The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research
Posted by NPNAdmin at 5/29/2007 5:12 PM 
Categories: Media Ethics, Sexual Education, Impact of Porn, Marriage, Porn Addiction, Child Molestation, First Amendment
Categories: Media Ethics, Sexual Education, Impact of Porn, Marriage, Porn Addiction, Child Molestation, First Amendment
Jill Manning is a Social Sciences Fellow in Domestic Policy for the Heritage Foundation. She testified about the impact of porn to the US Senate in November 2005 (transcript). She summarizes her findings:
Since the advent of the Internet, the pornography industry has profited from an unprecedented proximity to the home, work and school environments. Consequently, couples, families, and individuals of all ages are being impacted by pornography in new and often devastating ways.Manning elaborates in her research review, "The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research" (August 2005, PDF). Here are selected excerpts. We have removed the footnote numbers for readability, but they are present in the original paper and are an excellent resource for those who want to investigate further:
Although many parents work diligently to protect their family from sexually explicit material, research funded by Congress has shown Internet pornography to be “very intrusive.” Additionally, we know that a variety of fraudulent, illegal and unethical practices are used to attract new customers and eroticize attitudes that undermine public health and safety. This profit-driven assault jeopardizes the well-being of our youth and violates the privacy of those who wish not to be exposed.
Leading experts in the field of sexual addictions contend on-line sexual activity is “a hidden public health hazard exploding, in part because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously.”
Research reveals many systemic effects of Internet pornography that are undermining an already vulnerable culture of marriage and family. Even more disturbing is the fact that the first Internet generations have not reached full-maturity, so the upper-limits of this impact have yet to be realized. Furthermore, the numerous negative effects research point to are extremely difficult, if not impossible, for individual citizens or families to combat on their own.
This testimony is not rooted in anecdotal accounts or personal views, but rather in findings from studies published in peer-reviewed research journals. I have submitted a review of this research to the Committee, and request that it be included in the record.
The marital relationship is a logical point of impact to examine because it is the foundational family unit and a sexual union easily destabilized by sexual influences outside the marital contract. Moreover, research indicates the majority of Internet users are married and the majority seeking help for problematic sexual behaviour online are married, heterosexual males. The research indicates pornography consumption is associated with the following six trends, among others:These trends reflect a cluster of symptoms that undermine the foundation upon which successful marriages and families are established.
- Increased marital distress, and risk of separation and divorce,
- Decreased marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction,
- Infidelity
- Increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal or unsafe practices,
- Devaluation of monogamy, marriage and child rearing,
- An increasing number of people struggling with compulsive and addictive sexual behaviour.
While the marital bond may be the most vulnerable relationship to Internet pornography, children and adolescents are the most vulnerable audience.
When a child lives in a home where an adult is consuming pornography, he or she encounters the following four risks:When a child or adolescent is directly exposed the following effects have been documented:
- Decreased parental time and attention
- Increased risk of encountering pornographic material
- Increased risk of parental separation and divorce and
- Increased risk of parental job loss and financial strain
This leadership could unfold in a variety of ways. For example, through:
- Lasting negative or traumatic emotional responses,
- Earlier onset of first sexual intercourse, thereby increasing the risk of STD’s over the lifespan,
- The belief that superior sexual satisfaction is attainable without having affection for one’s partner, thereby reinforcing the commoditization of sex and the objectification of humans.
- The belief that being married or having a family are unattractive prospects;
- Increased risk for developing sexual compulsions and addictive behavior,
- Increased risk of exposure to incorrect information about human sexuality long before a minor is able to contextualize this information in ways an adult brain could.
- And, overestimating the prevalence of less common practices (e.g., group sex, bestiality, or sadomasochistic activity). Because the United States is ranked among the top producers and consumers of pornography globally, the federal government has a unique opportunity to take a lead in addressing this issue and the related harm.
- Educating the public about the risks of pornography consumption,
- Supporting research that examines aspects of Internet pornography currently unknown,
- Allocating resources to enforce laws already in place, and lastly,
- Legally implement technological solutions that separate Internet content, allowing consumers to choose the type of legal content they wish to have access to.
Internet pornography is distinct from other forms of pornography because of the “Triple-A Engine” effect of accessibility, affordability and anonymity — a combination of traits unique to the virtual square...
The “Triple-A Engine” effect, in particular, is widely accepted as the primary reason why many pre-existing problems with other forms of pornography have been exacerbated in the last decade, and why many individuals have been drawn into problematic pornography consumption that otherwise would not been involved with this material prior to the advent of the Internet...
The other unprecedented characteristic of Internet pornography is the ease with which children and adolescents have access to it – both solicited and unsolicited access...
Catherine Itzin is another researcher who argues pornography is associated with harm. In her edited compilation Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties, Itzin points out that papers by Einsiedel, Weaver, and Russell, review over 300 pieces of research and that the majority of the studies reviewed provide support for pornography-related harm...
Mulac, Jansma, and Linz [2002] studied 71 men interacting with women in problem-solving dyads after watching one of three types of films: (1) sexually explicit and degrading to women, (2) sexually explicit but nondegrading, and (3) non-sexual. Results showed that the men who viewed either of the sexually explicit films displayed more dominance and anxiety, ignored the contributions of their partner more often, touched their partner for longer periods of time, and averted gaze more than the participants who had viewed the non-sexual film. The researchers concluded the impact of sexually explicit material on behavior is more complex than is often assumed in pornography research, but that a negative impact exists...
[In a meta-analysis of 46 studies published in various academic journals,] Oddone-Paolucci, Genuis, and Violato found that exposure to pornographic material puts one at increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies [e.g., excessive or ritualistic masturbation], committing sexual offenses, experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and accepting rape myths. In terms of the degree of risk, the analysis revealed a 31 percent increase in the risk of sexual deviancy, a 22 percent increase in the risk of sexual perpetration, a 20 percent increase in the risk of experiencing negative intimate relationships, and a 31 percent increase in the risk of believing rape myths...
In North American culture, it is most common for people to select a marriage partner according to romantic love as opposed to family arrangement or economic necessity. Research by Roberts (1982), Davis and Todd (1982), Davis (1985), and Bergner (2000) is useful in clarifying what romantic love entails from a social science perspective. They found that romantic love embodies the following characteristics: (a) investment in the well-being of the beloved, (b) respect, (c) admiration, (d) sexual desire, (e) intimacy, (f) commitment, (g) exclusivity, and (h) understanding...
...when there are violations to these characteristics and the violations are sufficient in magnitude, partners will commonly conclude that they are no longer loved as they once were and re-evaluates their place in their partners’ world. As Bergner and Bridges (2002) point out, many women who discover a partner’s intense involvement with pornography engage in just such a reappraisal of their relationship...
Maurer found three common traits that distinguish sexually satisfied couples from unsatisfied couples: (1) acceptance of one’s own sexuality, (2) listening to one’s partner and being aware of a partner’s likes and dislikes, and (3) open and honest communication.
Moreover, according to data from the General Social Survey in 2000 (N = 531), people who report being happily married are 61 percent less likely to report using Internet pornography compared to those who also used the Internet and who had completed the General Social Survey in 2000...
...the following observations were made by [the 350 attendees of the November 2002 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers] polled with regard to why the Internet had played a role in divorces that year...56 percent of the divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic websites...
Whitty (2003) also found that both men and women perceive online sexual activity as an act of betrayal that is as authentic and real as offline acts and that Internet pornography use correlated significantly with emotional infidelity (N = 1,117; 468 males and 649 females)...
Many youth in Black, Dillon, and Carnes’ (2003) study experienced: (a) anger for the pain caused to the family, (b) embarrassment, (c) fear of the financial ramifications, (d) guilt, (e) confusion over the implications for their parent’s marriage and the family as a whole, or (f) reached out emotionally to take care of the other parent. Other children found relief and validation at having the problem formally disclosed to them because it validated the confusion, anger, and mixed messages that they had lived with for so long...
...only 3 percent of pornographic websites require proof of age before granting access to sexually explicit material... Although age verification measures are readily available through the use of credit cards, adult access codes, and/or personal identification numbers, the pornography industry has neglected to implement these measures even half-heartedly...
Studies have also shown that while there is an abundance of sexual content in the media, little is shown regarding sexual responsibility and the consequences of risky sexual behaviors...
...researchers found that pornography-blocking software has a minimal impact on one’s access to information about sexual and reproductive health. For example, they found blocking software set at moderate settings blocked 90 percent of the pornographic content online while blocking only 5 percent of health information...
Erotica
While erotica has also been defined as literature or art intended to arouse sexual desire, it is distinguished from pornography in that it is void of violence, illegal portrayals (e.g., children), sexism, racism, and homophobia, and is respectful of the human beings involved. Although definitions of erotica can be as subjective as definitions of pornography, for the purposes of this paper, they are treated as distinct genres of work, with erotica viewed as less severe in its consequences, albeit less researched in the current body of data...
Although not all consumers of pornography struggle with a sexual addiction, it is understood that the majority of sexual addictions include pornography consumption to some degree, or did at some point in its etiology. This assumption is rooted in clinical observations by mental health professionals, as well as the persistent theme of pornography use in the sexual addiction research literature...
In terms of how many people struggle with this kind of problem, experts in the field of sexual addictions estimate approximately 3 to 6 percent of the U.S. adult population has a diagnosable sexual addiction...
The distinction between healthy and addictive sexual behavior, as outlined in Table 3 from the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, is viewed as a concise and informed paradigm for understanding the differences between these two types of behavior.
Table 3. Indicators of Healthy and Addictive Sexual Behaviors
Healthy Sexual Behavior
Mutual consent (free will)
Behavior is a want or desire
Fulfilling, enhancing, mood stabilizing
Personal interchange of emotion
Rare negative consequences
Enhanced self-worth
Sexual behavior is fulfilling, satiating
Balanced sexual behavior
Addictive Sexual Behavior
Coercion, victimization, and force
Behavior is a compulsion for instant gratification
Associated with severe mood shifts
Impersonal and emotional detachment
Negative consequences
Negative self-worth, shame, guilt
Lack of satiation, tolerance
Erratic sexual behaviors (excessive vs. anorexic)
...By eroticizing behaviors and values that are destabilizing to marriage, family, and the social good (e.g., rape, incest, child abuse, and bestiality), pornography becomes a powerful means through which maladaptive sexual behavior is normalized and learned...
Internet pornography is understood to be a potentially addictive delivery system and is therefore understood within an addiction framework as opposed to a form of speech or expression. Viewing Internet pornography as addictive is a distinction that neuroscience has helped us clarify...
An anti-pornography position does not represent an anti-sex view. Claiming these two perspectives are synonymous is viewed as a common tactic for avoiding the core issues related to pornography. Because pornography contains fraudulent messages that can misinform children, adolescents, and adults about human sexuality, an anti-pornography stance may be interpreted as an effort to defend healthy human sexuality, as well as accurate information regarding it...
Internet pornography is distinguished from...shared consumption because it is almost always consumed in a solitary, secret fashion and has a potential for compulsive or addictive elements to arise in the individual viewer...
In an attempt to present key findings in a fair manner, data regarding the benign and/or positive impact of Internet pornography on marriage and family were sought. While research exists to support children, adolescents, and adults having access to the Internet, no studies could be found regarding the positive impact of Internet pornography specifically.
Added on May 30, 2007:
We appreciate that the Heritage Foundation is controversial in some circles. We don't necessarily agree with them on all issues. We reiterate our support for gay marriage. We are trying to cherry pick the best thinking from a variety of sources. For example, while we feel that Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon have many valuable things to say about porn and women, we do not support all aspects of their approach (see Jendi Reiter's review of Only Words).
In a debate, we understand the temptation to take the lazy route and try to discredit the source of information rather than sincerely engaging with arguments and evidence. We invite our opponents to meet us on the field of facts.
See also:
Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values; Women's Desire to Have Daughters Plummets
Enduring intimate relationships curtail personal freedoms to some degree. Relationships that provide economic and emotional security are based on responsibility, if not on sacrifice. And where, in such a relationship, sexuality is vital and valued, partners tend to lay claim to exclusive sexual access. Finally, the decision to have a child or children, whether by a married couple or by persons otherwise aggregated, is probably the greatest responsibility that human beings accept. It amounts to restricted freedom, servitude, and to enormous expenditures for a good portion of adult life. If sexuality is considered part and parcel of such enduring relationships, there can be no question that it comes at a forbidding price. In terms of sheer recreational sexual joy, then, these relationships compare poorly with the short-lived ones that are continually exhibited in pornography--those that invariably show that great pleasures can be had at next to no cost. Prolonged consumption of entertainment with clear messages of this kind thus must be expected to impact profoundly the perception and evaluation of sexuality and its social institutions and arrangements...
Prolonged consumption of pornography fostered greater acceptance of pre- and extramarital sexual relations for self and intimate partners. Along with that, it fostered acceptance of sexually nonexclusive relations with parters. Prolonged consumption also led to greater acceptance of the myth of health risks from sexual repression. Pornography apparently manages to convey the idea that unrestrained sexuality is wholesome and healthy, and that any restraint poses risks... Additionally, prolonged consumption of pornography was found to counteract gender equality. For intimate relationships, male dominance was favored over egalitarianism...
Pornography consumption had a most powerful effect on evaluations of the desirability and viability of marriage. Endorsement of marriage as an essential institution dropped from 60.0% in the control groups to 38.8% in the treatment groups...
...the desire of females for offspring of their own kind...after consumption of pornography, shrank to one third of its normal strength...
Dan Quayle Was Right
Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth are transforming the lives of American children. In the postwar generation more than 80 percent of children grew up in a family with two biological parents who were married to each other. By 1980 only 50 percent could expect to spend their entire childhood in an intact family. If current trends continue, less than half of all children born today will live continuously with their own mother and father throughout child hood. Most American children will spend several years in a single-mother family... [A]n increasing number of children will experience family breakup two or even three times during childhood...
Contrary to popular belief, many children do not “bounce back” after divorce or remarriage. Difficulties that are associated with family breakup often persist into adulthood. Children who grow up in single-parent or stepparent families are less successful as adults, particularly in the two domains of life—love and work—that are most essential to happiness. Needless to say, not all children experience such negative effects. However, research shows that many children from disrupted families have a harder time achieving intimacy in a relationship, forming a stable marriage, or even holding a steady job...
Overall child well-being has declined, despite a decrease in the number of children per family, an increase in the educational level of parents, and historically high levels of public spending. After dropping in the 1960s and 1970s, the proportion of children in poverty has increased dramatically, from 15 percent in 1970 to 20 percent in 1990, while the percentage of adult Americans in poverty has remained roughly constant. The teen suicide rate has more than tripled...
Increasingly, political principles of individual rights and choice shape our understanding of family commitment and solidarity. Family relationships are viewed not as permanent or binding but as voluntary and easily terminable. Moreover, under the sway of the regime effect the family loses its central importance as an institution in the civil society, accomplishing certain social goals such as raising children and caring for its members, and becomes a means to achieving greater individual happiness--a lifestyle choice. Thus, Galston says, what is happening to the American family reflects the “unfolding logic of authoritative, deeply American moral-political principles.”
One benefit of the regime effect is to create greater equality in adult family relationships. Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, enjoy relationships far more egalitarian than past relationships were, and most Americans prefer it that way. But the political principles of the regime effect can threaten another kind of family relationship--that between parent and child. Owing to their biological and developmental immaturity, children are needy dependents. They are not able to express their choices according to limited, easily terminable, voluntary agreements...
Adults have benefited from the changes in family life in important ways, but the same cannot be said for children. Indeed, this is the first generation in the nation's history to do worse psychologically, socially, and economically than its parents. Most poignantly, in survey after survey the children of broken families confess deep longings for an intact family.
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Wonderland
This DVD features a story-driven title that mixes drama with hardcore sex. Wonderland tells the story of a man obsessed with his stepdaughter's friend when she visits during Christmas break. Gary sacrifices everything in his traditional suburban existence for a single moment of ecstasy with a femme fatale.
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In this world nothing lasts forever and it looks like Kelly Erikson's husband Van needs some space. Kelly decides to invite all her friends going thru the same problems to stay and support each other. But all of Kelly's friends have an empty void in their lives they need filled and it's from a younger man!
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David and Jennifer have a marriage on the rocks. In desperation they seek out a marriage counselor who proposes a revolutionary new method of therapy. David and Jennifer have free reign to cheat on each other for the next 24 hours. Their sexual inhibitions are set free and their fantasies fulfilled as they visit The Dark Side.
Video Presentation: A Content Analysis of 50 of Today's Top Selling Porn Films (explicit language)
Ana Bridges: "...I'm going to begin to talk about what it is that we found after looking at these 304 scenes in these 50 top selling pornographic films. In total in the 304 scenes we coded a total of 3,376 acts of aggression. That ends up averaging...to an aggressive act every minute and a half. The scenes on average contained eleven and a half acts of verbal or physical aggression..."
Bridges: "We also coded for, what...we're calling loosely in this talk, 'extreme acts' (of sex acts). The only sexual sequence that we coded, which is...when one thing follows another, was something called ATM...'ass-to-mouth'. This literally involves anal penetration followed by oral sex...she is literally eating her own shit. That occurred in 41% of the scenes that we coded...
Bridges: "So how many scenes didn't contain aggression? About 10%."
Porn Use Correlates with Infidelity, Prostitution, Aggression, Rape-Supportive Beliefs
In 2004, researchers also reported in Social Science Quarterly that "Individuals who have had an extramarital affair are 3.18 times more likely to have used Internet pornography than individuals who did not have affairs."
Testimony in Minneapolis: "Pornography in the home is insidious. Girls pick up the message, they act it out, they don't know why they feel suicidal and crazy."
One example, for instance, was a young girl. By the age of four, she saw her parents sitting on the couch together reading pornographic magazines. When she tried to go join them, they were laughing and happy. She said it was the only time she saw her father's eyes light up. He felt alive. When she would try to read, they said no, no, which was confusing because they seemed happy reading this. By five years old, this young woman, at that time a young girl, would bring boys from the neighborhood, draw off her clothes the way she had seen in the magazines, and let herself be abused sexually. This is by five years old. This woman has gone through a great deal of work. She was alcoholic, very ill. She is now a student. She is now working through these things in therapy and is recovering, but she had never herself made the connection to the pornography. All she felt about herself [was], she was crazy, she was sick. How at five years old could I have been doing this? Pornography in the home is insidious. Girls pick up the message, they act it out, they don't know why they feel suicidal and crazy. I have seen this many, many times.
The Science Behind Pornography Addiction
Children who have porn-viewing fathers complain that when he looks at them it feels "creepy". The parental gaze has now become the "porn gaze". The child of the porn user finds that everything is now about sex.
Time to Explore the Links Between Porn, Testosterone, Sexual Behavior and Violence
...[T]estosterone is highly susceptible to environment. T levels can rise and fall depending on external circumstances--short term and long term. Testosterone is usually elevated in response to confrontational situations -- a street fight, a marital spat, a presidential debate--or in highly charged sexual environments, like a strip bar or a pornographic Web site...
[T]he more cellular memories (biological and physiological processes) that pornographers can link their porn to throughout the male brain and body, the greater chance they have of addicting their viewers. And the more naturally occurring drugs/hormones (especially testosterone, but also adrenaline, epinephrine, and others) flowing in the male mindbody during viewing, the more narrow will be his focus, the more intense his sexual/mindbody arousal, the more deeply the images will be imprinted in his memory, and the greater his addiction.
Pornographers achieve this combination of a high number of mindbody links and maximum drug/hormone release by mixing sexual images with male dominance, aggression and violent images intended to shock and stimulate simultaneously. Porn scenes ranging from simple "male in control" to aggression, rape, torture and murder, abound in Internet porn geared to the male viewer.
Schwyzer on Porn: "The pursuit of everlasting novelty is the enemy of actual relationship"
...no one, no one, no one, can just “compartmentalize, disconnect, and come back.” Many men think they do so with impunity, but it’s the consensus of both the theologians and the marriage and family therapists that no good life can be lived well in compartments. We are called to wholeness, Ethan; men — all men, even in their late teens in the throes of lust — are capable of matching their desires, their behavior, their hearts. Is it easy? Heck no. But is it possible? Yes. Is it desirable? You bet it is...
"Spousal Use of Pornography and Its Clinical Significance for Asian-American Women"
Many female participants in the study by Bridges et al. (2003) noted a diminution in their partner's sexual desire for them and believed that their partners had come to prefer the pornographic models to them... They reported a decline in the intimacy of their relationship, a diminished sense of their partner's commitment to them, strong feelings that their partners failed utterly to respect them or understand their emotional distress concerning the pornography, and lastly, a sense that they were living a shameful lie by presenting themselves to others as a loving and committed couple... More often than not, the woman blames herself for losing her partner to his pornographic interest. She believes that if she were a ‘good’ enough woman, she would have been able to keep her husband's attentions and affections and her loss would never have occurred...
Testimony from Northampton Shelter for Battered Women: Half of Abusers Use Pornography as a Part of the Abuse (explicit)
We have recently begun to formally ask the battered women who call us whether the abuser uses pornography and from this we conservatively estimate that at least 1/2 of the abusers use pornography as a part of the abuse. Battering is based on an issue of power and control, with the abuser using all kinds of methods to continually assert his power and control over the woman. Throughout, he is persistently working to deny her of her ability to make informed decisions about her life and through threats, coercion, and continual terror succeeds at clearly establishing himself as "in control". We frequently hear a woman say that she feels like a prisoner in her own home, and in fact, she is.
So when will you begin staging protests in front of the Comcast Store in Northampton?
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Don't know. Could be a good idea. Would you object?
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What does whether I object or not have to do with it? I just think that you spend a lot of time protesting a store that hasn't opened yet you let the cable company off the hook when they provide much more pornography than an adult store could ever hope to sell.
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It is absolutely true that porn and porn money range widely through American media and business. There are so many appropriate candidates for our attention that we are forced to choose. Capital Video, which describes itself as "the largest adult retail chain in the nation," is both a large and entirely appropriate target for anti-porn attention.
That said, we are incubating several ideas to address the larger spread of porn. You might see some of them in the coming months and years. They may not all come in the form of protests in front of retail outlets.
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We are what we eat and think. Eventually pornography erodes everything good in our lives starting with our thoughts. It certainly erodes the physical and emotional bond between spouses and a lack of oneness is felt even if nothing is said. Good Post!
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I think that people should really take extra caution before they see adult materials as they are prone to become to what they watch. Two of my friends engaged in illicit sex with the same sex beccause they peek on adult sites.
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