NEW STUDY DETAILS PORNOGRAPHY EFFECTS

As part of Sutherland Institute’s ongoing effort to protect the family as the fundamental unit of society, the Utah-based public policy organization has joined with the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. to release a new study that comprehensively details the effects of pornography on marriages, children, communities, and individual happiness.

The study, The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family, and Community, synthesizes all available research on the effects of pornography on families and communities.

According to the Family Research Council, pornography distorts an individual’s concept of the nature of conjugal relations, which, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior.  In undermining marriage, it is one of the major factors in the undermining of social stability.

Social scientists, clinical psychologists, and biologists have begun to clarify some of the social and psychological effects, and neurologists are beginning to delineate the biological mechanisms through which pornography produces its powerful negative effects.  Among the study’s findings:

• Men who view pornography regularly have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual aggression, and sexual promiscuity.
• Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their conjugal relations and less emotionally attached to their wives.  Wives notice and are upset by the difference.
• Pornography engenders greater sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to a greater risk of out-of-wedlock births and STDs, which in turn lead to still more weaknesses and debilities.
• The presence of sexually-oriented businesses significantly harms the surrounding community, leading to increases in crime and decreases in property values.
• Child sex offenders are more likely to view pornography regularly or to be involved in its distribution.
• Pornography eliminates the warmth of affectionate family life, which is the natural social nutrient for the growing child.

The report’s author, Dr. Patrick F. Fagan, also adds that the main defenses against pornography are a close family life, a good marriage, and good relations between parents and children, coupled with deliberate parental monitoring of Internet use.

“Given the massive, deleterious individual, marital, family, and social effects of pornography, it is time for citizens, communities, and government to reconsider their laissez-faire approach,” he said.