Pornography And Pornography

Mussab Ali
April 22, 2014
AP Writing
Miss Dwyer
The Internet came with an abundant amount of benefits for our civilization as a whole. People became more connected and had the ability to access information they would have otherwise never seen. Yet, there is another side to this connectivity a much more malicious side: pornography. Pornography, typically abbreviated as porn, dominates the internet- as many as 12% of all websites are pornographic and the industry is worth nearly $97 billion . With regards to acceptance, some supported pornographic consumption while others rejected it due to religious or moral beliefs. Porn was considered as something that was not very dangerous. This has all changed, however, within the last decade as piles of research highlights the crude effects of pornography, not just on adults, but also adolescents. Porn harms adolescents through obscenity and early exposure to sexual images, this in turn promotes less progressive gender roles and sexual behavior .
The statistics are mind-boggling when it comes to children. According to Michael Flood in his report, The Harms of Pornography Exposure Among Children and Young People, "The deliberate consumption of pornography is highly gendered among young people, as it is among adults".9 out of 10 children aged between the ages of 8 and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet, in most cases unintentionally (London School of Economics January 2012). Furthermore, the average age at which a child is first exposed to internet pornography is 11 .Youth with significant exposure to sexuality in the media were shown to be significantly more likely to have had intercourse at ages 14 to 16 (Report in Pediatrics, April, 2006). Some blame the internet, others blame the ...

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... sexually explicit content on the internet kid's usage of the internet must be monitored to reduce harm. Public and private schooling needs to pick up in the age gap and start educating children earlier because learning privately from pornography is not a healthy alternative.
Pornography is an issue that we need to tackle as a society. Too often we are forcing children to deal with exposure of sexually explicit media without even realizing what it is. The only way to fight against the powerhouse of porn is through education. Adolescents need to understand what pornography does to their minds and too often they don’t find out they're addicted until it's too late. Raising awareness is the best way to ensure that this harmful drug which fosters depression, less progressive gender roles and higher sexual behavior can at least be slowed down if not stopped.