Understanding Pornography: Interventions for Compulsive Users
(An ITTI Training Program)
Module 4: Impact of Pornography on Violence and Exploitation Toward Women
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Introducing: The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Mission Statement: The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) exists to build a world where people can live and love without sexual abuse and exploitation.
The NCOSE’s Focus is on:
1. Child Sexual Abuse
2. Image-Based Sexual Abuse
3. Pornography
4. Sex Buying
5. Prostitution
6. Sex Trafficking
NCOSE’s Pornography and Public Health - Research Summary Introduction
NCOSE’s research findings concluded: The issue of pornography is ground zero for all those concerned for the sexual health of our loved ones, communities, and society as a whole. As the following points illustrate, the breadth and depth of pornography’s influence on popular culture has created an intolerable situation that impinges on the freedoms and wellbeing of countless individuals.
Young Age of First Exposure: A study of university students found that 93% of boys and 62% of girls had seen Internet pornography during adolescence. The researchers reported that the degree of exposure to paraphilic and deviant sexual activity before age 18 was of “particular concern.”(Sabina et al., 2008). Another sample has shown that among college males, nearly 49% first encountered pornography before age 13. (Sun et al., 2016)
Pervasive Use: A nationally representative survey found that 64% of young people, ages 13–24, actively seek out pornography weekly or more often.A popular tube site reports that in 2016, people watched 4.6 billion hours of pornography on its site alone; 61% of visits occurred via smartphone. Eleven pornography sites are among the world’s top 300 most popular Internet sites. The most popular such site, at number 1, outranks the likes of eBay, MSN, and Netflix (Barna Group, 2016).
Infringement on Individual Rights: The pornification of culture (i.e. softcore, hypersexualized imagery) is widespread and evident everywhere, from the grocery store checkout lane to advertising, popular entertainment, unsolicited email, and beyond. It’s becoming increasingly difficult—if not impossible—to live a porn-free life.
Both Genders: While hardcore pornography users are typically male, use among younger females use is increasing. Teenage girls and young women are significantly more likely to actively seek out porn than women 25 years old and above (Barna Group, 2016).
Unmanageable at the Individual Level: The pervasive depictions of softcore and hardcore pornography in popular culture, and their easy accessibility via streaming and mobile devices, produce problems and significant risks outside the ability of individuals and families to manage on their own.
Private Behavior with Public Consequences/Porn Users Shape Culture: The large-scale private use of hardcore pornography by millions of people has public ramifications. The attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors shaped by pornography use have a profound impact on not only users’ private relationships, but also their professional and social relationships. Pornography use, to varying degrees, shapes the lens by which users view, interact, and construct the world.
Pornography is Prostitution for Mass Consumption: The medium by which the prostitution is conveyed—photographs, magazines, books, videos, and the Internet—allows for masses of individuals to derive sexual stimulation and gratification from the acts of prostitution that they portray (NCOSE, 2019).
Hardcore Pornography Portrays Paraphilic Disorders and Extreme Sex
Since the 1950s, the distribution and availability of pornography has become increasingly normalized
Pornography exposure among college males is now almost universal
Boys and men are consuming hardcore pornography, which may include depictions of sex with persons who look like children or teens, scenarios portraying incest, and other paraphilic interests such as sex with animals (i.e. zoophilia), excretory activities (i.e. coprophilia/urophilia), and violence against women, including rape (i.e. biastophilia) and torture (i.e. algolania).
Today “. . . mainstream commercial pornography has coalesced around a relatively homogenous script involving violence and female degradation" (NCOSE, 2019).
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Pornography Teaches Users that Women Enjoy Sexual Violence and Degradation
PornographyTeaches Users that Women Enjoy Sexual Violence and Degradation: A content analysis of 172 videos from the website PornHub.com examined the influence of age (teenage performer vs. adult performer) on aggression and pleasure depicted in popular heterosexual pornographic videos uploaded to the site between the years 2000 and 2016.
One hundred and seventeen videos exhibited “adult” performers, 55 “teenage” performers. To determine “age,” researchers used a variety of cues including: 1) performers’ self-declaration of their age, 2) titles of the videos, 3) the categories in which videos were classified, and 4) tags ascribed to each video.
The findings were as follows:
- 43% of videos included what the researchers categorized as “visible aggression” and 15% included “nonconsensual aggression.”
- Teenagers were more likely to experience particular forms of aggression and degrading or risky sex acts. Specifically, teenagers were more than twice as likely as adults (21.8 vs 9.4%) to be in videos featuring anal penetration, and about five times more likely (12.7 vs. 2.5%) to be in videos featuring forceful anal penetration with an apparent intent to cause pain. Yet, when broadly considering aggression in pornography, teenagers were subject to similar levels of aggression experienced by older performers.
- Teenagers were also more likely to be in pornography in which the male ejaculated in their mouth or on their face than adults (65.4 vs. 45.3%)
- 90% of teenage females in videos containing visible aggression displayed pleasure, compare to 54% when visible aggression was not present
- 40% of teenagers displayed sexual climax in videos containing aggression, compared to 8.5% when visible aggression was not present
- Teenagers were significantly more likely to display pleasure in videos that included spanking, forced vaginal or anal penetration, and forced gagging than in videos that did not include these acts
- Females of all ages were more likely to display pleasure in videos featuring physical aggression than those that did not (Shor, 2018).
In response to these findings, the researcher noted that the prevalence of aggressive and demeaning acts in videos featuring teenagers:
- “may signal to viewers of all ages that these acts are not only normative and legitimate, but perhaps even expected”
- thus creating social pressure on both young women and men to re-enact them with their sexual partners
- “the high prevalence of unprotected anal intercourse in such videos may lead female teenagers to engage more frequently in unprotected anal sex,” thus increasing their risk for various STDs.
- ØIn a separate content analysis of free, Internet pornography, researchers found that nearly half of all videos in which two or more persons were present ended with the act of ejaculation on the face or mouth of a female by one or more males (Shor, 2018).
Other Related Research on this matter
A 2010 analysis of the 50 most popular pornographic videos (those bought and rented most often) found that 88% of scenes contained physical violence, and 49% contained verbal aggression Eighty-seven percent of aggressive acts were perpetrated against women, and 95% of their responses were either neutral or expressions of pleasure (Bridges et al, 2010)
Increased Verbal and Physical Aggression: A 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies from seven countries found that internationally the consumption of pornography was significantly associated with increases in verbal and physical aggression, among males and females alike (Wright, et al., 2016)
Increased Female Sexual Victimization: A study of 14- to 19-year-olds found that females who watched pornographic videos were at significantly greater likelihood of being victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault (Bonino et al., 2006)
Increased Likelihood of Selling and Buying Sex: A Swedish study of 18-year-old males found that frequent users of pornography were significantly more likely to have sold and bought sex than other boys of the same age (Svedin, et al., 2011)
Fuels Demand for Sexual Exploitation: Some pornography consumers use pornography to build sexual excitement in advance of purchasing sex from prostituted persons; others seek to reenact pornographic scenes on prostituted persons (Malarek, 2009).
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References
Barna Group, (2016)The Porn Phenomenon: The Impact of Pornography in the Digital Age, (Ventura, CA: Josh McDowell Ministry).
Bonino, S., Ciairano, S., Emanuela Rabagliette, E. & Cattelino, E. Use of Pornography and Self-Reported Engagement in Sexual Violence among Adolescents, European Journal of Developmental Psychology 3: 265–288.
Bridges, A.J., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C. & Liberman, R. (2010). Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis Update, Violence against Women 16,10: 1065–1085.
Farley, M., Golding, J.M., Matthews, E.S., Malamuth, N.M. & Jarrett, L. (2017). Comparing Sex Buyers with Men Who Do Not Buy Sex: New Data on Prostitution and Trafficking.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 3601-3625. doi: 10.1177/0886260515600874.
Foubert, J.D., Brosi, M.W. & Bannon, R.S. (2011). Effects of Fraternity Men’s Pornography Use on Bystander Intervention, Rape Myth Acceptance and Behavioral Intent to Commit Sexual Assault. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention 18,4: 212–231.
Gorman, S., Monk-Turner, E. & Fish, J.N. (2010). Free Adult Internet Web Sites: How Prevalent Are Degrading Acts? Gender Issues 27, 3–4:131–45, doi:10.1007/s12147-010-9095-7.
Malarek, V. (2009). The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It (New York: NY Arcade Publishing, Inc.).
Paolucci-Oddone, E., Genuis, M. & Violato, C. (2000). A Meta-Analysis of the Published Research on the Effects of Pornography, The Changing Family and Child Development. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2000, 48–59.
Sabina, C., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D. (2008) The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth, CyberPsychology & Behavior 11, 6: 691–693.
Shor, E. (2018), Age, Aggression, and Pleasure in Popular Online Pornographic Videos, Violence Against Women, 1‒19, doi: 10.1177/1077801218804101.
Sun, C., Bridges, A., Johnson, J., & Ezzell, M. (2016) Pornography and the Male Sexual Script: An Analysis of Consumption and Sexual Relations, Archives of Sexual Behavior 45, 4: 983–94.
Svedin, C. G., Âkerman, I. & Priebe,G. (2011). Frequent Users of Pornography. A Population Based Epidemiological Study of Swedish Male Adolescents, Journal of Adolescence 34, 4: 779–788.
Wright, P.J., Tokunaga, R.S. & Kraus, A, (2016) A Meta-Analysis of Pornography Consumption and Actual Acts of Sexual Aggression in General Population Studies, Journal of Communication 66,1: 183–205.
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