channels and over the Internet. He said…‘You go to infant schools now and teachers say to me: “Children come here at 5 and 6 simulating sexual behavior that they should know nothing about.’”...Earlier this year a survey warned that teenagers said they had learned about sex from pornography. Nearly nine out of ten 14 to 17-year olds had looked at graphic images and nearly one in five viewed them more than once a week, according to research for Channel 4's The Sex Education Show Vs Pornography.”).
P. Marshall, “Generation sexting,” Daily Mail (London), 3/18/09 (“Like a real porn star, Becky is heavily made up and lying naked on the bed as the camera flashes. She could be just another glamorous model as she poses provocatively with practiced moves. But she isn't. Shockingly, Becky is just 17...She's filming herself in a friend's bedroom… Becky has not been coerced into this degrading behavior. She is posing on her own, taking photographs of herself not for profit -- but for attention. Welcome to the deeply alarming new world of privileged British teenagers who have a growing obsession with pornography...As a mother of three daughters aged 15, 14 and 12, I am well aware of the pressures children face online... My guide into this disturbing universe was a pretty A-level student. I'd come to talk to her and a group of sixthformers -- boys as well as girls -- at their prestigious school about the impact that watching pornography may be having on today's youngsters. I certainly was not prepared to hear they were also producing it... Even taking into account the obvious fact that teenagers are prone to exaggeration, it became alarmingly clear to me that most of these teenagers were not exaggerating their involvement with pornography. ‘Everyone makes porn -- more people than you would expect,’ an articulate sixth-former told me matter-of-factly...”).
J. Sullivan, “This is your kid’s brain on Internet porn; it can disrupt normal thought processes…” Oregonian, 12/12/08 (“‘A lot of parents are still clueless and don't appear to understand one of the primary uses of the Internet is pornography access,’ says Eric M. Johnson, a clinical psychologist and full-time forensic evaluator…The problem is that some kids confronted with pornography are captured by the images…Johnson said. Half his caseload consists of kids in trouble for sexual behavior who mainly use the Internet to view pornography. ‘For them it becomes something very different, and they become obsessed. They think about it all the time and they do it, and so it begins to dominate their lives.’”).
S. Garfield, “Porn addicts, sex offenders, rapists, pedophiles…,” Observer (London), 11/23/08 (“Increasingly, perversion is not just a problem for adults. In a basement room [of London’s Portman Clinic] I met John Woods, a specialist in young people’s perversions…When he trained as a psychotherapist he began working with boys who had committed sexual offenses…His patients range in age from 9 to 21, and the majority are male…The clinic’s most recent survey of adolescent referrals showed that ‘sexually inappropriate behaviour’ dominated the caseload, with more than 50 percent of patients committing some form of sexual assault… [I]ncreasingly, Woods has found that Internet pornography is almost as serious a problem for adolescents as for adults. ‘I do think it has profoundly corrupting effect on youngsters, and leads them into all sorts of wrong thinking, sex is instantly available, all these glamorous people…’”).
G. Lower, “Mothers urge action on child-against-child sex abuse.” Weekend Australian, 10/18/08 (“Dianne thought she was doing the right thing when she picked up the phone to report what had happened at school to her little boy…Dianne’s son had been confronted improperly by a fellow 5-year-old in a school toilet. The case has triggered impassioned debate over what is to be done about so-called ‘sexualized’ intrusions on children, committed not by adults but by other youngsters. Such incidents are becoming increasingly common, according to Freda Briggs, one of the nation’s top experts on child protection…Professor Briggs attributed the sexualisation of children to ‘a more highly explicit society than 10 years ago.’ ‘There’s much more sex on TV, (Children are) accessing the Internet...,’ she said. ‘What we are seeing is the replication of pornography, sex abuse or where they (children) have seen sex. We’re paying a high price for sexual freedom; our children are being damaged.’”).
J. Bennett, “The Pornification of a Generation,” Newsweek, 10/7/08 (“Last year, the American Psychological Association put out a compelling report that described the sexualization of young girls… ‘It's not as if we get our ideas straight from porn about what a kiss should be or what sex should be,’ says Sharon Lamb, a psychologist…and a coauthor of the APA report. ‘But you do see imitation of sex that was once found only in porn. It's a kind of education to kids about what sex is like before they have a real education of it.’ That education involves seeing thousands of explicit sexual images by the time a person reaches his teenage years...”).
E. Landau, “When sex becomes an addiction,” www.cnn.com, 9/5/08 (“A lot of teenagers develop their sexuality with pornography and then discover that relational sex isn’t as satisfying, Doug Weiss [therapist and executive director of the Heart to Heart Counseling Center] said. Pornography gives them a ‘very strong chemical hit,’ and alters ways of thinking about sex…”).
H. Neill, “Male sex addict cases ‘increase,’” BBC Radio, 1/10/08 (“Christine Lacy, Relate Sex therapy consultant, said those with sex addiction problems felt their lives were: ‘spiraling out of control.’ She said…‘Relate counselors working with teenagers have reported that the instant availability of pornographic images on the internet and mobile phones has worrying implications for their ability to have normal sexual relationships as they grow up.’”).
“Web is blamed for 20 per cent leap in sex attacks by children,” Evening Standard (“This is London,” UK), 3/3/07 (“Internet pornography was blamed yesterday for a dramatic rise in the number of sex offences committed by children…Experts said the behavior of youngsters was being changed by ready access to sexual imagery…A shocking 143 cases involved 12-year-olds... Kevin Gibbs, co-chair of the charity's sexually harmful behaviour group, said the Internet had let everybody access pornography more easily...He added: ‘Five or ten years ago it would have been time-consuming and involved...money. But these days it's easy to access pornography online and it's also often free. A child can get at these images within five minutes...’”).
T. Sheehan, “Young rape offenders on the rise,” Columbus Dispatch (Ohio), 7/12/06 (“An apparent jump in the number of youngsters accused of raping other children is concerning local authorities. Three boys ages 11, 12 and 14 were in...Juvenile Court this week facing delinquency rape counts in separate cases involving children who are all younger than 10. Last year, juvenile authorities handled 33 rape cases, with 12 involving defendants between 11 and 13 years old…Assistant County Prosecutor Melinda Seeds thinks easy access to pornography through the Internet and elsewhere is a factor in the number of youthful offenders. The average age for juvenile rape offenders has been 14 or 15, she said. ‘I think we are going to see it get worse. What we are seeing is pornography. Some parents have it in their homes. Everybody with a computer has it’ available, Seeds said.”).
M. Chalmers, “Juvenile sex offenders treated same as adults,” News-Journal (Wilmington,
DE), 4/22/06 (“Juveniles make up a third of people charged with child sexual abuse in Delaware and nationwide…About 60 percent of juvenile sex offenders have been abused and are acting out what happened to them, [Marc] Felizzi [who counsels juvenile sex offenders at the nonprofit Delaware Guidance Services for Children and Youth], said. Others may be exposed to pornographic pictures or videos, while some may have seen adults having sex, he said…‘Sex to them is an object they see on TV or in a picture.’”).
R. Jenkins, “Violent Pornography blamed for turning boy aged 14 into a rapist,” Times
(London), 3/24/06 (“Susan Baily, professor of Child and Adolescent Forensic Mental Health..., believes that it is important for parents to monitor what images their children are exposed to, especially with the increasing number of TV and computer screens in most homes. She said: ‘The work I have done on children who have killed, committed sexual offenses or other crimes suggest that exposure to pornography is a factor. It is certainly well documented in the literature. You find that they model themselves on what they’ve seen…’”).
Staff Reporter, “Teenage Rape: The hidden story,” Irish Times, 7/9/05 (“When a children’s support agency revealed this week that it had been asked to help deal with ‘many cases’ of gang rape among teenagers during the past year, even rape crisis professionals were taken by surprise...‘We are very concerned that more and more boys are accessing their sex education from pornography,’ says Fiona Neary, [Rape Crisis Network of Ireland] executive director. ‘Yet there are no programs to combat these messages from pornography, and other media, which are now very powerful…’ Teenage Tolerance, a survey of 14- to 19-year-olds conducted by Women’s Aid, found that 94% of teenage boys and 68% of teenage girls have seen pornography, mostly at friends’ homes...Young men in particular see pornography a major source of information about sex,’ states the report. One teen interviewed confessed to having sexually abused a younger child as a direct consequence of viewing pornography, while another said that pornography had taught him how ‘to have better sex.’”).
P. Paul, Pornified, Henry Holt & Co., 2005, p. 188 (“Watching pornography, kids learn that women always want sex and that sex is divorced from relationships. They learn that men can have whomever they want and that women respond the way men want them to. They learn that anal sex is the norm and instant female orgasm is to be expected. ‘Kids today are going to run into pornography online...,’ explains [psychologist and sex therapist] Aline Zolbrod...‘They’re getting a very bad model. Pornography doesn’t show how a real couple negotiates conflict and intimacy.’ For girls especially, Zolbrod believes pornography, particularly online, is a ‘brutal way to be introduced to sexuality,’ since much of it she deems ‘rape-like’ in its use of violence.”)
Testimony of M.A. Layden, Hearing on the Brain Science Behind Pornography Addiction, Subcommittee on Science, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, U.S. Senate, 11/18/04 (“Pornography…is an equal opportunity toxin…It is more toxic the more you consume, the ‘harder’ the variety you consume, and the younger...the consumer.”).
S. Clairmont, “Porn gave kids know how to assault their friends,” Hamilton Spectator (Canada), 3/25/04 (“They were children, acting out the pornography they had seen. One boy was 12. He learned it from watching cable TV and clicking on pornographic ‘pop-ups’ on the Internet. Another boy was 13. He watched it on cable and the Net. The girl was about the same age. She saw it on TV. All imitated the pornography they had witnessed, engaging in acts that police say went far beyond any normal sexual experimentation that might occur at that age... Since last summer, Hamilton police have conducted three investigations into children who have been exposed to porn and then used their newfound knowledge to sexually assault other children...The actions of these three youths is more likely the result of misguided experimentation and imitation than deep-rooted deviance, says Dr. Steven Hucker, head of forensic psychiatry at McMaster University and an expert in sexual psychopathology. Children with ‘growing minds’ who are on the cusp of puberty and are exposed to pornography might become desensitized to it and begin to think that is normal behavior, said Hucker.”).
J. Johnston, “The boy rapists...,” Mirror (London), 3/10/04 (“The youngest member of this group is just 6 – barely capable of tying his own shoe laces, yet somehow old enough to have committed the most serious of sexual offenses…All are here for a reason most will be unable to fathom: they have raped. One of the 7-year-olds raped his 3-year-old cousin. Another forced himself on a neighbor, barely more than a baby. Another sodomised a fellow pupil in school...Shaheda Omar is…a psychologist, an expert in child sex abuse. The courts turned to her when they realized the number of pre-pubescent rapists, too young to be prosecuted, was reaching terrifying proportions…‘Look, this is happening,’ she says firmly…She adds: ‘It is happening every day, in every part of South Africa. Boys are raping, and they are not waiting until they are 18 to start. They are getting younger and younger...‘What we are seeing is new,’ she says. ‘We are in the middle of an epidemic’…‘Children are seeing explicit sex on TV, and without parental control to explain and put it in context’...‘A lot of children make references to pornography and this is deeply worrying. Some are obviously simply copying what they see.’”).
C. Kim, “From fantasy to reality: The link between viewing child pornography and molesting children,” Child Sexual Exploitation UPDATE, American Prosecutors Research Institute, Vol. 1, No.3, 2004 (“Sexual predators frequently use pornography as a tool to assist them in the grooming process. ‘Grooming’ is the term used to describe the process by which child molesters build trust with the child to transition from a nonsexual relationship to a sexual relationship in a manner that seems natural and nonthreatening…Ultimately, the seemingly healthy relationship is only a farce used to take sexual advantage of a vulnerable child. Child molesters use both adult pornography and child pornography in the grooming process, albeit for different purposes…. Repeated exposure to both adult and child pornography is intended to diminish the child's inhibitions and give the impression that sex between adults and children is normal, acceptable and enjoyable….”).
N. Wallace, “Net helps children start sex attacks,” Sydney Morning Herald, 11/26/03 (“Internet pornography was helping to spawn a new generation of sexual predators as young as six, child protection experts warned…There had been an alarming increase in children under 10 sexually abusing other children over the past few years, most of whom had used the Internet specifically to browse porn sites, the Child At Risk Assessment Unit based at Canberra Hospital said. Cassandra Tinning, a social worker at the unit, said abusive behaviour by children included ‘oral sex and forced intercourse with other children or forced intercourse with... animals.’”).
R. Benson, “Will glut of online porn create more young sex offenders?” Citizen Magazine, 11/02 (“Although law enforcement and mental health professionals are reluctant to say that pornography causes sex crimes, most seem to name it as one of numerous, complex, related factors that serve as precursors to sexual offending… ‘The Internet just scares us to death,’ said David Flowers concerning the flood of online porn. Flowers is a 28 year veteran with the Utah Division of Youth Corrections…Flowers, who has focused his work on juvenile sex offenders...says he is already beginning to see the edge of a disturbing trend with more teenagers regularly talking about such perversions as necrophilia, bestiality, ritualistic mutilation. Pornography that features such obscenities is easily found on the Internet…A specialist in the treatment of adolescents who commit sex offenses, Dr. Jacqueline Page [University of Tennessee Special Problems Unit in Memphis], also sees the Internet as an important emerging issue in dealing with child-on-child sex offenses. Particularly disturbing to her is the high probability of adolescents accidentally encountering porn while surfing the Internet. ‘It sends the message of acceptability,’ she says, which could desensitize a teen towards sexual violence…”).
M. Becker, “School sex attacks frighten kids, parents,” N.Y. Daily News, 10/14/02 (“A kindergartner is beaten and sodomized by a gang of boys in the bathroom of his Bronx school. Two weeks later, a 12-year-old boy is jumped by 4 other boys as he crosses the playground of a Brooklyn middle school. He escapes after they try to violate him with a wooden stick… Fondling is the most common assault. ‘You have guys walking down the hall and grabbing girls' breasts,’ said Dr. Elissa Brown, a child and adolescent psychologist at the NYU Child Study Center. Experts agree that most sexual abusers learn the behavior at home…Kids who commit sexual attacks often can watch anything they want on TV, have easy access to pornography, or have been repeatedly exposed to their parents' sex lives, Brown said.”).
J. Henley, “Pornography forms French children’s views on sex…,” Guardian (London), 5/25/02 (“Concern that French children’s attitude to sex is being warped by early exposure to pornography was exacerbated yesterday when eight adolescent boys were placed under formal judicial investigation for the rape of a 15-year-old classmate. Details of the alleged crime...
emerged the day after the publication of a survey estimating that nearly half of France’s children
had seen an adults-only film by the time they were 11…Most of the teenagers said they watched pornography ‘to find out about sex,’ and nearly 40% said the films – almost invariably watched at home or at friends’ houses while parents were out or asleep – had taught them something useful. Benoit Felix, who runs an AIDS hotline for teenagers…said, it had become ‘patently obvious’ that the majority of questions adolescents asked the hotline’s staff were inspired by the pornography they are watching. ‘They want to talk about sodomy, threesomes, group sex, gang rape, bondage,’ he said. ‘The language they use is that of the porn world’...Michela Marzano, a philosopher and psychologist, said it was becoming increasingly difficult not to relate French children’s increasing exposure to pornography to the recent surge in cases of teenage collective rape… ‘Porn does not recognize that the other person might have a different urge to yours.’”).
K. Kelleher, “Birds and Bees; With teens and Internet sex, curiosity can become compulsion,” L.A. Times, 4/15/02 (“I had a boy who was 16 and he would be looking at pornography with his 12-year-old sister and he would turn to her and say, ‘Let’s try this,’ said [Chris] Kraft [a psychologist at the John Hopkins University Center for Marital and Sexual Health, Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit]. ‘Adolescents aren’t always ready to deal with such things. Being exposed to explicit information can speed up sexuality of adolescents who, we know, are sexually active earlier and earlier.’”).
S. Gilbert, “A Conversation with Lynn Ponton: An Expert’s Eye on Teenage Sex, Risk & Abuse,” N.Y. Times, 01/15/02 (“Teenagers open up to Dr. Ponton, a professor of psychiatry...‘I see boys who are addicted to sex sites on the Internet that show sadistic behavior toward women. It affects those boys' sexual lives...’”).
J. McConnaughey, “Psychiatrists consider impact of Internet pornography,” AP, 5/9/01 (“Do Internet porn sites warp adolescents? There’s no data to tell but the question needs study, said psychiatrists on an American Psychiatric Association panel titled ‘Voyeurism in the New Millennium: A Prime-Time Obsession?’ ‘The potential of seeing hundreds of thousands of such images during adolescence – I have no idea what that could do. But I can imagine it must be profound,’ said Dr. Norman E. Alessi, a University of Michigan psychiatry professor.”).
H. Marcovitz, “Many sex offenders begin young,” Morning Call (Allentown, PA), 4/26/01 (“For weeks, a boy constantly nagged his female classmates. His desire was for oral sex. He was in first grade. Two girls tied up a classmate, removed her clothes and threatened to sodomize her. One girl is 6, the other 7. Those cases didn’t cross the police blotter... But social workers got involved, which means the files landed on the desk of Robert Cosner, executive director of the Bucks County Children and Youth Social Services Agency...In each of the cases Cosner cited, evidence showed the children got their behavior from various media. The boy seeking oral sex had been exposed to pornographic videotapes, he said; in the case of the two girls who tied up their classmate, social workers believe pornography also was involved...Clearly, he said, the children shouldn’t have been exposed to pornography.”).
Dr. Victor B. Cline, “Pornography’s effects on adults and children,” Morality in Media, 2001 (“Some of my porn addict patients inform me that the Internet has three major advantages in feeding their...sexual illnesses. They call them the three ‘A's’: It's easily Accessible, Affordable, and Anonymous...I have had boys in their early teens getting into this wasteland with disastrous consequences. They told me they actively search for porn on the Internet, keying in on such words as sex, nudity, obscenity, pornography, etc. Then, once they have found how to access it they go back again and again, just like drug addicts.”).
M. Conlon, “Web skews sex education, U.S. psychiatrist warns,” Reuters, 5/16/2000 (“‘I’m very concerned about children,’ Donna Woods of the Univ. of Michigan said, adding that easily accessed pornography was portraying sex as a public event, disconnected from commitment. It also offers a smorgasbord of aberrant behavior...‘There is going to be a big public health issue…,’ Woods told a session at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. She said she had treated a teen-age boy who had become a zoophile through various websites that caused him to spend 16 hours a day on the Internet without eating or bathing…”).
Social science research
E.M. Alexy, et al., “Pornography use as a marker for an aggressive pattern of behavior among sexually reactive children & adolescents,” J. Am. Psychiatr. Nurses Assoc., 14, 442-453, 2009 (“Moreover…few studies investigate pornography use among sexually reactive children and adolescents (SRCAs), sometimes referred to as juvenile sex offenders...The purpose of this study was to examine pornography use among SRCAs as a possible risk marker for the development of an aggressive pattern of behavior…Specifically, we found that SRCAs who used pornography compared to those who did not use pornography were more likely…to engage in coerced vaginal penetration and forced sexual acts such as oral or digital penetration, to express sexually aggressive remarks (obscenities) and to engage in sex with animals.”).
A. Tsitsika, et al., “Adolescent pornographic Internet site use: A multivariate regression analysis of the predictive factors of use and psychosocial implications,” CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12, 1-6, 2009 (“The present study assessed emotional and psychosocial characteristics related to [pornographic Internet sites] PIS...In contrast, frequent PIS use, which reflects the adoption of PIS as an information source for sexual role models and behaviors, was associated with significant maladjustment regarding [Greek] adolescent conduct and social behavior.”
Y.K. Fulbright, “FOXSexpert: How teens really feel about pornography,” FoxNews.com, 1/22/09 (“One study, conducted at Malmö University in Sweden and published in 2006, answers many of the questions parents have about youth porn consumption…While sizing up youth porn consumption, investigators found three main uses for it:… 2. It’s a ‘reliable’ information source. Youth learn new things from porn -- for example, tips on different positions... 3. It’s an inspiration for sexual excitement... Another 2006 study, which examined the porn perceptions of 1,776 Danish, Norwegian, and Fenno-Swedish 12- to 20-year-olds, had interesting findings as well… Half of the participants, mostly boys, thought that porn could improve their lives….”).
C. Sabina, J. Wolak & D. Finkelhor, “The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth,” CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11, 691-693, 2008 (“Overall, 72% of participants (93.2% of boys, 61.1% of girls) had seen online pornography before age 18…Most exposure began when youth were ages 14 to 17, and boys were significantly more likely to view online pornography more often and to view more types of images...Girls were significantly more likely than boys (42.3% of girls; 6.8% of boys...) to report never looking for pornography on purpose...Some boys had repeated exposure to pictures of sexual violence.”).
S. W. Kraus & B. Russell, “Early Sexual Experiences: The Role of Internet Access and Sexually Explicit Material,” CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11, 162-168, 2008 (“Results discovered males with Internet access during the ages of 12 to17 reported significantly younger ages for first oral sex compared to males without Internet access. In addition, male and female participants with Internet access, between the ages of 12 and 17, reported younger ages for first sexual intercourse compared to participants without internet access.”).
T. DeAngelis, “Web Pornography’s Effect on Children,” Monitor on Psychology, 38, No. 10, Nov. 2007 (“Because all published studies about the influence of Internet porn on teen attitudes are correlational, researchers can't say for sure whether access to Internet porn causes certain attitudes and behaviors, emphasizes Jochen Peter, PhD, a communications researcher at the University of Amsterdam. But he and colleague Patti M. Valkenburg, PhD, are finding some intriguing links. In one study surveying 471 Dutch teens ages 13 to 18, the researchers found that the more often young people sought out online porn, the more likely they were to have a ‘recreational’ attitude toward sex -- specifically, to view sex as a purely physical function like eating or drinking...In the study...the team also found a relationship between porn use and the feeling that it wasn’t necessary to have affection for people to have sex with them...In a related study...the Dutch team found a link between the type and explicitness of sexual media the teens saw and their tendency to view women as sexual ‘play things.’ The more explicit the material viewed, the more likely young people were to see women in these ways -- and Internet movie porn was the only media type to show a statistically significant relationship, they found.”).
B. Betkowski, “Rural teen boys most likely to access pornography, study shows,” Express News (Univ. of Alberta, Canada), 2/23/07 (“Though being curious about sexually explicit images may seem a natural part of early adolescence, pornography is a major presence in the lives of youth, said [study author] Sonya Thompson, a masters graduate student at the University of Alberta …‘We don’t know how we are changing sexual behaviors, attitudes, values and beliefs by enabling this kind of exposure.’…Other study findings show that the majority of students [ages 13-14] surveyed, 74%, reported viewing pornography on the Internet…”).
V. Lo & R. Wei, “Exposure to Internet Pornography and Taiwanese Adolescents’ Sexual Attitudes and Behavior,” J. Broadcast. Electron., June 2005 (“This study examines use of Internet pornography by Taiwanese adolescents…The results also indicate that Taiwanese adolescents used Internet pornography more frequently than traditional pornographic sources…Further, the exposure to Internet pornography relates to greater acceptance of sexual permissiveness and the greater likelihood of engaging in sexually permissive behavior.”).
J. F. Silvosky and L. Niec, “Characteristics of young children with sexual behavior problems: A pilot study,” Child Maltreatment, 7, 187-197, 2002 (“The present study was designed to systematically investigate the sexual behaviors, abuse history, adjustment, and social environment…of young children (ages 3 to 7 years) referred to treatment due to [sexual behavior problems]…17 (46%) children had seen naked adults on TV, 13 (35%) had seen sexual intercourse on TV, 10 (27%) had witnessed their parents in sexual intercourse, 17 (46%) had seen naked adults, 12 (32%) had bathed with an adult…”).
G.M. Wingwood et al., “Exposure to X-rated movies and adolescents’ sexual and contraceptive-related attitudes and behaviors,” Pediatrics, 107, 1116-1119, 2001 (“Between Dec. 1996 and Apr. 1999, 522 single, black females 14 to 18 years old participated in the study. Exposure to X-rated movies was reported by 29.7% of adolescents…In this study, adolescents exposed to X-rated movies were more likely to have attitudes non-supportive of STD/HIV prevention, to engage in STD/HIV sexual risk behaviors, and to engage in contraceptive risk practices…These adolescents were more than twice as likely to have a strong desire to conceive and were more than one and a half times as likely to test positive for Chlamydia.”).
K. Kurtis, “Sex Offenders Younger, More Violent,” Associated Press, 6/9/07 (“Courts have seen the number of sex offense cases involving juvenile offenders rise dramatically in recent years…and treatment professionals say the offenders are getting younger and the crimes more violent…Experts say certain trends emerge among the cases of children charged with sex crimes against other children. Many estimates range from 40% to 80% were molested themselves. And 42% have been exposed to hardcore pornography, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a 2001 report.”).
E. Benedeck & C.F. Brown, “No excuses: Televised pornography harms children,” Harvard Rev. Psychiat., 7, 236-240 (1999) (“The main possible effects of TV pornography that must concern us as clinicians, educators, and parents are modeling and imitation of language heard and behaviors observed…; negative interference with children’s normal sexual development…; stimulation of premature sexual activity; development of unrealistic, misleading, and/or harmful attitudes toward sex and adult male-female relationships; and undermining family values with resultant conflict between parents and children. Much more research is clearly needed on this topic. Because of the ethical and procedural problems surrounding research on children exposed to pornography, ideal research designs may never be possible…”).
Conclusion
It has been said that exposing children to hardcore adult pornography is a form of child abuse. There is much truth in that, especially when children are repeatedly exposed to pornography. Those responsible for this abuse include Internet pornographers that allow children to view hardcore adult pornography free of charge and without proof of age. Those responsible also include prosecutors and law enforcement agents who have turned a blind eye to the proliferation of obscene materials on the Internet, and Congress for failing to hold the Justice Department and FBI accountable for their failure to vigorously enforce federal Internet obscenity laws.
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