NEWS: Porn Addiction: Congress Warned

Researchers from several universities testified before Congress about the effects of pornography on behavior, comparing the effects of pornography to the effects of heroin or coc aine. The researchers also addressed the social issues such as the corruption of children and the erosion of family values, and decreased sexual satisfaction. Senator Sam Brownback, while acknowledging the First Amendment, is calling for government intervention into the problem.



While I have a personal problem with using the term addiction for behavioral problems and prefer the term compulsion for such issues, there is apparently sufficient cause to alarm some in the mental and behavioral health fields. And while I feel that the First Amendment was not written to protect pornography, I do feel that there is a place in the culture for "adult-oriented" content.

My big problem is with the "pushing of the envelope" in the area of sexuality in the mainstream media, especially broadcast television and radio. I believe that nudity belongs only in pornographic material and in all my years, I have never seen a mainstream film that was artistically enhanced by the inclusion of nudity.

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Pornography and internet file sharing

[edit on 04/11/20 by GradyPhilpott]

Moral decay of america. Secularism the new religion of the american's.
I'm sure porn is great export for america and makes heaps of money. Look at hollywood also sells sex.

Why not just call america the big prositute. Ready to give birth the ant-christ.

Why are they comparing watching porn to a coc aine or heroin addiction? It isn't really the porn, is it? It's masturbation. Masturbation causes the release of the addictive brain drugs, some of the most addictive drugs known to man, such as adrenaline, epinephrine, and dopamine.

I think these people would have an easier time in their plight if they would quit sideskirting the real cause of the symptoms they describe, which is over-indulgence, not nakedness.

But yes, after living in Europe for 4 years, I can tell that it is an American problem for the most part. Still, it should be blamed on the actual cause rather than the money making schemes that exploit and capitalize on that cause.

[edit on 21-11-2004 by DeltaChaos]

Its all in your head. Addiction ( mind over matter ).

I agree and think they should ban masturbation.

The strategy should be to put cameras in every bedroom and have Congress and Homeland security keep an eye out for masturbaters and when it's detected they should have a Masturbation S.W.A.T to swoop down and arrest the the offenders in the act.

They then should parade the offenders caught each day on Local TV.

why is it that things that make you feel good; drugs, masturbation thinking for oneself are always "ruining family values"???

You know what? You can keep your "family values". I'll keep on enjoying premarital sex, drugs, masturbation and the lot.

In fact, if you haven't tried it...pre-marital sex starting with masturbation, while watching pornography, high on drugs can be FANTASTIC!

The rest of you losers can think about ways of punishing us while you sit at church board out of your mind next Sunday!


"Eat and be as Gods"



There is no enemy anywhere - Lao Tse

Hey Grady ~

I'll give up pornography when the real thing isn't more expensive.

You see I'm so poor and unattractive, and semitic. Forget the porno mags. That's too obvious. Just burn me and get it over with.

Senate Commerce Committee's Science, Technology and Space Subcommite....is tackeling pornography??? hmmmmm

here's my thought. it's part of a plan, or whatever you want to call it, to set up some type of policing of the internet. get online porn to be called a 'drug' ...well then add IT to the 'war on drugs' and whallla...'we need to police the internet, actually your personel use of it,...for your own saftey'

if that were to happen, why stop there..why not police those rebeliuos, conspiracy insiting bords?? aren't they bad for the population?, going around post all those lies about the govt corporations and dragging the good govts name in the mud?? don't alot of 'bloggers' and 'boards' make verbal threats or at least vieled threats about rebellion and civil war to the govt and other officials in general?? isn't that a form of terrorism?? shouldn't that kind of sidisious material be policed..at least a LITTLE bit????
come on..give us just an inch..we promise we wont let it get out of hand...we promise......

Originally posted by clearmind
Senate Commerce Committee's Science, Technology and Space Subcommite....is tackeling pornography??? hmmmmm

here's my thought. it's part of a plan, or whatever you want to call it, to set up some type of policing of the internet. get online porn to be called a 'drug' ...well then add IT to the 'war on drugs' and whallla...'we need to police the internet, actually your personel use of it,...for your own saftey'

if that were to happen, why stop there..why not police those rebeliuos, conspiracy insiting bords?? aren't they bad for the population?, going around post all those lies about the govt corporations and dragging the good govts name in the mud?? don't alot of 'bloggers' and 'boards' make verbal threats or at least vieled threats about rebellion and civil war to the govt and other officials in general?? isn't that a form of terrorism?? shouldn't that kind of sidisious material be policed..at least a LITTLE bit????
come on..give us just an inch..we promise we wont let it get out of hand...we promise......

Clearmind you hit it right on the head. It's all about control. Control of the media, control of the internet, control of free thought and control of dissent.

I would rather have people masturbating than attacking women or children because they have no other outlet for their sexual desire.

[edit on 21-11-2004 by redhat]

This is just silly, or at least I'd think is was if the conservatives were not in control of everything. As for banning masturbation, yeah "From my cold, dead hand!"

Great, how 'bout we just ban nudity in films too? I know let's ban sex!

This is what oour country is turning into. Other countires see us as arrogent, Bible thumpers. Maybe if we would aide a country like Sudan, maybe if we would stop banning sex and porn wherever we see it, maybe just maybe we'd be more liked.

A kid looking at porn is a Victemless Crime, it hurts no one. If you don't want junoir to look at daddie's Playboy stash, hide 'em better. If you don't want him to look at porn, don't put a computer in his room, or use Nanny software. Why should the government restrict a harmless substance to the adult population, just because a bunch of kids are wacking off to it? If I had a son I'd rather have him look at porn in his room, than get invovled wtih drugs and gangs.

"Internet pornography is the new crack coc aine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction, according to clinicians and researchers testifying before a Senate committee Thursday."

First off, porn is not dangerous. You can't die from looking at some boobs and ass. Victemless crime folks. Rape and misogyny are not sexual crimes. Rape is a violent crime and the profile of a rapist is one who was wrogned by a woman in the past,hates his mother and uses rape as a means to PUNISH women, not for sexual ectasy. I have no idea who pedophilia can come from looking at CONSENTING ADULTS in sexual manners, but usally a pedophile is mentally disturbed fromt he start. If they want bigger breasts, let them why should the government care if women are getting bigger breasts? And thats why we have Viagra for those erctile defuctions.

"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.""

And like I said earlier, its the job of the PARENT, not the Feds, to make sure their kid is'nt looking at porn. It would be unconstitutional for the Ffeds to start banning internet porn and restricting it.

"Censorship like chairty, should start at the home, but unlike charity it should end there."

Ii forget who said that but a great quote for this situation.

JediMaster wrote:And like I said earlier, its the job....

Your darn tootn' it's the JOB... and according to sex-spurts before Congress it's the self inflicted handJOB!

That does it. The only way Congress is going to be able to get this under control is to do what they always do in situations like this and find some way to tax masturbation.

Any Ideas?

This is nothing but a smokescreen to avoid tackling the real issue -- loss of family values. I have no problem with porn, I have no problem with those who indulge in drug use. I smoked in college and did shrooms a few times. I am not a serial rapist who is living out the fantasies brought on by reading hustler or other extreme pornographic magazines. I kicked my pot habit in college because it was a college thing, and really I just always got tired. But, I knew it wasn't the way to live because I was brought up with values that tell me otherwise.

I am not religious and was not raised in a religious family. I'm not even baptised -- ironic considering I was married in a cathedral and agreed to raise my children Catholic due to my wife's religion. I just mention this to head off any responses that may claim I'm some religious zealot. I merely believe in taking responsibility for your life and your actions. If you want to watch porn, read magazines, go ahead. If you want to smoke pot or hallucinate go ahead. I personally think everyone should at some point to experience it, remove the curiosity and realize that for most people it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Masturbation. Now there�s something i feel i have the upper hand on. DeltaChaos got it right it�s not the porn it�s the hand job that�s addictive. I have to admit when i first got online i couldn�t believe my eyes. I mean come on free porn, FREE PORN!!! I had to curb myself after while i was becoming quite strained or was that drained or maybe both whatever enough was enough. Thankfully i found ats which is even more addictive.

I would have to agree to a point about pornography being bad, i heard it said, that it leads to the idea that women are just objects. Im not sure, but i do believe there needs to be a control on it. Of all the things strangely enough that i am against pornography is one, even if i am being hypocritical.

There is a difference, there is good porn and there is bad porn. Glamour modelling and glamour modelling hardcore with maybe a little anal involved, glamour modelling bondage, in my eyes is ok and i personally feel that�s as far as porn should go. But when you get into the realms of bestiality scatology and fisting, and then further down the line rape fantasy�s i think it all starts to get degrading. I think this is where morals really go out the window, and society should start to take a good look at its self.

Paedophilia. [Opiniate on this one kode at your own peril as for just having an opinion on it is enough for some people to label you a pedo] This is a tough one to address, you see the problem is that sweet and innocent is appealing to some men. They are not paedophiles its just natural to see something that�s young and beautiful and get aroused. The Japanese are terrible and most Asian porn sites are schoolgirl orientated so i heard. In England the schoolgirl fantasy has always been around starting with the St Trinnians movies [comedy films involving naughty young school girls] of the early 50's and you often will see women walking about the streets in the evening drunk, dressed up in school uniforms with pigtails and acting like silly little girls. The problem is where do you draw the line. Its dangerous territory in this day and age. People forget that it wasn�t that long ago it was not unheard of for white western men to take 12 year old brides but within the past century it has become punishable. Now im not saying for one minute that we should have 12-year-old brides, it�s a very good thing that it has been outlawed. But there are certain people in society who would have you shot for a natural feeling. The 18 TEEN sites are the worst places for this, as those sites lead to some very obscure places, so i heard.

The above is why i believe there needs to be tougher policing on the Internet. How can you tell the difference between a 15 year old who looks 18 or an 18 year old who looks 15 or sometimes younger? You can buy porn of the shelf in the UK with 18 year olds who look more like their 13. As i said tricky old business which could lead people a stray and an issue on the Internet that needs to be addressed.

Originally posted by Thinker
Why not just call America the big prositute. Ready to give birth the ant-christ.

I think the Antichrist is already here. In the government

TextThis is just silly, or at least I'd think is was if the conservatives were not in control of everything. As for banning masturbation, yeah "From my cold, dead hand!"

You should be ashame of yourself, Don't you know the bible condemn damnation when you do masturbation.!

All men are going to the "hell" for masturbating

And for porno Mr. God ridden righteous in the White house is going to banned all of it, so very soon you are going to jail for watching porn.

Better yet internet is going to be banned.

it's a perfect delivery system

I think the underlying theme here is "the delivery system". It's not about pron, it's about control of the internet, the medium of communication that is taking a larger and larger share of the citizenry's conscious attention. There's a movement within our government to regulate and tax internet traffic.

Trying to do so directly and honestly is doomed to fail. So they set up these straw man issues such as "pornography is an addictive drug" and must be regulated because it causes such dire social problems.

Pornography is a drug? Where do they find these "experts" who are so wiling prostitute themselves to their handlers' political and social agenda?

Oh, and here we go with an extension of the "war on drugs" to a new battlefied, the internet, which is merely a medium for communication. But unlike television, every computer hooked up to the internet has a unique address. It's in- and out- bound traffic can be monitored, measured, and traced. Ultimately, it's a matter of control! control! control! Control of the content that goes into your head. After all, you can't be trusted to control that stuff. If they can't find a way to control it, they'll tax it or fine it until it's so expensive for you to expose yourselves to the content they don't want you to see and hear that, those of you who prefer masturbation may suddenly find it's less expensive to actually have a girlfried or boyfriend.

All kidding aside, the communication media are already being heavily taxed through the massive fines being levied against television and radio stations by the FCC based on vaguely prohibited content alone. And then there's the negative effect of all the idiotic censorship "BLEEPS" that destroy the experience of watching TV movies and certain other shows. Most of you probably know that Tom Hanks' movie "Saving Private Ryan" was not aired during Veterans Day week because many stations feared massive multi-million dollar FCC fines due to the film's actors' use of four-letter profanity, the words the soldiers in the field actually uttered. Can't be gettin' too realistic, now. Our pewblic (misspelling intended) might be offended by having their white-picket-fence-house-in-the-peaceful-suburbs hallucination of reality stained by a little bit of truth. Why, if that were allowed then everybody will be saying f**k, s**t, c**t, a**h**l*, etc. Stupid little parrots, can't keep from saying and doing whatever they hear and see someone saying and doing on TV or on their computers. Garbage-In / Garbage-out. Eliminate the Garbage-In and then only nice stuff will come out!

This is a natural extension of a government that puts "tasteful" clothing on public works of art because naked stone depictions of the female breast or either gender's genitalia is a daily turn-on to the likes of J.A. The implication is that you all have no control whatsoever over your mental and physiological responses to certain sounds and images. You all are little more than salivating Pavlovian dogs. Well, I beg to differ.

Porn Addiction? wtf are these morons up on the hill smoking these days? Are cops out macing and beating porn addicts in the streets outside of Ron Jeremy's house? Are all of Jenna Jameson and Asia Carerra's films on a DEA restricted list? Come on people, if your worried about porn addiction you really havent seen drugs yet have you? Ever seen the pasty, waif-thin crackheads who walk around scratching their arms and asking everyone for money so they can get another rock? Or what about the strung out coke heads with runny and red noses? Straight up absurdity is all this boils down to; and an effort by some near fundamenalist christians on the hill to inject their morality into all our veins, for the most part against our will.

Marg6043 says: You should be ashame of yourself, Don't you know the bible condemn damnation when you do masturbation.!

Actually, that is not true. Are you thinking of the story of Onan, the source of the word "onanism", which is the practice of coitus of interruptus, and which many have used as their source for the assertion that masturbation is prohibited as a sin? Go to the Bible and read the story of Onan. He wasn't punished, killed, condemned to hell, or whatever, because he masturbated. It was because he disobeyed God by "spilling his seed on the ground" RATHER THAN impregnate his brother's or counsin's or uncle's (I don't recall which) widow so as to give his dead relative an heir, which was a very important thing to have in those days.

Originally posted by dubiousone


Actually, that is not true. Are you thinking of the story of Onan, the source of the word "onanism", which is the practice of coitus of interruptus, and which many have used as their source for the assertion that masturbation is prohibited as a sin?

Actually is a joke I am not a bible follower, but I do know that the bible does not agree with spelling the seed outside the womb.

Originally posted by alternateheaven
Porn Addiction? Come on people, if your worried about porn addiction you really havent seen drugs yet have you?

This is why I prefer the term compulsion to addiction and, in fact, clinically speaking, compulsion is correct as there are strict conditions that must exist for the term addiction to apply. "Porn addiction" and "sex addiction" have much more in common with compulsive gambling than with drug addiction.

The use of the term addiction for naturally occuring brain chemicals is something the public can understand and has considerable emotional connotation and that is the strongest indication that the motive is political rather than clinical.

This is not to say that the ready availability has a negative effect on certain individuals, just as drinking and gambling destroy the lives of some. Currently, our society overlooks the tragic effects on the few and calls attention to the majority who have less severe responses, while offering treatment for the former.

It would seem to me that one of the groups who have suffered most from the availabililty of free internet porn is the local video stores who having to compete with the Blockbusters and others have had to resort to porn as their stock in trade. Those back rooms are what has kept them afloat, but that market has been heavily eroded by the internet. This has also affected the porn boutiques.

I would be more inclined to believe that the current effort to curb internet porn has more to do with these effects than it does with the children. Kids and the compulsive just get our attention. If America cared about its kids, it would ban abortion, clean up the airwaves and all those magazines at the supermarket checkout counters.



[edit on 04/11/21 by GradyPhilpott]