Peep Behind the Curtain – the Impact of Pornography What is the scope of the issue? Research of popular pornography films found that 88% of the scenes- not just the movies, but the scenes in these movies- there was verbal and physical aggression, usually toward a woman. The more interesting finding is that 95% of the time when someone is violent with another person in porn, usually a man toward a woman, the recipient is shown as either liking that violence or having no objection. Ana J. Bridges, “Pornography’s Effects on Interpersonal Relationships,” in The Social Costs of Pornography, eds. James R. stoner and Donna M. Hughes (Princeton, NJ: Witherspoon Institute, 2010), doi: 10.1177/1077801210382866 Researchers coded 269 mainstream videos that were uploaded to PornHub between 2008 and 2016. PornHub was chosen because it is one of the world’s top adult websites and the 36th most visited site on the internet in 2017, with more than 81 million daily visits. Pornhub reports that in 2016, people watched 4.6 billion hours of pornography on its site alone; 61% of visits occurred via smartphone. In 2017 alone, Pornhub got 28.5 billion visits. That’s almost 1,000 visits a second, or 78.1 million a day—way more than the population of the entire United Kingdom. That number has since jumped to 33.5 billion site visits in 2018. Pornhub, “Pornhub’s 2016 Year in Review,” (2016). Eleven pornography sites are among the world’s top 300 most popular Internet sites. The most popular such site “xvideo”, at number 18, outranks the likes of eBay, MSN, and Netflix. According to a recent Pornhub blog post, mobile web traffic has grown a staggering 1424% since 2010. Jonathan Marciano, “Top 300 Biggest Websites: Based on Both Mobile and Desktop Data for the First Time!” Similar Web (July 19, 2016), https://www.similarweb.com/blog/new-website-ranking (accessed July 24, 2019). www.strandsquared.com July 2019 1 As an estimated $97 billion a year global industry, pornography is one of the most popular forms on entertainment across every major media platform. Last year, the internet’s top free porn site received over 28.5 billion visits, and in 2016, streamed 4.3 billion hours of pornography to its users. In 2016, 91,980,225,000 videos were watched on Pornhub. In 2018, that number jumped to more than 109,012,068,000. That’s over 14 videos watched for every person on the entire planet. Also, more than 5,517,748,800 hours of porn were watched on the site in just 2018. That’s equal to 629,880 years of content consumed in 1 year, on one porn site. Pornhub, “Pornhub’s 2018 Year in Review,” (2019). Brain Impact: Harm to Young Brains: A survey of 813 U.S. teens and young adults (13–25), found that 26% of adolescents aged 13–17 actively seek out pornography weekly or more often.¹ Research has demonstrated that children are more susceptible than adults to addictions and to developmental effects on the brain.² 1: Barna Group, The Porn Phenomenon: “The Impact of Pornography in the Digital Age,” (Ventura, CA: Josh McDowell Ministry, 2016). 2: Frances E. Jensen with Amy Ellis Nutt, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guild to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults, (New York: Harper Collins, 2015); Tamara L. Doremus-Fitzwater, Elena I. Varlinskaya, and Linda P. Spear, “Motivational Systems in Adolescence: Possible Implications for Age Differences in Substance Abuse and Other Risk-Taking Behaviors,” Brain and Cognition 71, no. 1 2010):114–123. Studies of the brain and pornography come from investigating brain scans. In one experiment, the brains of men were scanned while they viewed porn. When neurologists looked at their brain scans, men’s brains reacted to women as if they were objects not people. Mary Eberstandt and Mary Anne Layden, “The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations” (Princeton, NJ: The Witherspoon Institute, 2010). www.strandsquared.com July 2019 2 Porn is fantastic at forming new, long-lasting pathways in the brain. In fact, porn is such a ferocious competitor that hardly any other activity can compete with it, including actual sex with a real partner. Park, B. Y., et al. (2016). Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports. Behavioral Sciences, 6, 17. doi:10.3390/bs6030017; Volkow, N. D., Koob, G. F., & McLellan, A. T. (2016). Neurobiological Advances from the Brain Disease Model of Addiction. New England Journal of Medicine, 374, 363-371. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1511480; Love, T., Laier, C., Brand, M., Hatch, L., & Hajela, R. (2015). Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update, Behavioral Sciences, 5(3), 388-433. doi: 10.3390/bs5030388; Voon, V., et al. (2014). Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviors, PLoS ONE, 9(7), e102419. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102419; Hilton, D. L. (2013) Pornography addiction—a supranormal stimulus considered in the context of neuroplasticity. Socioaffective Neuroscience and Technology 3. 20767. doi:10.3402/snp.v3i0.20767; Wang, Y., Ghezzi, A., Yin, J. C. P., & Atkinson, N. S. (2009). CREB regulation of BK channel gene expression underlies rapid drug tolerance. Gene Brains Behavior, 8(4) 369-376. doi:10.1111/j.1601-183X.2009.00479.x; Angres, D. H. & Bettinardi-Angres, K. (2008). The Disease of Addiction: Origins, Treatment, and Recovery. Disease-a-Month 54: 696–721. Porn can actually overpower the brain’s natural ability to have real sex. As porn creates the perfect conditions and triggers the release of the right chemicals to make lasting changes in the brain. Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. (104) New York: Penguin Books Like other addictive substances and behaviors, porn activates the part of the brain called the reward center, triggering the release of a cocktail of chemicals that give you a temporary buzz. Negash, S., Van Ness Sheppard, N., Lambert, N. M., & Fincham, F. D. (2016). Trading Later Rewards for Current Pleasure: Pornography Consumption and Delay Discounting. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(6), 698-700. doi:10.1080/00224499.2015.1025123; Voon, V., et al. (2014). Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviors, PLoS ONE, 9(7), e102419. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102419; Pitchers, K. K., et al. (2013). Natural and Drug Rewards Act on Common Neural Plasticity Mechanisms with DeltaFosB as a Key Mediator. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(8), 3434-3442. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4881-12.2013 Volkow, N. D., Koob, G. F., & McLellan, A. T. (2016). Neurobiological Advances from the Brain Disease Model of Addiction. New England Journal of Medicine, 374, 363-371. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1511480; Pace, S. (2014). Acquiring Tastes through Online Activity: Neuroplasticity and the Flow Experiences of Web Users. M/C Journal, 17(1). Retrieved from http://journal.media- culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/773 www.strandsquared.com July 2019 3 Porn and Violence NOTE: this does not include the body of knowledge around the people featured in porn videos as experiencing violence and/or human trafficking. We are still compiling that data. Correlated to Male Sexual Objectification of Women and Attitudes Supporting Violence against Women: Among collegiate men, frequency of exposure to men’s lifestyle magazines, reality TV programs that objectify women, and pornography, predicted more objectified cognitions about women and stronger attitudes supportive of violence against women. Paul J. Wright and Robert S. Tokunaga, “Men’s Objectifying Media Consumption, Objectification of Women, and Attitudes Supportive of Violence against Women,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 45, no. 4 (2016): 955–64. Pedophile Culture: The “teen” porn category has topped porn site searches for the last six years. Pornhub, “Pornhub’s 2018 Year in Review,” (2019). The most common female role stated in porn titles is that of women in their 20’s portraying teenagers. 2013, Millward conducted the largest personal research study on the Porn Industry in the U.S. He interviewed 10,000 porn performers about various aspects of the business. There are over 100 studies showing that pornography use is both correlated with and is the cause (shown through experimental studies) of a wide range of violent behaviors. Over 50 studies show a strong connection between pornography and sexual violence. Neil M. Malamuth, Tamara Addison, and Mary Koss, “Pornography and Sexual Aggression: Are there Reliable Effects and Can We Understand Them?” Annual Review of Sex Research 11(2000): 26-91; Jochen Peter and Patti M. Valekenburg, “Adolescents and Pornography: A Review of 20 Years of Research,” The Journal of Sex Research (2016): 1-23, dli: 10.1080/00224499.2016.1143441 www.strandsquared.com July 2019 4 The use of pornography by batterers significantly increased a battered woman’s odds of being sexually abused. Pornography use alone increased the odds by a factor of almost 2, and the combination of pornography and alcohol increased the odds of sexual abuse by a factor of 3.46 Other research has found that pornography use by batters is associated with learning about sex through pornography, imitation of behaviors seen in pornography, comparison of women to pornography performers, introduction of other sexual partners, filming sexual acts without consent, and the broader culture of pornography (e.g., fetishes). Janet Hinson Shope, “When Words Are Not Enough: The Search for the Effect of Pornography on Abused Women,” Violence Against Women 10, no. 1 (2004): 56–72. Walter S. DeKeseredy and Amanda Hall-Sanchez, “Adult Pornography and Violence against Women in the Heartland: Results from a Rural Southeast Ohio Study,” Violence against Women (May 2016), 1–20.