LifeSiteNews: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/20-of-boys-in-late-teens-dependent-on-porn-uk-study-finds
By Ben Johnson
10/1/2013
As pornography pervades the culture, porn addicts are getting younger and younger. According to a new survey in the UK, 20 percent of boys in their late teens say they are “dependent on porn.”
According to the University of East London, one-fifth of boys said they could not become sexually stimulated without watching pornography.
In all, 97 percent of boys and 80 percent of girls who responded to the survey said they had viewed porn. Nearly a quarter of boys and eight percent of girls said they have tried to stop watching pornography but could not kick the habit.
The study involved a survey of 177 young people between the ages of 16 and 20.
Psychologists have known for years that repeated viewing of hardcore porn floods the brain’s ventral striatum with dopamine, producing a euphoric effect similar to drug addiction.
As with drug addicts, in time the viewer requires harder and harder material to get the same “high.” Of those surveyed, 13 percent of boys and 10 percent of girls said their online habits became “more and more extreme.”
In another recent study, Cambridge University researcher Dr. Valerie Voon conducted brain scans of men aged 19 to 34 who had tried unsuccessfully to give up porn, and found that their neuroscans resemble those of alcohol or heroin addicts.
“Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to developing addictions and that’s because of how their brains are developing,” professor Matt Field, an adolescent addiction psychologist at University of Liverpool, told the Telegraph.
The effects of ubiquitous smut have convinced even supporters of the sexual revolution that the open licentiousness has gone too far.
Martin Daubney, who used to edit Loaded, which he described as a “lad’s magazine” that featured copious helpings of softcore nudity, recently conducted a series of interviews with youth about porn. He says he was shocked by what he learned.
A group of 13- to 14-year-olds told him they had all seen anal porn – and virtually all had witnessed beastiality.
“Letting our children consume [porn] freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house,” Daubney told theDaily Mail.
Daubney recoiled when a 19-year-old told him, “I can’t hold down a relationship for longer than three weeks. I want porn sex with real girls, but sex with them just isn’t as good as the porn.”
The young man’s comments point out another victim of pornography: The girlfriends and wives of porn addicts.
