Today's Herald had an interesting article on the effects of porn being a mouse click away. Porn is a 57 billion dollar a year industry which is amazing given that regular movies worldwide were only a 23 billion dollar industry...
Topics covered in the article that I though made some good points:
We don't know whether kids who cut their teeth (so to speak) on porn become confused or disappointed when the real people they're with don't react the way they do on the screen.
A valid point IMHO. Your average 13 yr old now has probably seen sexual acts well beyond his/her age. Will that 1st fumbling experience bear nothing in resemblance to the money shot glam porn they saw last night? Probably, but will they keep trying for that ideal by whatever means or clue into reality?
Nieman says another concern is pornography addiction. There is data indicating porn stimulates dopamine receptors, releasing a hormone in the brain and leading to cravings.
"We worry about Ritalin and other chemical substances on a child's brain," Nieman says. "It's very possible that if a child is exposed frequently enough, pornography may affect the whole chemistry of the brain. We don't know.".......The endless XXX-rated videos -- a click away on the family computer -- are a long, long way from the old days when the motherlode of porn was Dad's stack of Playboys tucked away in the garage.
The article makes a good point - in an age where we're worried about too much sodium, too much sugar, too much stress - could too much access to sex stimulus have some serious societal effects? Could one get desensitized to this stimulus and require something really "disturbing" to get aroused? Much like how violence requires some serious oneupmanship in movies and video games nowadays? I remember a boob shot in National Geographic or SI Swimsuit Issue was the most readily available porn for us, a far cry from the world that's available on the Net today.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...7f&k=31333&p=1