Washington, DC (December 15, 2021) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) commended Billie Eilish for speaking out about how watching pornography has negatively impacted her life.
“I think porn is a disgrace. I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11. … I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn,” she said.
“Billie Eilish is absolutely right: pornography is destructive. Her testimony sadly matches what research about the harms of pornography show: that childhood exposure to pornography affects children’s developing brains and normalizes the sexual violence, exploitation and abuse so frequently seen in online pornography,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Modern online pornography is filled with extreme sexual violence, child sexual abuse, racism, and other disturbing and abusive content. Online pornography platforms are designed to hook even casual viewers to seek even more violent and extreme content. And there is no such thing as ‘ethical’ pornography – no matter whether it’s a woman or man producing it, pornography is created to keep the viewer watching and to dehumanize those used to create it.”
Recent research has shown that 1 in 8 (12%) of the video titles on largest mainstream pornography sites in the U.K. (Pornhub, XVideos, and Xhamster) described activities that constitute sexual violence. Much of the material described likely depicted evidence of real sexual assaults and non-consensual distribution of sexually explicit material. Thus, children who end up these sites are being socialized to sexually violent pornography from the very outset of their exposure to pornography.
“We are saddened that Eilish’s life has been negatively impacted from being exposed to pornography, especially at such a young age, and we hope she finds healing. We are grateful for her courage in speaking out about pornography’s destructive influence,” Hawkins said.
For more information on the harms of pornography, please visit: endsexualexploitation.org/research.
