The Victims

I'd like to speak more on the victims of pornography, and who I believe they truly are in depth. As stated in other posts, porn can be found by anybody at any age with access to the internet. With my own access, I have looked into these dangers to understand the systems in place that empower porn and that further push its access to everyone and to see just how far it goes. That said, I believe those who have fallen victim to porn and suffer from its consequences (porn addiction, ED, extreme sexual desensitization and more) are victims to the systems that make it so easily accessible in the same way drug addicts are victims to drug dealers.

The difference however, is that in society we condemn drug dealers and lock them away or restrict their ability to distribute. We do not however, treat pornsites nor social media the same way even though pornography has had highly negative effects on the people of our societies. These “negative effects” I mention are all the ones I have listed on other posts and are as follows: Men, women and children are all capable of stumbling across links that offer the sale of illegal pornographic content, algorithms can push a group of people together to purposefully find such links, anybody at an impressionable age can find themselves addicted to porn, anybody can become dangerously desensitized to sexual imagery which can lead to erectile dysfunction or the seeking of distasteful imagery that leads to the consequences of such, anybody impressionable enough can find themselves believing that abnormal and perverse acts are in fact normal and can find them to be encouraged by communities on porn sites, and there's the wrongful sexual exploitation of unsuspecting victims. That said, referring to my previous analogy, in the world of pornography, we condemn the addicted but never the dealer - for I believe it all starts with porn.

This is what breeds the question: Should the "dealer" in this situation be locked away eternally? Are there any pros to pornography that outweigh the cons? Are there any pros at all? Not only are those who are known as porn addicts and those who have committed illegal and/or distasteful acts victims to this abnormal normalization of perverse activity, but as are the victims of the acts themselves. According to the Global Child Safety Institute, Childlight, over 300 million children a year are victims of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse. The evidence of such is all over our social media apps and undoubtedly elsewhere in the hidden corners of the internet. Not to mention, the countless number of women who find themselves sexually exploited across the pornographic world.

At sosresponds.org, Javier P. states that “One of the forms of sexual exploitation that has increased with the rise of the internet is pornography. Pornography can be a sensitive topic because it is often viewed as a personal choice that doesn’t harm others. The truth is pornography has a distinct impact on sexual exploitation due to its accessibility and deception. These factors cause problems for both consumers of pornography and the people who are at-risk of being trafficked for its creation.” I couldn't agree more.

According to the ussc, or United States Sentencing Commission, there were 1,408 reported cases involving child pornography in the year of 2023. It is reported on the ussc.gov website that of those cases, 99.0% resulted in a prison sentencing. Since that year and the years before it, the number of cases has only increased. According to the NCIA, or National Telecommunications Information Administration, internet use has been on the rise by 13 million people between the years of 2021 and 2023. Access to porn is on the rise as well, and so is its use across the internet. It is speculated that this increase in porn use is directly linked to this increase in accessibility to the internet as well as social media in all age groups - youth included. That said, with more and more children finding access to these sites and social media apps that introduce them to pornography, I fear for them falling down the rabbit hole of pornography.

As I've explained before, through desensitization and/or the excessive release of dopamine leading to addiction, it's any day that anybody's child could end up a part of these communities that condone and encourage perverse acts, could grow to end up convicted for the possession of child pornography, could end up with stricken romantic relationships and a failure to perform passionately in bed with their partner, and could end up with an increase in both anxiety and depression due to extended porn use. If we continue to allow porn to run rampant through our technology as a society, I believe these are the dangers our children as well as our other loved ones face.

Any one of our children or loved ones could end up becoming a part of the aforementioned statistics, finding their lives ruined because they couldn't get a grip on their attachment to porn just as a drug addict finds themselves on a perilous road due to their inability to cut their attachment to drugs. We as a society do a service to said drug addicts and to our loved ones that we wish to protect from such addiction by abolishing the distribution of drugs. Should we as a people find it troubling that we do not do the same with pornography by abolishing access to all forms of it?

It's been said that weed is a gateway drug to harsher drugs, and I believe that everyday normalized pornography is a gateway to less normalized pornography and that with increased access and increased normalization, this is why we find a higher spike in illegal activity revolving around pornography and an increase in perverse behavior in our communities. The simple fact that more and more websites and social media apps are being found to be casually homing near illegal or illegal content is cause for concern enough. The fact that such content is rising through the cracks and those that post such content are becoming more and more comfortable with doing so is cause for thought.

What have we as a society truly allowed ourselves to condone here? What is this beast known as pornography rising into, and how long before we've fully realized how much of our communities it is devouring? How long until we've truly realized the effects its already had, and how far will its effects go the longer we let it thrive? When will we realize that we are all the victims?