Is Porn the Most Prevalent Drug?

In a 2004 Wired magazine article about a Senate hearing on Internet pornography, Mary Anne Layden, co-director of Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Therapy, described pornography as the “most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today.” She went on to say, “The Internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused, and have role models for these behaviors.”

Here are some startling stats about pornography use in our country today:

• Twelve percent of websites are pornographic—nearly 25 million sites.
• Forty million Americans regularly visit porn sites.
• Seventy percent of males, ages eighteen to twenty-four, visit porn sites monthly.
• Eight percent of all emails have pornographic content.
• Every day there are 116,000 searches for “child pornography.”
• The average age when a child is exposed to Internet pornography is eleven years of age.
• The least popular day in the United States for viewing porn is Thanksgiving.
• The most popular days in the United States for viewing porn are Sundays.

The prevalence and use of pornography is not decreasing; it’s increasing and sweeping up many men and women into its virtual vortex. The use of pornography, as an addiction, is not static. It is progressive in nature. The compulsion to use it to achieve sexual gratification does not lessen over time; it increases. The content does not improve over time; it deteriorates. Moreover, unlike chemical substances that can be detoxed out of the body, our minds can hold images indefinitely.

Emotional adultery devastates relationships because it unhinges emotional attachment and reconnects it online. Pornography devastates relationships because it overwhelms and hijacks sexual fulfillment. Online pornography is one more way the Internet can become all about you—what you want, when you want it, how you want it—to the exclusion of your primary relationships.

Today, pornography is constantly and anonymously accessible due to the relatively recent development of the Internet. This easy accessibility, combined with the naturally addictive nature of sex, has created a perfect storm for the exponential use of pornography in our society today.

Gregory L. Jantz, PhD is the founder of The Center • A Place of HOPE and an internationally recognized best selling author of over 26 books related to mental wellness and holistic recovery treatment. This article features excerpts from Dr. Jantz's book Hooked.