Xander, 16, had his first exposure to internet pornography when he was in early middle school. For him, it meant a lesson that gave him problematic ideas about sexual and romantic relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of those videos can give kids the wrong idea, in thinking, \u2018Hey, if I make this move, if I grab maybe this girl\u2019s thigh, or touch her where no one else should, she\u2019ll be into me or I\u2019ll get laid.\u2019 That is not at all true,\u201d said Xander, a Louisville student who spoke openly about his situation on the condition that he was not identified by his real name.<\/p>\n
Xander\u2019s situation isn\u2019t unique. Porn addiction is all too familiar to many of America\u2019s youth, and carries with it serious consequences.<\/p>\n
For Xander, it was warped ideas of what sexual encounters should look like. For other kids, the consequences are sometimes worse. But the common factor in far too many of these young people is the porn addiction itself.<\/p>\n
Notably, this early exposure to porn is much more common for adolescent boys than it is for girls. A 2006 survey by researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that 93.2% of boys were exposed to porn before the age of 18, while only 62.1% of girls were.<\/p>\n
The isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic only allowed more opportunity for porn addictions to manifest. Xander said his use of porn increased like never before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was probably a point in the pandemic and peak of online school where it was three to two times a day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While porn addictions can be attributed to COVID-19\u2019s isolation, the widespread availability of internet porn is also a key factor. Not only are porn websites readily available to adolescents with hours upon hours of videos, even social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit are now known for harboring porn that can be viewed even without the use of a search engine like Google.<\/p>\n
John Stamper, a porn addiction recovery coach in Lexington, said there are \u201cThree A\u2019s\u201d when talking about modern pornography.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now affordable, in that it\u2019s basically free,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cIt\u2019s anonymous, in that you don\u2019t have to go to some store and risk someone seeing you, and that you do it in the privacy of wherever you want. And it\u2019s accessible. In times past, it was just simply harder to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
The addiction works in the same way that many other non-chemical addictions work. Engaging with pornography becomes a coping mechanism that either creates joy or quells sadness and loneliness.<\/p>\n
Paul Schmidt, who has a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, is a wellness coach in Louisville who focuses on, among other things, porn addiction.<\/p>\n
Schmidt said electronic mapping of the brain has found that porn-induced pleasure lights up the brain similarly to cocaine use.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is all of these endorphins and brain chemicals exploding up there,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s that intense, you do destroy brain circuitry and brain tissue as anything goes, so it gets harder and harder to make a connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why you have to scream to be heard with the pornography in order to make connections, and you\u2019re trying to get to the serotonin of, \u2018Ahh that\u2019s enough. I just feel so completely satisfied.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt said constant porn exposure causes viewers to develop a tolerance and seek out a variety of content.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes more and more beer, for example, to make you feel you\u2019ve had enough, or to loosen you up and make you feel confident or whatever you\u2019re drinking for,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so you learn to tolerate it more, and it doesn\u2019t give you the same effect. With porn, it\u2019s a seeking of novelty and the seeking of a rush \u2013 of an adrenaline rush.\u201d<\/p>\n
This novelty is certainly out there. The University of New Hampshire survey found 38.6% of men and 22.6% of women had seen pornography involving bondage at least once as minors. Researchers found that, prior to turning 18, participants had also seen the following:<\/p>\n
That desire for variety leads viewers to cross lines they\u2019d previously set for themselves, Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings you say: \u2018Oh, I\u2019m never going to watch bondage sex,\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m never going to watch people have sex with a child or an animal. These are things I\u2019m just not going to do,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s astounding how quickly you blow through those.\u201d<\/p>\n
This advance into more hardcore content not only pertains to adolescents acting on their urges, but how they develop ideas about sex in the formative years of their life. A 2020 study by the British Board of Film Classification found that 63% of children surveyed admitted the reason for watching porn to be related to learning about sex, getting ideas for new things to do during sex and learning about sexual expectations.<\/p>\n
Many adolescents like Xander are looking to porn to answer questions about sexual situations and sexual preferences. The more they watch, the more they dive into the novelties that Schmidt described, and the more they internalize what they see as normal and acceptable.<\/p>\n
Adolescents turning to porn to answer questions about sex may indicate something in their sex education has been lacking. According to 2018 survey study by Healthline, only 33% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 had reported having any sex education in their years of schooling, much less comprehensive sex education.<\/p>\n
This is not the case for the state of California, as the California Healthy Youth Act passed in 2016 mandates comprehensive sex education in seventh through twelfth graders. Two of the act\u2019s primary purposes listed on the California Department of Education website are to normalize sexuality in human development and promote healthy relationship skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly can have an impact on an adolescent\u2019s brain and how they form and shape their view of sexuality, because, in many ways, pornography has become the new sex education,\u201d Stamper, the addiction counselor, said.<\/p>\n
Xander said that, in hindsight, sex education would have been helpful to his younger self so that he wouldn\u2019t have had to turn to internet porn for answers to his many questions.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not too late for teens who have become dependent on porn. Experts like Schmidt and Stamper recommend getting outside help for the purpose of accountability. Having people in one\u2019s life to hold them accountable is something that every form of recovery has in common. For Xander, that accountability comes in the form of his long-term girlfriend who helped him understand healthy relationships.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, the porn is there, whether it\u2019s watched or not. Xander may no longer be watching it, but many adolescents are still stuck in the grasp of internet porn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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