Does watching porn affect potency? What is the opinion of scientists?
Opponents of free access to pornography and activists from various religious groups call the internet a breeding ground for evil. They believe the World Wide Web is awash in pornography, which they consider extremely dangerous to the moral state of society. These people decided to meticulously calculate the amount of pornographic content found online.
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Why these calculations?
But how do they know how much pornography is actually on the Internet? From a common-sense perspective, rather than from a religious perspective, such an understanding is necessary for one purpose: to understand how much pornography actually exists online. That is, to prevent children and the mentally retarded from viewing inappropriate content.
However, when it comes to adults, these data are merely an interesting reflection of global trends. Unlike adherents of various religious schools, secularists do not consider pornography dangerous. There is no reason to restrict online sharing, at least for those over 18 and of sound mind and memory.
How_prevalent_is_pornography:_research_by_conservatives
First, let’s consider the research of those who see pornography as a threat to morality and ethics. Activists have conducted extensive research on this issue. And here’s what they found:
- By 2015, the total number of search queries worldwide exceeded 2 billion.
- About 20% of all these queries were related to pornography.
- Unfortunately, up to 90% of boys and 60% of girls under 18 encounter pornographic content.
- Up to 56% of divorces are related to one spouse’s obsession with pornography (usually men).
- Partners who are faithful to their husbands and wives are half as likely to watch porn. Those who are prone to infidelity do not pass up the opportunity to indulge in yet another erotic video.
Similar statistics were obtained by the Internet Safey-101 agency. Their research shows that:
- Porn sites attract more visitors daily than sites like Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter combined.
- About 30% of all online videos are pornographic.
- 88% of these videos contain scenes of violence against women.
- The search query “teen porn” tripled between 2005 and 2013.
Read also: Does watching porn affect potency? What do scientists think?
Anti-pornography advocates claim that men who become addicted to XXX-rated videos from a young age are at risk of impotence. They are mistaken.
This is a disappointing statistic for anti-pornography advocates. However, other studies also exist, showing slightly more modest figures.
Yet_another_scientific_study
A similar study was conducted by scientists Ogi Ogus and Sayem Gadam. They analyzed billions of search queries. Of the million most popular sex websites, only 42,337 were found to be related. That’s approximately 4%.
As for pornographic films, these scientists estimate that their volume accounts for 13 to 15% of all content. Ogas and Gaddam believe that overall, pornography accounts for less than 10% of the total volume of the global internet.
Penetrating_the_darknet! We find something interesting there.
Reasons for the Differences
What are the reasons for the differences in the data? Ogus and Gaddam believe the problem lies in the fact that these conservative studies were conducted in the early days of the internet. They were conducted between 1997 and 1999. At that time, the majority of internet users worldwide were predominantly young adult males.
It’s no surprise that in 1999, 40% of search engine queries contained the keyword “pornography.” However, as the internet’s demographics began to expand to include other segments of the population, the share of pornography in search engine queries decreased significantly.
American scientists: the danger of the internet is exaggerated
Of course, as before, minors must be protected from exposure to explicit content. But for adult men and women, pornography poses no danger. And, as always, the role of global networks in this regard has been overestimated.
A long-term study conducted by Indiana University included 14,193 men aged 18 and older. Researchers found that the ubiquity of online pornography has little overall impact on the consumption of such content.
For several years, participants were asked the same question: “Have you viewed pornography in the last year?” It was found that from 1987 to 1997, 32% of men viewed pornographic magazines in the decade preceding the advent of the internet. From 1998 to 2010, this figure remained virtually unchanged, reaching 34%, an increase of only 2%.
As the saying goes, the devil is not as bad as he is made out to be. And those who want to protect young people from pornography can get by with standard blockers. Therefore, the overall amount of pornography online is unlikely to worry them.
