Tag Archive for: porn harms

PODCAST: What It Will Take To End Sexploitation

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In a follow up Dawn Hawkins, as the new CEO of NCOSE, wants to share more about HOW we can achieve a world free from sexual abuse and exploitation.

Hear about my vision:

Before any real problem solving can be done, it’s essential the problem is properly laid out and defined. That’s why NCOSE’s work to expose the interconnected web of sexual exploitation issues is so critical to achieving our vision—we cannot solve one problem while ignoring the influences and tangled nature of another.

Our nearly 60-year history has given us a unique, panoramic perspective which enables us to see that we cannot succeed in preserving human dignity if we approach the work from a narrow lens, such as a singular religious, political, or social perspective. It’s this wisdom that has allowed NCOSE to adapt and change over the past decade to unite and grow a movement and address current issues while utilizing myriad advocacy tools, cutting-edge tactics, and the latest research.

NCOSE has built a diverse team of top experts, broad coalition partners, and a deep grassroots network and it now leads the movement to end sexual abuse and exploitation through research, litigation, and corporate and legislative advocacy

This is what it will take to build a world free from sexual abuse and exploitation: 

  1. Destabilize the pornography industry and make pornography intolerable in society. Pornography does not have room to exist in a world that truly believes in human love, connection, and equality.
  2. Stop sex buying to end sex trafficking and all exploitation. The world should not allow and even celebrate the commodification of any human being, especially the most vulnerable, who are preyed upon by the commercial sex industry.
  3. Protect children online. The Internet should be a safe space for all, including the children who are now growing up with access to people and unlimited information.

Read About Our Tactics Here

With your help, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation has made significant progress on these three objectives and more in just the last few years. Best of all, there are more victories and accomplishments to come!

The light of human dignity will always burn brighter than the shadow of exploitation. By eschewing the boundaries of politics, religion, and other divisive backgrounds, NCOSE is in a unique position to ignite that light and continue to bring organizations and individuals from all walks of life out of the shadows of a world that allows and normalizes sexual exploitation to thrive.

All our work is dedicated to realizing the vision of a world free from sexual abuse and exploitation—a world I know is possible.

EDITORS NOTE: This NCOSE column with podcast is republished with permission. ©All right reserved.

We Can’t Solve the Sexual Assault Problem Unless We Solve The Porn Problem

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The porn industry is an example of “limbic capitalism”, a business system in which global industries encourage excessive consumption and addiction.

The issue of sexual assault has been at the forefront of the public mind of late. This is largely due to the shocking revelations of a study released earlier this year that claimed 86 percent of women aged 18-24 had experienced sexual assault in a public space. A previous study in 2014 found that 33 percent of women across the EU had suffered physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15.

The difference in these findings is probably more to do with methodology than with anything else. However, whichever study paints the more accurate picture, there is clearly a crisis in sexuality that cannot be solved by simply setting a curfew for men and it would be a fruitless exercise to attempt to change the current culture without first addressing the problem of porn among young men.

A survey conducted in 2020 found that men across Western European countries consumed, on average, 70 minutes of porn a day – while 2.2 percent of respondents consumed more than seven hours. More shocking still is the level of consumption by children and young teenagers. In Australia, research shows, 93 percent of adolescent boys have been regularly exposed to pornography, and children as young as seven are exposed to it due to availability via online devices.

The pandemic and subsequent lockdown policies have exacerbated the problem and have been instrumental in the rise of the pornography platform “OnlyFans” which has been used by many “sex workers”.

The porn industry is an example of “limbic capitalism”. The historian David Courtwright has coined this term “to describe a technologically advanced but socially regressive business system in which global industries, often with the help of complicit governments and criminal organisations, encourage excessive consumption and addiction. They do so by targeting the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for feeling…”

Consumers are trapped in damaging cycles of behaviour the consequences of which are only now becoming clear. Much of the male population is now exploited by the sex “industry” – though clearly not as much as many of the women “working” in it – and it is having terrible effects.

The consumption of pornography has many perverse consequences. In fact, there is pretty strong evidence that porn consumption and sexual assault are closely linked. Studies show that porn makes many consumers more likely to support violence against women; to believe that women secretly enjoy being raped; and actually to behave in a sexually aggressive manner in real life. The aggression may take many forms – verbally harassing or pressuring someone for sex; emotionally manipulating such a person; threatening to end a relationship unless “favours” be granted;  deceiving or lying to another about sex; or even physically assaulting them. The campaign Everyone’s Invited provides yet more testimony to the effect of pornography on relationships between the sexes.

There has been little recognition of the destructive impact pornography has on the perception of what is appropriate sexual conduct. The sex industry debases and exploits women. Men are wholly capable of having fictitious and “satisfying” interactions with women where the concept of consent and rejection are entirely absent. The issue of sexual assault can never truly be tackled unless we can solve the problem of pornography.

Most men living in Western Europe and the USA do respect women and that is a mark in some measure of how advanced and humane our civilisation is, but the prevalence of porn is a sign of decadence and moral decline. Women must be treated with the dignity that is theirs as fellow children of God, and not as mere objects for sexual gratification.

This article has been republished from Conservatives Global

Greg Teague

Greg Teague is currently studying a Masters degree in Early Modern History at King’s College, London. More by Greg Teague

RELATED ARTICLE: Germany: Two women are gang-raped every day, half of the suspects are Muslim migrants

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Why Do People Cheat? The Link Between AshleyMadison and Pornography

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Pornography and AshleyMadison are linked in more ways than you might suppose.

As many of us now know, AshleyMadison is a website designed to help people cheat on their significant other without getting caught. Recently, a hacking group leaked the personal data of more than 30 million AshleyMadison users, exposing predominantly married men who have been using the website to have affairs. Those who have been exposed range from top Department of Justice officials to affiliates of pro-family organizations; individuals who, on the surface, would not appear to be likely to have an affair.

Due to these recent events, many individuals are asking: what causes someone to cheat?

While there are many influences that can contribute to a person having an affair, pornography use is a typical, consistent, factor in extramarital affairs.

Pornography has been shown to make its users less satisfied with their existing partner. A 2013 studyPornography is causing a public health crisis-2published in the journal of Social, Psychological and Personality Science has found that people in committed relationships who view pornographic materials are more likely to cheat on their partners than those who don’t.Porn offers users the fantasy of no-strings-attached sexual gratification with multiple extremely attractive partners. Those erotic images, the study found, re-wire the users’ brains to assume that there are a multitude of attractive and willing sexual partners available outside their current relationships. According to researcher Patrick Fagan, PhD, a psychologist and former Deputy Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary, pornography use is correlated with an increase in infidelity of more than 300%.

This link between pornography and cheating is not news to AshleyMadison. AshleyMadison has frequently advertised on porn websites, so that stimulated individuals who are looking for the next best thing are encouraged to sign up for the service.

For many viewers of pornography, their need for new sexual excitement does not stop at the screen. Research has shown that porn users develop the need for increased stimuli in order to get the same “high,” similar to drug users. Eventually, many are driven to “act out” what they’ve been watching, and because yesterday’s hardcore, extreme, pornography is mainstream today, this often means that wives or girlfriends are unwilling to perform certain degrading or painful sexual acts which are popular in porn. The porn user then must find someone else to fulfill these desires; whether it be a prostituted person, a human trafficking victim, or an affair on AshleyMadison.

The bottom line is that porn harms relationships, and it has been doing so for years. In a 2004 testimony before the U.S. Senate, Dr. Jill Manning shared her research, which found that 56 percent of divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic websites.

Pornography is causing a public health crisis in America by not only contributing to sex trafficking, child abuse, and lifelong addictions, but also by stripping many individuals of the ability to have lasting meaningful relationships. In a pornified culture, where men are trained to view women as disposable means to pleasure, and women are bred to accept their role as sexual objects, AshleyMadison is an inevitable product.

To take a stand against the porn industry, and organizations facilitating sexual exploitation, visit: http://pornharmsaction.com

Watch our video, here: