I know for sure this topic is complex and extremely sensitive. As a psychological counsellor and psychotherapist I need to put my pen to bring to the notice of every- body in this world. We need to talk about it. We need to teach about sex education to our children and young people. It is a great challenge to open our mouth on this regard. It is a need of the hour. The time has come to speak about porn to safe-guard the younger generation. You may feel hesitant to talk with your teenagers about pornography, starting conversations early about how one develops a healthy sexual identity is imperative, especially given its accessibility through the internet. Though it may be awkward for both you and your teenager, addressing it in a supportive and direct way will make discussing other sensitive topics less frightening in the future.
Porn
The word pornography was not used few decades back because it was not a healthiest point to speak about. In those days it was really hard to find porn, but today kids and adults have to work really hard to avoid porn. It plays an important role in this present scenario. The word “pornography” which has been used in English since 19th century, comes from the Greek pornographos (for writing about prostitutes).
How porn came to evolve? No doubt that it is through social media apps though they support different phases our lives. We know the lifestyle of people after Covid-19 changed a lot. It was the time all the schools and colleges insisted students to buy smart phone for online classes and to download some of their class notes from the websites.
Parents also gave android phones to their children so that they can use it for the classes. And also it was great support for the parents to follow-up and safe where they are going? How they will be coming home? Do they need to be picked up from their class or their friend’s place? But now most of the children and young people are addicted to porn and can’t even come out of it. Children can view porn in the safety and comfort of their homes or the privacy of their desks in class. They are really happy about present plan of phone recharge and even thanking Wi-Fi or data-enabled Smartphone. The annual statistics released by a well-known porn site, 90% of the porn consumption in India happens through Smartphone.
The reality is, any child can tick I am 18 or older, box on the internet. So, when we give our children a Smartphone, we must never forget that we are giving them. an easy access to a world of graphic adult content too.
A study shows that 35% content downloaded from the internet, all over the world is pornography. Almost 68 million search requests on the internet are related to pornography. And for that reason, porn addiction is becoming a growing concern. In India most of the parents are ignorant about it. You may agree with me that today most children are first exposed to pornography; in fact, porn is the number one sex educator among young teenagers. Porn is a drug, but why is not treated as an addiction? World Health Organization (WHO) doesn’t speak about it but it included in behaviour problem. It is insisting people to be careful about it. There are more than 20 million porn sites are avail- able. People those who watch porn have come to make that their expectation. They think, that is what sex is and should look like. Eighty percent of parents say they have no idea how to monitor their children’s social media activities, according to a study released by McAfee.
When I asked the opinion of the person regarding porn and he retorted me saying, porn will slowly and tightly grip the person and it will force person to move in a direction they never wanted to go about. It will take the person even to the worse and might move to the bad side of one’s life. This takes even to the illegal sides. Everything is avail- able by clicking of mouse button. Online pornography’s convenience, affordability and also anonymity possess helped the porn market place reach a completely new stage. People no longer have to generate to a store to get adult movie. It is easily available and all have android phones with good and highly net connection.
As I was surfing Quora platform regarding porn articles, I found this question posted over there, why is pornography allowed on Instagram and Twitter, but strictly banned on Face book? The answer is, “Well from what I have seen… you are totally right. I have come across various accounts from my search feed that are blatant porn page (clips from porn sites) and have reported them to instagram… Instagram then responds and tells me they don’t see anything wrong with the account. So many clearly having sex with women, is it totally fine to post on Instagram?” asked Daniah. The same question also we might ask ourselves as we read the answer of Instagram team.
Today, it is normal because everybody wants to make money out of people’s choice. In our Tamil films we can find some unwanted post, unhealthy scenes and words in the movie which really ruin the society and the mentality of young people. It is very pathetic to see that porn addicted person is part of compulsive sexual behaviour with negative consequences one’s physical, mental, social, or financial well-being. It starts step by step.
Experimentation
At this stage, people are first introduced to porn and find it enjoyable. They may start out watching porn once a month or even once a week. This may or may not be accompanied by masturbating
Regular use
Discovered that they are very fond of watching porn. They’ll begin. watching it on a regular basis. This stage isn’t necessarily problematic. However, if things don’t stop here, they can lead to addiction.
Habitual use
They have developed a habit of watching porn. They may have the ritual of watching it at night. They spend a lot of time thinking about it when they’re not watching it. They will begin to sacrifice other parts of their life in order to watch porn.
Addiction
Their brain is going to start changing. They will begin to alter the way their dopamine system works. Stop doing things that they used to enjoy. They tend to require more and more intense porn to become aroused. They may also start using sex toys in order to get the same amount of pleasure. Those who are addicted to pornography can meet counsellors or psychotherapists, follow support group therapy, cognitive-based therapy, acceptance & commitment therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, psychodynamic therapy, couple counselling and rehabilitation.
At last we can’t change the mentality of them rather we can change ourselves. Remember that porn is still one of our biggest taboos..
