WASHINGTON -- A group of scholars, social scientists, and psychologists are sounding alarm bells that pornography is much more harmful to society than most people think.
The group recently revealed before the National Press Club startling new evidence of how widespread porn has become in the U.S.
For instance, take a look at these whopping stats:
Americans rent 800 million pornographic videos every year - that's one in five of all video rentals.
Sixty-six percent of men ages 18 to 34 years old visit one or more of the 40,000-plus porn Web sites every month.
One in four women worry their partner's pornography habit is "out of control."
The porn industry spits out 11,000 new porn movies every year, far more than Hollywood's annual output of 400 mainstream movies.
From Porn to Hard Core
The media impression is that porn is pretty much harmless, sexy, fun. But the experts gathered together by Princeton's Witherspoon Institute, have a different view. A large portion of today's porn is so much more hard-core now.
"This is definitely not your father's pornography," University of Virginia sociology professor Brad Wilcox said.
One research paper from the Witherspoon study, From Pornography to Porno to Porn, by Pamela Paul - said of today's porn is far more violent.
"Particularly on the Internet, where much of pornography today is consumed, the type of sexuality depicted often has more to do with violence, extreme fetishes, and mutual degradation than with fun, much less with sexual or emotional connection," Paul wrote.
"Harder and harder-core stuff, stuff that I cannot mention to you without blushing," Hoover Institution researcher Mary Eberstadt described it.
These experts and researchers have concluded that pornography has begun a widespread warping in many Americans' private lives.
Impact on Relationships
For instance, men consuming porn rate their partners much less attractive than do those who avoid porn. For many porn addicts, when it comes to a real partner, it renders them nearly impotent or much less satisfied with their partner.
"If they had to choose between an actual sex partner who is in the bed and waiting for them, and going online, they'd go online," University of Pennsylvania psychologist Mary Anne Layden said of porn addicts she's studied.
Couples where the man consumed high amounts of pornography reported much less satisfaction in the bedroom. Porn users cheat more and go to prostitutes more.
Discovering their men's porn use has left many women feeling betrayed and distrustful. Almost three-fourths say it's hurt their self-esteem.
"The marriage relationship is traumatically damaged and decreased in terms of the emotional intimacy, which is actually the cornerstone of the marriage," Layden said.
It's even causing divorces. A 2004 Elle/MSNBC.com poll indicated one out of four divorces had something to do with Internet pornography or online adult chat activity. And the rate has gone up since "it's up something like 20 percent in the last five years," Eberstadt said.
Addicts are now losing jobs because they couldn't stop surfing porn on computers at work. More are suffering from depression and stress caused by porn addiction. More are spending less time with their children because of that addiction.
Paul, who is also the author of "Pornified," has written about the porn addicts she interviewed.
"Pornography's effects rippled out, touching all aspects of their existence," she explained. "Their work days became interrupted, their hobbies were tossed aside, their family lives were disrupted. Some men even lost their jobs, their wives, and their children."
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