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What’s the Harm?
William M. Struthers
Associate Professor of Psychology Wheaton College
Wheaton, IL (USA)
23/5/2012
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Overview
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Review of Research on Adolescent Pornography Use
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Review of Relevant Neurobiological Issues
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Considerations for Policy Making
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The
Impact of Internet Pornography
on Adolescents
Owens, Behun, Manning and Reid,
(April, 2012) Sexual Addiction &
Compulsivity, 19:99-122.
+ Attitudes and Beliefs
 Unrealistic attitudes abut sex and sexual
relationships
 As exposure to SEM increases:
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increased belief that porn = real life
increased belief that porn is applicable in real life
increased instrumental view of sex (physical, mechanical rather
than emotional, relational)
increased sexual preoccupation
increased acceptance of casual, extramarital sexIncresed sexual
distractedness
Increased sexual permissiveness
Recreational view
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Attitudes and Beliefs
 Mainstream and culturally acceptable (67%
males, 49% females see porn as an
acceptable outlet for sexuality)
 Porn has become the normative
experience
+ Behaviors
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Broad agreement that SEM influences learning
'Mirror Neurons'
Expectations and Demands
Frequent SEM exposre
 'Risky' sexual behaviors and drug use during sex
 Decreased age of first intercourse (‘acclerant ’, Kraus
and Russell, 2008)
 Counteracted by education of negative consequences
 Inconsistent findings with respect to number of
partners and agression/sexual aggression
+ Self Concept
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Pornographic Script
Females - body image insecurity
Males - performance anxiety
Frequency of SEM
 Negatively correlated with self confidence
 Positively associated with social isolation and
maladjustment (Mesch, 2009; Tsitsika et al, 2009)
 Increased depression (Ybarra and Mitchell, 2005)
 Decreased bonding with caregivers (Ybarra and
Mitchell, 2005)
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Clinical Issues
 Retrospective study of a clinical population
shows that first exposure to SEM near puberty
is associated with (in preparation, Struthers):
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emotionally detached attachment style
increased compulsivity/impusivity
poor self concept
first exposure memories are vivid and typically
have negative emotional valence
 over 80% is unintentional
 over 80% of first exposures are not discussed with
parents/caregivers
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Brain Science
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Research Context
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Brain Imaging (fMRI, PET, EEG)
Experimental Design
Sexual Stimuli
 Nudity/Naked Body
 Erotic – designed to stimulate sexual arousal or depictions of
explicit sexual interactions
 Static vs. Dynamic
 Unimodal vs. Multimodal Processing
 Visual images/clips, audio clips, read stories (visual and
linguistic), infidelity (linguistic and contextual)
+ Neurobiological Development
 Depper regions develop first, higher regions last
 Limbic areas (arousal and reward) preceeds
cortical development
 SEM activates limbic regions which can lead to
disproportionately strengthened associations
without sufficient cortical regulation
 SEM exploits this developmentally compromised
adolescent brain
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+ Neurobiology of Adolescence
and Exposure to SEM
 Sexual development
 Hypothalamus
 Reward system development
 Striatum and amygdala
 Cortical development
 Frontal cortex (Executive Function and
Emotional Regulation)
 Mirror Neurons
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Considerations
• SEM has a unique effect
– ‘Mirrored’
• SEM has valence (felt emotional state)
• SEM induces elevates arousal
• SEM is affected by context
– Model pose/imputed action
– Predisposition of the viewer
– Pre- and Post-processing of context
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Final Comments