(THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE COMES FROM THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY NEWSLETTER….. WHAT A PACK OF MORONS))
Pornography’s Pervasiveness Hurst Everyone
About 30 years ago, it took effort to find pornography and often required traversing to the darkest corner of the dankest alley. Over the years, its purveyors have effectually brought pornography out of the gutter and into our own homes. Their stratagem is no new device; they simply lulled society into complacency by calling their product a harmless past time; but new evidence contradicts this claim and demands that the federal government make a concerted effort to stem the tide of this debauchery.
Many researchers are beginning to put pornography on par with drugs that are proven to be addictive. In a recent Deseret Morning News article, California human sexuality researcher Judith Reisman said pornography doesn’t act like a drug – it is a drug.
When a person views it, she explained, the person’s body triggers adrenaline, testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. Victor Cline, a renowned psychotherapist who has treated roughly 350 men for sexual addiction over 25 years, compiled MRIs to generate medical evidence to prove that pornography has the same damaging effect on the brain as other addictive drugs. Although the method is relatively new, Cline said he has seen enough similarities between the MRIs of pornography viewers and the MRIs of drug abusers to take the possible connection seriously. Equally similar to the MRIs is the process by which individuals become hooked on pornography.
First, they generally start with "soft core" material when they are adolescents, then they gradually seek out increasingly explicit material.
In addition to the physiological effects, Cline reported many of his clients experience an inability to quit the habit, much like other substance abusers. In one case, he had a patient give him $1,000 to place in a bank account. If the man went 90 days without viewing pornography, he could have his money back. After several failed attempts, the patient told Cline in frustration that even if $10,000 were on the line, he probably would still relapse.
Many others people report similar despair and inability to control their impulses, even here at BYU. One student said a recent anonymous survey in his student ward found that 13 percent of men struggled with pornography issues; while the stake president felt another 13 percent weren’t entirely truthful. Pornography addicts find that the compulsion affects many aspects of their well-being. Lynn Scoresby, a former BYU professor of marriage, family and human development, said pornography addicts can become socially withdrawn and experience periods of extreme depression and guilt, which draw them back to pornography to quell the mental anguish. But, instead of finding relief, they only plunge deeper and deeper on a downward cycle of addiction and despair, just like alcoholics or nicotine addicts. Pornography addiction is a very real event that the government needs to address.
The federal government heavily regulates the sales of tobacco and alcohol, and they’ve banned drugs like cocaine and meth altogether. The federal and local governments have enacted many zoning ordinances to keep explicit material away from school zones and suburban areas; however, little has been done to regulate the flow of pornography where it is distributed most – the Web. Unlike other addictive substances, pornography can be readily accessed in one’s own home with just a few keystrokes, which is where most children and teens see pornographic images for the first time, researchers said. A Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR survey found that 31 percent of children age 10 to 17 with computers at home had seen a pornographic Web site. Internet firewall services are available, but they are not 100 percent effective; the technology still has a long way to go.
Instead of expecting parents to rely on less-than-dependable technology, the federal government should consider alternative measures such as the Internet Community Port Act, which the Orem-based CP80 Foundation will propose next year.
ICPA would channel pornographic materials to Internet ports that are not used by underage Internet users. By adopting this act, the government would be able to balance pornographers’ supposed right to freedom of expression and greatly reduce the chance underage children will accidentally view pornography and plunge into a life time of addiction.
The great ruse of our time is the promotion of a product that claims to liberate us from a "repressive" and "backward" past, when, in reality, it subjugates us to a new, more oppressive form of slavery. While we can’t annihilate pornography altogether, much can be done to keep it from consuming a person’s life.