March 31, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — The Arkansas legislature passed a resolution on Tuesday formally recognizing the public health harms of pornography, which include lessening men’s sensitivity to sexual violence against women.
Arkansas is the latest in a string of states to debate the public health dangers of pornography and is one of several to formally pass a resolution recognizing the importance of the issue. Utah, South Dakota, and Virginia have passed similar resolutions against pornography in at least one legislative body. One is under consideration in the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Arkansas resolution, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Karilyn Brown, warns that “exposure to pornography may serve as sex education for children and youth and lead to the hypersexualization of teenagers and even prepubescent children,” and that “recent research indicates that pornography is potentially biologically addictive.”
The Utah resolution states that “due to advances in technology and the universal availability of the Internet, young children are exposed to what used to be referred to as hard core, but is now considered mainstream, pornography at an alarming rate.”
The movement is international. Canada has commissioned a study into the negative impacts of online pornography.
Many harmful effects
At a 2015 Capitol Hill symposium sponsored by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), a leading anti-pornography group, Wheelock College sociology professor Gail Dines presented on the harmful effects of pornography use to young men and boys. Dines said research shows that youth with greater pornography exposure are more likely to:
Have sex at a younger age
Engage in risky sexual behavior
Have negative attitudes toward using condoms
Have oral sex, anal sex, and sex with multiple partners, which increases their risk for sexually transmitted infections
View women as sex objects
Have attitudes that support violence against women
Believe “rape myths”—beliefs that justify or defend rape
Report decreased empathy for rape victims
Choose not to intervene when witnessing college sexual assault
Have increasingly aggressive behavioral tendencies
Report increased interest in coercing partners into unwanted sex acts
Experience increased difficulty in developing intimate relationships with partners
Report decreased sexual interest in their girlfriends or wives
Develop compulsive Internet use
“We are in the midst of a digital and sexual health revolution,” said NCOSE executive director Dawn Hawkins. “Personal stories from millennials who experienced negative side effects from exposure to Internet pornography at a young age, and peer-reviewed research, combine to paint a clear picture: pornography harms individuals regardless of age, race, or sexual orientation.”
Hawkins compared today’s growing societal awareness on the health hazards of pornography to an era not long ago when “the American public considered smoking innocuous — some doctors even touted faulty research claiming smoking was beneficial.”
She said pornography, like tobacco, is a “toxic substance.”
”Just like the culture shifted regarding tobacco, I believe the general public will come to recognize the public health harms of pornography as they personally experience its negative effects and learn about the existing research,” she said.
Hawkins points to research showing that pornography is linked to decreased erectile function, increased rates of sexual violence, and several neurological harms. According to NCOSE, since 2009 there have been 30 neurological studies showing that pornography negatively affects brain structure and function, including actual shrinkage of brain regions used for motivation and decision-making.
For an overview of representative research on the harms of pornography, visit NCOSE’s endsexualexploitation.org/publichealth.