Internet pornography is the new crack cocaine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction, according to clinicians and researchers testifying before a Senate committee Thursday.
Witnesses before the Senate Commerce Committee's Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee spared no superlative in their description of the negative effects of pornography.
Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Cognitive Therapy, called porn the "most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today."
"The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors," Layden said. "To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it -- it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind."
Pornography addicts have a more difficult time recovering from their addiction than cocaine addicts, since coke users can get the drug out of their system, but pornographic images stay in the brain forever, Layden said.
Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist and advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality echoed Layden's concern about the internet and the somatic effects of pornography.
"Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance," Satinover said. "That is, it causes masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids. It does what heroin can't do, in effect."
The internet is dangerous because it removes the inefficiency in the delivery of pornography, making porn much more ubiquitous than in the days when guys in trench coats would sell nudie postcards, Satinover said.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), the subcommittee's chairman, called the hearing the most disturbing one he'd ever seen in the Senate. Brownback said porn was ubiquitous now, compared to when he was growing up and "some guy would sneak a magazine in somewhere and show some of us, but you had to find him at the right time."
The hearing came just days after a controversy over a sexually suggestive Monday Night Football ad that has many foreseeing a crackdown on indecency by the Federal Communications Commission.
It is unclear what the consequences of Thursday's hearing will be since it was not connected to any pending or proposed legislation.
Brownback, a conservative Christian, is also scheduled to be rotated off the sub-committee in the next session.
When Brownback asked the panelists for suggestions about what should be done, the responses were mild, considering their earlier indictment of pornography. Several suggested that federal money be allocated to fund brain-mapping studies into the physical effects of pornography.
Judith Reisman of the California Protective Parents Association suggested that more study of "erototoxins" could show how pornography is not speech-protected under the First Amendment.
The panelists all agreed that the government should fund health campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of pornography. The campaign should combat the messages of pornography by putting signs on buses saying sex with children is not OK, said Layden.
However, as the panelists themselves acknowledged, there is no consensus among mental health professionals about the dangers of porn or the use of the term "pornography addiction."
Many psychologists and most sexologists find the concepts of sex and pornography addiction problematic, said Carol Queen, staff sexologist for the San Francisco-based, woman-owned Good Vibrations.
Queen questioned the validity of the panel for not including anyone who thinks "pornography is not particularly problematic in most people's lives."
Queen acknowledges she can name people who have compulsive and destructive behavior centered on pornography, but argues that can happen with other activities, such as gambling and shopping.
Queen also criticized the methodology behind research showing that pornography stimulates the brain like drugs do, saying the research needs to take into account how sex itself stimulates the brain.
"There's no doubt the brain lights up when sexually aroused," Queen said.
Queen too would like to see more money devoted to research on sex, but thinks it is unlikely that researchers on either side of the divide are likely to receive large grants any time soon.
Studies intended to show the harmful effects of pornography must contend with ethical rules prohibiting harm to human subjects, while sex researchers have a hard time getting any funding, unless their study is specifically HIV-related, according to Queen.
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
Smell? The stink is a big enough miasma that it is almost impossible not to literally see it!
Fucking idiots...
Edi
Warwolf Urban Combat Specialist
Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp
GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan
The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
DPDarkPrimus wrote: Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist and advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality echoed Layden's concern about the internet and the somatic effects of pornography.
A porn study that equates porn to mailining heroin that is concurred by the 'National Association for Therapy of Homosexuality'?
Sounds like a "non-official instatute", doesn't it? Like something some conservative fundamentalists would come up with?
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
I still can't believe Americans get all defensive and angry when you say that their country is skewed way over to the right. What the fuck do they think the right wing looks like, if they figure they're not on it?
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
This new druggy craze "masturbation" must've grown into maturity in the alleys of corrupt cities and moved into our beautiful suburban homes to infect our innocent children. I, for one, won't stand for people pleasuring themselves sexually to Internet images of nude people.
Unless a baby comes out of it, it just ain't the American way.
This drug analogy is total bullshit, not to mention "porn addiction is worse than drugs" bullshit. My ex gf is (still) using drugs and trust me, nothing worse than drug addiction. Fundie right-wing morons just pissed me off.
I really hate idiots like this. They haven't taken a day of organic chemistry in their life and the come on to pontificate for political purposes.
Yes, because you can really overdose on endorphins and stop your breathing and fucking die. Its just a fucking insult. You have a real world harmful substance which alters your vitals to the point where you're used to being full of opiates all the time and if you cut it off your heart and blood pressure can kill you, and then these cretins comparing a real social problem like that to pornography. How come their are not legions of sexually dysfunctional screw ups in thoroughly pornographied Europe?
"You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable. Unremarkable. Shit." - Gabriel Shear, Swordfish
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi in reply to an incredibly stupid post.
The Fifth Illuminatus Primus | Warsie | Skeptical Empiricist | Florida Gator | Sustainability Advocate | LibertarianSocialist |
Petrosjko wrote:Didn't we already do this one? I recall riffing on the 'erototoxins' in a thread.
Not that we can ever bash these fuckwits enough, mind you.
Ummm... I guess erectotoxins would be more accurate. Now, speaking about fuckwits, who know some of them could be inventive enough to argue that there are *really* ejaculatoxins that would mess up with people's morality. Not to mention the dangerous orgastoxin that would be harmful to one's religious conscience.
Illuminatus Primus wrote:I really hate idiots like this. They haven't taken a day of organic chemistry in their life and the come on to pontificate for political purposes.
Yes, because you can really overdose on endorphins and stop your breathing and fucking die. Its just a fucking insult. You have a real world harmful substance which alters your vitals to the point where you're used to being full of opiates all the time and if you cut it off your heart and blood pressure can kill you, and then these cretins comparing a real social problem like that to pornography. How come their are not legions of sexually dysfunctional screw ups in thoroughly pornographied Europe?
I guess they'll actually collect (or if all else fail, made up themselves) statistics about people die out of orgasm to prove their point about porn addiction is worse than drugs.
Darth Wong wrote:I still can't believe Americans get all defensive and angry when you say that their country is skewed way over to the right. What the fuck do they think the right wing looks like, if they figure they're not on it?
dr. what wrote:Just noticed the date on that article--this was nearly 2 months ago! Anything happen since then on this?
I don't know. I saw it linked on Fark today.
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
The M2HB: The Greatest Machinegun Ever Made.
HAB: Crew-Served Weapons Specialist
"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope." --P.J. O'Rourke
"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." --J.S. Mill
DPDarkPrimus wrote:
The panelists all agreed that the government should fund health campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of pornography. The campaign should combat the messages of pornography by putting signs on buses saying sex with children is not OK, said Layden.
Do we need to waste tax dollars on this?!
I mean really, they're making it sound like anyone who masterbates is ready to pounce on the first girl scout that comes knocking on their door selling cookies.
The campaign should combat the messages of pornography by putting signs on buses saying sex with children is not OK, said Layden.
Like that would stop anything.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist
"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
SPOOFE wrote:We should respond with a study that says Oxygen addiction is even worser than Porn addiction. Hopefully all these morons will stop breathing.
Oxygen makes it possible for the brain's natural pleasure-producing substances to be released. It also fuels the reactions to neurotransmitters recieved by nicotinic and muscarinic receptors, which are related to chemicals used by cigarettes and certain shrooms. Prolonged oxygen use is strongly correlated with cancer, osteoporosis, heart attacks, and arthritis. Stopping use of oxygen for even a few minutes results in severe withdrawal symptoms in addicts. And also the internet is evil.
SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.
Mayabird wrote:Erototoxins... If it feels good, IT MUST BE BAD!
If erototoxins are wrong, I don't want to be right!
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
