It may not rot your teeth or send you out on secret late-night trips to purchase baggies full of some illegal substance, but porn addiction is a train wreck waiting to happen. And it looks like it’s a bigger problem for kids than we may want to admit.
I recently stumbled on an ABC Nightline report that aired earlier this year. It centers on a 17-year-old named Nathan Haug from Utah who just happens to look and act like an all-American kid. He has great grades, a great attitude and a great family. The only problem is, he’s been secretly hooked on porn for years. This average, clean-cut kid covered up his tracks on the family computer and even honed his naked pic searches to a measured science to keep his parents off the scent. But here’s the thing that got me: He’s been at it since he was twelve.
We parents may be cringing at the thought of our sweet kids dabbling in that junk. But it’s pretty obvious that Nathan’s situation is really pretty common. There’s a growing number of studies—like one from the University of New Hampshire called “The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth“—that seem to suggest that kids often stumble onto this stuff and get hooked as young as 8 years old. The New Hampshire study found that 93.2 percent of its boy participants and 62.1 percent of its girls had been exposed to pornography, often well before they turned 18.
Some of us might be tempted to say, “Yeah, kids shouldn’t see that stuff too early, but it’s not really that big of a deal.” But it is. Research shows that porn sets its hooks and creates all manner of issues in its victim’s lives. That constant buzz of artificial excitement tends to reshape people’s perspectives, causing them to be more depressed and/or isolated. When researchers from the American Psychological Association looked at the impact of regular porn use on relationships, they concluded that, “Exposure to narrow ideals of female attractiveness may make it difficult for some men to find an ‘acceptable’ partner or to fully enjoy intimacy with a female partner.”
In other words, the porn-programmed mind expects sculpted perfection or nothing. And common sense will tell you what kind of warm-and-wonderful long-term relationships that will lead to.
The ABC report also mentioned a teen anti-porn movement called Fight the New Drug. It’s a group of young people taking some wise words of warning to high schools and teen groups all across the nation. On their site they mention that 70% of pornography is viewed between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., when most people are generally at work or school. But here’s another tidbit the site shared that struck me:
The FBI's statistics show that pornography is found at 80% of the scenes of violent sex crimes or in the homes of the perpetrators. 80 PERCENT! That's 4/5ths of the pie! And that is just what they've found, what about the people who are Internet savvy and know how to cover their tracks?
Of course, that “cover up” part of the statement takes us back to Nathan Haug’s story, and it’s likely something repeated throughout America. A big part of today’s porn issue is how easy it is to find online and how easy it is to keep hidden away from any accountability-minded family members.
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