To easily navigate, simply click on any of the below links to take you directly to that section. All references are at the bottom of the page.

1. What porn does to the brain physically.
2. Why is it addictive?
3. What porn does to families.
4. What porn does to young adults.
5. What porn does to the youth.
6. What porn does to the workplace.
7. What porn does among church goers.
8. How much money does porn make?

1. What porn does to the brain physically.

According to Cambridge University neuropsychiatrist Dr Valerie Voon, “Until recently, scientists believed our brains were fixed, their circuits formed and finalised in childhood, or “hardwired”. Now we know the brain is “neuroplastic”, and not only can it change, but that it works by changing its structure in response to repeated mental experience.”¹

Furthermore, she goes on to say, “Once the reward centre is altered, a person will compulsively seek out the activity or place that triggered the dopamine discharge. (Like addicts who get excited passing the alley where they first tried cocaine, the patients got excited thinking about their computers.) They crave despite negative consequences. (This is why those patients could crave porn without liking it.) Worse, over time, a damaged dopamine system makes one more “tolerant” to the activity and needing more stimulation, to get the rush and quiet the craving. “Tolerance” drives a search for ramped-up stimulation, and this can drive the change in sexual tastes towards the extreme.”²

In other words, Dr Voon is stating that due to physical changes within the brain, someone who is addicted to porn will “compulsively” seek it out regardless of the consequences. But it doesn’t stop there, according to Dr Voon, eventually those addicted will need to search for a more “ramped-up stimulation” i.e. going from softcore porn to hardcore porn just to get the same “fix”.

But what’s even more interesting about Dr Voon’s findings is that even though porn users find themselves wanting and needing more and more, they don’t necessarily like it. Rather, they feel like they need it to survive.

Dr. William Struthers sounds a similar alarm, teaching that viewing pornography and masturbating actually weakens the region of our brain known as the cingulate cortex—the region that is responsible for moral and ethical decision making and willpower. This means feeling the compulsive “need” to look at porn.³

It may lead someone to engage in increasingly risky behavior, such as looking at porn at work, consuming more extreme or even illegal porn, or acting out sexually in other ways—such as visiting strip clubs or soliciting prostitutes.⁴

It may lead someone to engage in increasingly risky behavior, such as looking at porn at work, consuming more extreme or even illegal porn, or acting out sexually in other ways—such as visiting strip clubs or soliciting prostitutes.

Below are images of the brain being physically altered due to porn addiction.

To look more into Dr Voon’s findings, you can view her studies at, Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviours and Compulsive sexual behavior: Prefrontal and limbic volume interactions.

2. Why is it addictive?

While viewing pornography, there are a number of chemicals that are released:⁵

• Dopamine is a chemical that sharpens your focus and gives a sense of craving. It creates the “gotta-have-it” sensation.
• Norepinephrine creates alertness and focus. It is the brain’s version of adrenaline. It tells the brain, “Something is about to happen, and we need to get ready for it.”
• Oxytocin and vasopressin help to lay down the long-term memories for the cells. They “bind” a person’s memories to the object that gave him or her sexual pleasure.
• Endorphins are natural opiates that create a “high,” a wave of pleasure over the whole body.
• After sexual release, serotonin levels also change, bringing a sense of calm and relaxation.

Dr. Donald Hilton, a neurosurgeon, studied the effects of porn and found that it works similarly to drugs. It’s a “super-stimulus” that hijacks your natural pleasure chemicals in a way that easily leads to addiction.⁶

In a TEDx talk, Gary Wilson, a physiology teacher explains that when someone views porn, they receive wave after wave of dopamine. The brain eventually fatigues and in turn stops the production of dopamine, leaving the viewer wanting more but unable to reach the same level of satisfaction as previous times. As a result, the viewer seeks out more intense porn to get the same high as before. This leads to problems with spouses, frequent masturbation with little satisfaction, anxiety, fatigue, lack of motivation, inability to concentrate and escalating tastes for more bizarre porn.⁷

To make matters worse, the earlier an individual develops the habit of porn viewing, the more effects it will have on the brain and the harder it will be to stop viewing it.

According to Simon Lajeunesse, Phd, “Most boys seek pornography by age 10.”

Another way porn has a grip on individuals is due to unending novelty. Or in other words, there is always something new. As previously mentioned, porn viewers eventually need more “ramped-up” stimulation in order to achieve the same kind of pleasure as before.

Based on Eric Koukounas’s study, Changes in the magnitude of the eyeblink startle response during habituation of sexual arousal, he found that when men viewed porn that they had already seen, their interest went down. After viewing 16 pornographic scenes, men’s erections and arousal was going down. However, after switching to porn they had never seen before, their erections and arousal levels went skyrocketing. See the graph below for more details.

Due to the nature of online pornography, viewers have a never ending supply of stimulus that is one click away. They click to find something new and when their dopamine wears off, they can simply click and get another dose of dopamine.

3. What porn does to families.

There is no question that when it comes to porn addictions, they play a huge role in disrupting households.

• According to National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, 2010, 47% of families in the United States reported that pornography is a problem in their home.⁸
• Pornography use increases the marital infidelity rate by more than 300%.⁹
• 40 percent of people identified as “sex addicts” lose their spouses, 58 percent suffer considerable financial losses, and about 33% lose their jobs.¹⁰
• 68% of divorce cases involve one party meeting a new paramour over the internet while 56% involve one party having an “obsessive interest” in pornographic websites.¹¹

Jill Manning, a sociologist, suggests that research indicates that porn viewing is associated with:¹²

• 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.

4. What porn does to young adults.

More than 560 college students responded to an online survey:¹³

• 93% of boys and 62% of girls were exposed to pornography before 18.
• 14% of boys and 9% of girls were exposed to pornography before 13.
• 83% of boys and 57% of girls have seen group sex online.
• 69% of boys and 55% of girls have seen same-sex intercourse online.
• 39% of boys and 23% of girls have seen sexual bondage online.
• 32% of boys and 18% of girls have seen bestiality online.
• 18% of boys and 10% of girls have seen rape or sexual violence online.
• 15% of boys and 9% of girls have seen child pornography.

In 2010, a study of 304 pornographic scenes discovered that 88.2% contained physical aggression that included spanking, gagging, and slapping. 48.7% contained verbal aggression such as name calling. The targets of these aggressive acts were women and were depicted either neutral or positively to the aggression.¹⁴

Pornhub, the worlds largest and most popular pornography platform reported that in 2017:¹⁵

• 28.5 billion annual visits to the website.
• 81 million daily average visits.
• 25 billion searches performed.
• 50,000 searches per minute.
• 4,052,542 videos uploaded.

The most popular category of sexual searches is “youth”¹⁶

Porn consumption among young adults warps the brain into thinking that what they view is reality but in reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth. It creates an unrealistic view of sex and when young adults find out that what they are viewing isn’t achievable within a relationship, they will resort to porn even after having sex with a real-life person.

”The most popular category of sexual searches is “youth”

In her book, Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion, Izabella St James, who was one of Hugh Hefner’s former “official girlfriends”, described sex with Hef. Hef, in his late 70s, would have sex twice a week, sometimes with four or more of his girlfriends at once, St James among them. He had novelty, variety, multiplicity and women willing to do what he pleased. At the end of the happy orgy, wrote St James, came “the grand finale: he masturbated while watching porn”.¹⁷

5. What porn does to the youth.

According to a Symantec study, after analyzing 3.5 million online web searches done between February 2008 and July 2009, “sex” was the 4^th most used term and “porn” was the 6^th most used term. This reflects searches done by children in households that use Norton Family.¹⁸

According to a 2013 ChildLine poll of 500 children in the United Kingdom, aged 13 to 18:¹⁹

• 60% said they have been asked for a explicit picture or video of themselves.
• 38% said they had created a sext. Of these, 32% said they had sent it to someone they knew online only (a stranger).

These stats are scary no doubt.

According to a report commissioned by Congress, in 2004, 70 million individuals visited pornographic web sites each week and about 11 million of them were younger than 18.²⁰

What this is saying is, is 1 out of every 7 individuals who visit porn sites are children.

”1 out of every 7 individuals who visit porn sites are children.”

Furthermore, pornography hinders sexual development. Viewing pornography by teens disorients them during the developmental phase to uncertainty about their sexual beliefs and values. Teens now have 24/7 access to porn and its laying the foundation for their sexual tastes.

6. What porn does to the workplace.

According to a survey conducted by the Barna Group in 2014:²¹

• 63% of adult men viewed porn at least once while at work in the past three months. 38% have looked at porn more than once while at work.
• 36% of adult women viewed porn at least once while at work in the past three months. 13% have looked at porn more than once while at work.

A study of 474 human resource professionals conducted by Business & Legal Reports in 2003 found that:²²

• Two-thirds found pornography on employee computers
• 43% they had found it more than once.

In a study done by Webroot, a cybersecurity company, it is estimated that there is an annual productivity loss to companies of $16.9 billion dollars due to employees viewing porn while on the job.²³

This would make sense when considering the report from Message Labs, from March 2004, 70% of internet porn traffic occurred between 9:00am and 5:00pm, when most people are at work.²⁴

7. What porn does among church goers.

As a faith-based nonprofit, it is because of the below stats (and many more reasons) that The One Lost Sheep Ministries was formed. Help us change these numbers.

64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian woman view pornography at least once a month.²⁵

In 2003, 34% of female readers of Today’s Christian Woman’s newsletter admitted to intentionally accessing pornographic websites.²⁶

41% of Christian boys aged 13-24 use porn at least once a month.²⁷

28% of Christian men and 11% of Christian women say they were first exposed to pornography before the age of 12.²⁸

1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors use porn on a regular basis and are currently struggling. That’s more than 50,000 U.S. church leaders.²⁹

43% of senior pastors and youth pastors say they have struggled with pornography in the past.³⁰

7% of pastors report their church has a ministry program for those struggling with porn.³¹

8. How much money does porn make?

This section is by far the hardest to determine as there are wildly different estimates when it comes to the dollar amount of what pornography brings annually. Some estimates are $10 billion annual revenue to $20 billion in revenue.

It would also be important to note that these estimates are more than six years old and others over 10 years old. It is difficult to determine because in order to know this, than you would need to know every single producer, platform and buyer of every single person involved and that’s simply impossible.

And also note, this is just based on paid services (ie porn subscriptions) and obviously not including the amount of porn that is “free”.

Webroot states:³²

Every second:

• 28,258 users are watching porn.
• $3,075.64 is being spent on it.
• 372 people are typing the word “adult” in search engines

Everyday

• 37 pornographic videos are created in the United States (this is grossly underestimated when compared to Pornhubs stats above)
• 2.5 billion emails containing porn are sent or received.
• 116,000 queries related to child pornography are received.

Based off their findings that every second there is $3,075.64 spent on porn, let’s do the math:

$3,075.64 x 60 seconds = $184,538.40

$184,538.40 x 60 minutes in an hour = $11,072.304

$11,072.304 x 24 hours in a day = $265,735,296

$265,735,296 x 365 days = $96, 993,383,040

This means $96, 993,383,040 is spent on porn globally every year.  

References

1. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/26/brain-scans-porn-addicts-sexual-tastes
2. Ibid.
3. https://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/brain-chemicals-and-porn-addiction/
4. Ibid
5. https://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/why-is-porn-addictive/
6. Donald Hilton Jr., “How Pornography & Drugs Changes Your Brain,” Salvo (2010), accessed at https://salvomag.com/article/salvo13/slave-master
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_pornography_statistics#cite_note-Internet_Usage_bsecure-4
9. Steven Stack, Ira Wasserman, and Roger Kern, “Adult Social Bonds and Use of Internet Pornography,” Social Science Quarterly 85 (2004): 75-88.
10. Mary Anne Layden, Ph.D. (Center for Cognitive Therapy, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania), Testimony for U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, November 18, 2004, 2
11. The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family, and Community,” by Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., psychologist, and former Deputy Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary.
12. Jill Manning, “Hearing on pornography’s impact on marriage & the family,” U.S. Senate Hearing: Subcommittee on theConstitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, Committee on Judiciary, Nov. 10, 2005. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/manning_testimony_11_10_05.pdf (accessed June 7, 2018).
13. Chiara Sabina, Janis Wolak, and David Finkelhor, “The nature and dynamics of Internet pornography exposure for youth,” CyberPsychology and Behavior 11 (2008): 691-693.
14. Ana Bridges, Robert Wosnitzer, Chyng Sun, and Rachael Liberman, “Aggression and sexual behavior in best-sellingpornography videos: A content analysis update,” Violence Against Women 16 (Oct. 2010): 1065-1085.
15. “The Most Viewed Porn Categories Of 2017 Are Pretty Messed Up.” Fight the New Drug. https://fightthenewdrug.org/pornhub-reports-most-viewed-porn-of-2017/ (accessed May 21, 2018).
16. Ogasa and Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts.
17. Ibid.
18. BBC News, “Kids top searches include ‘Porn,’” Aug. 12, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8197143.stm (accessed June 7, 2018).
19. Daniel Martin, “60% of teens face ‘sexting’ pressure: More than half have been asked to take explicit self-portrait in practice that is now seen as ‘pretty normal’ by youngsters,” DailyMail.co.uk. Oct. 16, 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ article-2463751/Sexting-More-half-teens-asked-explicit-self-portraits.html (accessed June 7, 2018)
20. “Protecting Kids Online,” The Washington Post, July 1, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A193072004Jun30.html (accessed June 7, 2018).
21. Barna Group, 2014 Pornography Survey and Statistics.
22. Michael Leahy, Porn @ Work: Exposing the Office’s #1 Addiction (Chicago: Northfield Publishing, 2009).
23. “The Most Viewed Porn Categories Of 2017 Are Pretty Messed Up.” Fight the New Drug. https://fightthenewdrug.org/pornhub-reports-most-viewed-porn-of-2017/ (accessed May 21, 2018).
24. Leahy, Porn @ Work.
25. Barna Group, 2014 Pornography Survey and Statistics.
26. Ramona Richards, “Dirty little secret,” Today’s Christian Woman, Sept. 2003. http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/ articles/2003/september/5.58a.html (accessed June 7, 2018).
27. McDowell. The Porn Phenomenon.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. “Internet Pornography by the Numbers; A Significant Threat to Society.” Webroot Smarter Cybersecurity. https://www.webroot. com/us/en/resources/tips-articles/internet-pornography-by-the-numbers (accessed May 21, 2018).