When it comes to pornography and the Australian way of life the outlook is disturbing and the future looks bleak. The Australian Christian Lobby is committed to fighting to have pornography recognised as a health risk.
It has been argued that pornography is inevitable.
At the Australian Christian Lobby we respectfully disagree and here is the research to explain what is at stake.
Here are the reasons
The damaging effects of watching porn are well documented – with watching porn being linked to cocaine or heroin in terms of its addictive effects. The more porn that you watch, the ‘harder’ porn is needed to get the same ‘fix’ in the future.
Pornography is also associated with early sexualisation of children. The average age of first exposure to pornography for boys is 11, at which age their viewing may include violent porn, bestiality and child pornography. What has been seen cannot be unseen. The alarming increase in child-on-child sexual assault is directly correlated to increased exposure of children to pornography.
A 2007 analysis of hard-core pornography revealed physical aggression in over 88% of the scenes, but women showed negative responses to the aggression in only 5% of scenes. [1]
Women whose prostitution is filmed for pornography often suffer more severe symptoms of PTSD. Their exploitation haunts them for the rest of their lives. It continues on film, played and re-played over the Internet indefinitely. Once the actors are in the industry they have higher rates of substance abuse, typically alcohol and cocaine, depression, borderline personality disorder… They have to be drunk, high or dissociated in order to go to work. [2]
Pornography teaches young women and men that women are valuable only to the degree that they can satisfy and submit to the lustful, objectifying, even hostile, sexual dominance of men.
Men who view violent pornography are more likely to believe that women who are raped enjoyed the experience, or were “asking for it”. Pornography is recognised as a significant factor for violence towards women, correlating with increases in sexual harassment, physical or verbal coercion to having sex, using drugs or alcohol to sexually coerce women, date rape, marital rape, incest, sexual abuse of children, and greater willingness to have sex with 13-14 year olds.
The Australian Christian Lobby will take up the vital fight to have pornography recognised as a health risk, so that Australians can be free from this dangerous stronghold.
References:
[1] Robert Jensen, “Pornography Cultures”, Big Porn Inc, p. 31.
[2] Dr Mary Anne Layden, Pornography Statistics p 6.