Pornography Addiction - Research Paper Example

Number: Pornography Addiction Introduction The work at hand is a newspaper article, an op-ed, to inform the parents and the or adolescents. The entire article is based on the point of view of a sex therapist doing a wide research on the linked consequences of porn addiction to the adolescent stage. This is regarding the point that adolescents today may not be able to draw the line between love and lust, implying that the need to have more knowledge about both love and sex must be a requirement. Potential Risks of Porn Addiction Young people today are susceptible to engaging in pornographic activity. Adolescents are more likely to have the ease of access via the Internet and other new technologies, leading to their likelihood to have addiction to pornography. Addiction to pornography is considered a sexual disorder marked by excessive and uncontrollable access to sexually explicit contents or images (Voros 243). With this associated behavior, researchers are interested in investigating the relevant negative impacts of addiction to pornography. Thus, most of the studies pertaining to addiction to pornography have focused on finding the potential risks and only a few of them have explored the linked benefits involved (Doring 1089). “There is evidence that the more men watch pornography, the more they categorize and objectify women – seeing them as an assemblage of breasts, legs, and buttocks” (King 424). According to a recent finding of the researchers from Cambridge University, porn addiction cannot be too far from alcoholism and drug addiction (Mills and Ungoed-Thomas). The study clearly states that the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 19 addictive pornography users revealed similarity of brain activity to the way that an alcoholic’s brain might respond to liquor or beer commercials. Dr. Valerie Voon, the head researcher, said, “We found greater activity in an area of the brain called the ventral striatum, which is a reward centre, involved in processing reward, motivation and pleasure” (Mills and Ungoed-Thomas). In a study among adult males in the United States, it was found that Internet pornography users are more likely to have sex with multiple partners, either pay or be paid for sex, have extramarital affairs, and are less likely to use condoms (Wright and Randall 1410). These at some point could be evaluated as risky behaviors that porn may potentially contribute to its users. This study is a remarkable support to an earlier study investigating the exposure to sexually explicit web sites and adolescent sexual attitudes and behaviors (Braun-Courville and Rojas 156). The study surveyed 433 adolescents using an anonymous survey at a health center in New York City. It was found that of the 96 percent of respondents who have access to the Internet, 55.4 percent of them visited sexually explicit web sites. Using logistic regression analysis, the respondents who were exposed to sites with sexually explicit contents are more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, substance abuse and higher sexual permissiveness. Again, the society and various experts can define these as potentially harmful or risky behaviors. In other words, if we based it on the available literature with information containing the potential risk of pornography and addiction to it, a substantial number of them will provide us the linked risky behaviors and attitudes of the users as potential implications. Porn May Be Beneficial but Promotes Sexual Intercourse Commonly, it is not a question that various porn movies are able to showcase how to initiate an actual act of intercourse. This is informative and even technically educational especially among inexperienced young viewers. Thus, in a way, porn is technically sex education, but unlike the academic treatment of sex education at school, it exactly shows the actual act of sexual intercourse. Sex education is important among adolescents as it is found to produce a remarkably good result. Sex education in school is found to increase knowledge about sexuality and birth control, leading to the actual practical use of contraception by adolescents in Western countries (Visser and van Bilsen 147). Therefore, this will be able to provide a substantial solution to unwanted pregnancy, school dropouts, spread of sexually transmitted diseases and other relevant consequences linked to sexual intimacy that might occur at a younger age. Nevertheless, the study also reveals that sex education has no remarkable impact on sexual behavior, particularly on intercourse (Visser and van Bilsen 147). This means that sex education will not necessarily hinder the urge of young individuals to go for the actual sexual intercourse, even the prevailing addiction to porn, and the intention to acquire the viewed pleasure from it. Alternative Approach to Controlling Porn Addiction Among young people, exposure to pornography may be intentional. For this reason, a study was able to find if religious internalization and involvement have a potential impact on the intentional viewing of 419 adolescents aged 15 to 18 years (Hardy et al. 131). The study found that religiousness can provide the opportunity for the adolescents to be protected from intentional and accidental exposure to pornography. Various religious groups are offering counseling activities using religious principles that at some point are trying to create a beneficial psychological impact, allowing the subjects to divert their thoughts to only what is beneficial or productive to their way of life. The Christian congregation, for instance, is trying to establish the idea about love. In their Scripture, love is defined as follows: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a) Understanding the risks associated with porn addiction, based on the Christian point of view, only means one thing, and that is the lack of love. Considering the relevant disadvantages of porn addiction, a Christian may substantially define pornography as something evil or bad, especially when the risky attitudes and behaviors linked to it are taken into account. For them, something that is bad or evil lacks love, for love for them does not rejoice in evil but truth. The truth for them is that online pornography and being addicted to it may just waste time or nullify other remarkable opportunities as it might just hinder some potential human development. For instance, instead of working on a school assignment at home, a teenager who might be addicted to porn will instead consume his time watching and browsing websites with sexually explicit contents. This potentially harms the child’s productivity and actual strong will power to succeed in the future, knowing that his addiction is far stronger than the determination to think of other productive things over his sensual personal pleasure. Theoretically, this may leave the child lagging behind his schedule at school and finishing at the final hour all the things left undone. This is eventually not a good way of training, which eliminates the possibility of a highly-disciplined life that is able to target the necessary and essential requirements for the future success in all of life’s major aspects. An adolescent must learn to understand that a life founded by the principle of discipline is essential for his future success. This means that he needs to work hard for now and set aside other personal pleasures that may not lead to productivity, for his future success. This means that he will be able to provide for his future family and the basic necessities in life that his future wife and children will require prior to their survival. From the Christian standpoint, this is a depiction of love; there is involvement of care and responsibility, eliminating the other attitudes, behaviors and values that are not capable of providing substantial results. After all, they say, love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. From this alternative, we therefore learn that providing the adolescents with the right sexual education may not be enough, for there is the actual intention of the young people to possess materials or visit websites with sexually explicit contents. They also need to learn about the idea or concept of love, which is something that will enhance their self-control, productivity, responsibility and the drive to be involved in the making of their future success today. However, young people or teenagers are having ultimate fun exploring things around them, and peer pressure creates a great influence on their behaviors. It is at this point that parents should come to rescue to their young growing teens for them to be able to walk on the path that they need to essentially take as the vital component prior to their future success. The Role of the Parents Parents have a great role in helping their children alleviate and totally cut their addiction to pornography. What they need is the essential understanding of their children, maintaining the communication open, and doing the right thing. They have to guide them instead of initiating things that will just lead their growing teens to sulky tantrums or resentment against them. In this respect, it is important that parents coordinate with experts on how to implement the discipline in the right way. At this point, parents must be able to explain why pornography may potentially harm their children’s future. The parents are expected to initiate extensive research, learn something from various relevant studies in the literature, and perform in the right manner what they might have learned along the way. Parents are not expected to be experts, but they just have to do the essential moves to keep the communication open, and cultivate their growing teens’ trust in them. The parents have to make sure that what they are doing is to help their growing teens survive the tough challenge of porn addiction because they love them and want them to have a better future. Again, we have presented the idea that it is not enough to educate the adolescents on sex; rather, it is necessary to help them understand that love is another essential point for which at this time parents have the crucial responsibility. The Role of Experts Experts are to stand as guides to educate and help initiate the healing process, as far as the addiction to pornography of the teenagers is concerned. Some experts are able to provide medical advice and treatment. Others are capable of offering encouraging words and appropriate ways on how to treat any relevant sexual disorders. Experts are expected to provide us with an appropriate point of view of the situation, as they essentially base their opinions on the relevant empirical and scientific evidence available for the humanity to understand the things that are constantly going around us on a daily basis. Word Count: 1,810 words excluding works cited (equivalent to 7 pages) Works Cited Braun-Courville, Debra K., and Mary Rojas. “Exposure to Sexually Explicit Web Sites and Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors.” Journal of Adolescent Health 45.2 (2009): 156–162. Print. Doring, Nicola M. “The Internet’s Impact on Sexuality: A Critical Review of 15 Years of Research.” Computers in Human Behavior 25.5 (2009): 1089–1101. Print. Hardy, Sam A., Michael A. Steelman, Sarah M. Coyne, and Robert D. Ridge. “Adolescent Religiousness As a Protective Factor against Pornography Use.” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 34.3 (2013): 131–139. Print. King, Bruce M. Human Sexuality Today. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print. Mills, Eleonor, and Jon Ungoed-Thomas. Brain Scans Find Porn Addiction. 22 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. . Visser, Adriaan P., and Pascalle van Bilsen. “Effectiveness of Sex Education Provided to Adolescents.” Patient Education and Counseling 23.3 (1994): 147–160. Print. Voros, F. “The Invention of Addiction to Pornography.” Sexologies 18.4 (2009): 243–246. Print. Wright, Paul, J., and Ashley K. Randall. “Internet Pornography Exposure and Risky Sexual Behavior among Adult Males in the United States.” Computers in Human Behavior 28.4 (2012): 1410–1416. Print. Read More