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WASHINGTON, November 19, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pornography was compared to crack cocaine Thursday when a US Senate hearing discussing the dangers of the addiction called on members to endorse a public health campaign warning of the dangers.  “We’re so afraid to talk about sex in our society that we really give carte blanche to the people who are producing this kind of material,” pornography researcher from Virginia Tech, professor James B. Weaver said, as reported by the Associated Press.

Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan) organized the meeting, which revealed that internet pornography is destroying families and harming children. Unsolicited e-mails and inadvertent links to sexually explicit materials on the internet are the norm.  University of Pennsylvania sexual trauma program co-director Mary Anne Layden said pornography addiction has similar effects on the brain as heroin or crack cocaine addiction.

Sen. Brownback called for more research to uncover the destructive effect of pornography addiction. Weaver admitted that studies “directly assessing the impact of pornography addiction on families and communities is rather limited.” He said that existing research suggests, however, that extended exposure to pornography creates “sexual callousness, the erosion of family values and diminished sexual satisfaction.”  In June, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an injunction against enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), requiring commercial content-providers operating on the internet to restrict access by children from pornography defined as “material harmful to minors.”

Read the related LifeSiteNews.com report: U.S. Supreme Court Rules 5-4 against Protecting Children from Internet Porn https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062908.html   tv