Pornography: the harm
New Canadian meta-analysis of harms of pornography
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new study has found that
viewing pornography is harmful to the viewer and society. In a meta-analysis (a statistical
integration of all existing scientific data), researchers have found that using
pornographic materials leads to several behavioural and social problems.
One of the most common
psychological problems is a deviant attitude towards intimate relationships
such as perceptions of sexual dominance, submissiveness, sex role stereotyping
or viewing persons as sexual objects. Behavioural problems include fetishes and
excessive or ritualistic masturbation.
Sexual aggressiveness, sexually hostile and violent behaviours are
social problems as well as individual problems that are linked to pornography.
"Our findings are
alarming", said Dr Claudio Violato one of three authors of the study. Dr
Violato, Director of Research at the National Foundation for Family Research
and Education (NFFRE) and a professor at the University of Calgary, said, "This is a very serious
social problem since pornography is so widespread nowadays and easily
accessible on the Internet, television, videos and print materials".
Studies have shown that almost
all men and women have been exposed to pornography. An increasing number of children are also being exposed to
explicitly sexual materials through mass media. The rise in sexual crimes, sexual dysfunction and family
breakdown may be linked to the increased availability and use of
pornography. The rape myth (belief that
women cause and enjoy rape, and that rapists are normal) is very widespread in
habitual male users or pornography according to the study.
"There has been some
debate among researchers about the degree of negative consequences of habitual
use of pornography, but we feel confident in our findings that pornography is
harmful", Violato noted. "Our
study involved more than 12,000 participants and very rigorous analyses. I can think of no beneficial effects of
pornography whatsoever. As a society we
need to move towards eradicating it".
The authors of the study
concluded that exposure to pornography puts viewers at increased risk of
developing sexually deviant tendencies, committing sexual offences,
experiencing difficulties in intimate relationships, and accepting the rape
myth. Dr Elizabeth Oddone-Paolicci and
Dr Mark Genius, researchers at the National Foundation for Family Research and
Education, are co-authors of the study that was published in the scientific
journal Mind, Medicine and Adolescence.
Calagary, 12 March 2002.
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For more information on the American fight against
pornography visit:
Morality In Media at: www.moralityinmedia.org
The American Family Association at: www.afa.net
The Religious Alliance Against
Pornography at: www.nationalcoalition.org
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ornography
has no joy, no art. It deliberately excludes tenderness, and objectifies
women. It is blatantly manipulative,
designed to produce the most primitive of responses. There is a myth that making pornography is harmless fun. Maybe some women are tough enough to take
part without being scarred by the experience, but many are badly hurt. It’s not just coincidence that most women I
have met who were involved with pornography were abused as children, as a
result their bodies were no longer their own private property; their personal
boundaries had already been transgressed.
Some had reached the point where they loathed their own bodies and
wanted to punish themselves. There is
no way these women enjoyed the experience of making pornography, or regarded it
as ‘fun’.
Teacher strangled to satisfy macabre sexual fantasy
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teacher
was strangled by her best friend’s perverted lover who was acting out a
‘bizarre and macabre’ sexual fascination with asphyxiated or dead women, a
court was told yesterday. Graham Coutts
was said to have kept Jane Longhurst’s naked body as a trophy for five weeks
before dumping it in woodland and setting it alight. Mr Coutt’s two home computers had shown that he had made Internet
searches for pictures and small videos using words that included ‘strangled
women’ and ‘rape, murder’. Many of the
searches had been carried out the day before Miss Longhurst vanished. Mr Kelsey-Fry added that the computer
contained 809 pornographic pictures, 699 depicting strangulation, rape,
torture, violent sex and pictures of dead people.
Murder teacher’s mother demands online porn ban
Killer
who acted out sexual fantasies is told by judge that he must serve at least 30
years
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he
family of a special needs teacher murdered by a man acting out a gruesome
sexual fantasy called yesterday for the abolition of pornographic internet
sites that fuelled his obsession.
Graham Coutts had earlier been sentenced to life imprisonment for
strangling to death Jane Longhurst, 31, a talented musician. Miss Longhurst’s mother, Liz, 72, said
outside the court that a lasting memorial to her “beautiful and talented”
daughter would be achieved only if such “vile and monstrous” web pages were banned.
“I feel pressure should definitely be brought to bear on internet service
providers to close down or at least filter out those pornographic sites that
played such a prominent part in this trial, so that people like Jane’s killer
will no longer be able to feed their sick imaginations and cause harm to
others”, she said.
The Times
5/2/2004
Writing
in The Sunday Times, 15/2/2004, Martin Wroe examined the many obstacles facing
the police in fighting pornography on the Internet.
“Last
week a 33 year old former US marine pleaded guilty to abducting a 12 year old
Wigan girl he met via a children’s website.
The case emphasises the contradictions surrounding the growing threat of
internet ‘grooming’. Barely a week
passes without the alarm being raised over online predators and the exponential
growth in child porn growth. The UK
already leads the way: for example, the Internet Watch Foundation, which runs a
24-hour hotline to investigate illegal material online, reports complaints at a
record high of 20,000 last year. It
also points out that detection is better than ever. The problem, it admits is that 99 per cent of the child-abuse
images it substantiates are traced to countries overseas. More than half last year were traced to the
United States – many of those sites actually being created elsewhere, but
hosted on US servers. John Carr (of
the NSPCC) believes a serious step towards cleaning up the net would be for the
American authorities to take the matter as seriously as this country – and that
is what the UK government must urgently begin lobbying for.” Derek Wyatt MP for Sittingbourne says that
“we urgently need a new global body to take on management of the net”
Computer porn plagues
school playgrounds
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he first large-scale survey of computer pornography in British schools
has revealed that tens of thousands of children, some as young as eight, are
offered explicit material in classrooms and playgrounds. Half of the 8,500 schools that responded to
a confidential university survey admitted that computer pornography has been
available to its pupils. “The results
are horrifying, but not entirely surprising given the wide availability of
computer pornography,” said Vicki Merchant, of the University of Central
Lancashire, which commissioned the survey.
Teachers reported disturbing effects on pupils and a lack of awareness
that easily available pornography has become a serious problem.
Sunday Times 5/12/1993
Boy,13, attacked girl
after watching porn on computer
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boy of 13 attempted to rape a
six-year-old girl after watching pornography on a computer at school, a court
heard. He said he had been ‘tipped over
the edge’ by images displayed by a friend’s computer disc. The boy, who said he had intended to have
full sex with the girl, was put under a two-year supervision order after a
youth court heard he was too young for a custodial sentence. The case comes a fortnight after Mr Michael
Howard, the Home Secretary, promised measures to curb the spread of violent and
pornographic video games. It has lead
to renewed calls for action from MPs and anti-pornography campaigners. The boy had an ‘unhealthy interest’ in
pornographic material and he thought it was quite normal to have sex with girls
of his age and younger.
Daily Telegraph 3/3/1994
Government aims to
tighten law on computer porn
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he rising tide of computer
pornography has prompted the Government to consider tightening obscenity
laws. A committee of senior officials
from across Whitehall has been set up to monitor developments in the whole are
of obscene publications and to look at ways in which existing legislation can
be improved. The committee, which is
made up of officials from the National Heritage, Trade, Health and Education
departments, is being co-ordinated by the Home Office and is expected to report
back to ministers by June. The initiative
was disclosed in a letter from Downing Street to Mary Whitehouse who met John
Major last year to push for tougher obscenity controls. The Prime Minister asked Michael Howard, the
Home Secretary, to co-ordinate a government-wide review of possible moves to
strengthen controls over obscenity and pornography in addition to existing
measures.
The Times 28/3/1995
Seven years for boy who
raped girls in park
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schoolboy who carried out knifepoint sex attacks on young girls
after watching a pornographic film was ordered to be detained yesterday for
seven years. The 14-year-old boy, who
wore a black balaclava, admitted raping one victim and indecently assaulting
the others in the space of two months, Manchester Crown Court was told. He admitted getting the idea for the attacks
from the soft porn video, Physical, which police found wrapped inside women’s
underwear in his bedroom.
Daily Telegraph 7/11/1995
Hoard of video porn and
sex aids
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hoard of 99 pornographic videos, including one of a terrified girl
being abused in a cellar, was found in Frederick and Rosemary West’s
house. The discovery, in a separate
inquiry, was made 18 months before detectives found the first of nine bodies at
25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. The
jury heard yesterday that a large number of sex-aids, whips, a rice flail and
leather straps and buckles were also seized in August 1992.
Daily Mail 24/10/1995