Posted on 10/28/2003 11:54:28 AM PST by wheelgunguru
Is the Easy Availability of Online Porn Leaving Kids Too Sex-Savvy?
Oct. 28 — A college student at Duke University clearly remembers how he crept into his parents' bedroom as a boy to find a cache of pornographic magazines that his parents had hidden away.
"My little friend was over at my house, and my parents were gone, and we decided we were going to look for pornography," the male student, who chose to remain anonymous, told 20/20's Lynn Sherr in 1993. His friend suggested that the porn could be hidden in the same place his parents hid his birthday presents — his mom's closet.
"And so we went in there, and there was this big box up on the shelf. And we opened it up and there were like tens and tens and tens of Playboys and Penthouses and things and, you know, it's just like porn bonanza," he said.
A decade later, young boys don't have to sneak around looking for porn. The hard-core images known as "adult entertainment" are everywhere. Go online and you'll easily find it on the Web, or in your e-mail in-box, regardless of your age or gender. Porn finds you at home, at work, even at the library — usually through uninvited spam.
But experts are concerned that boys who access pornography early on are spoiling their future sex lives. Exposure to porn can make young men less inhibited sexually, because they've seen it all, said Laura Berman, a sex therapist and the director of the Berman Center in Chicago.
"But it can also make them more inhibited, because they've never been involved with a real, live person, who has needs and feelings, and limits," said Laura Berman. "An Internet woman never says no, so she's easier to deal with than a real woman."
Porno Pop-Ups at Age 10
The sexual images on the Internet have a definite impact on young boys, who are now getting pornography pop-ups on their screen, Berman said.
"You become de-sensitized," Laura Berman said. "After looking at hours of Internet porn, sex is no longer exciting, or titillating. For these young men, who grow up watching these images and seeing them as ideal, they are disappointed by real women and real experiences."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Out of curiousity...how is that any different then women wanting their men to act like Soap Opera guys?
That's why they call it... Playboy.
Culture comes as a boxed set and things weren't all that peachy keen 10,000 years ago.
If you haven't noticed, quite a few children are currently having upon puberty and reproducing (or simply catching diseases, thank to the wonders of birth control and abortion). Being sexualized certainly contributes. Is that what we really should be encouraging?
Go figure...
This wouldn't happen if people would stop posting that photo of Chelsea Clinton getting out of the swimming pool. No, wait, on second thought, it might actually help.
No, it shouldn't be encouraged. The model of sex only within qa committed relationship is a highly successful one. I'm just saying that we shouldn't get overwrought about it. At the very least, looking is better than exchanging body fluids.
That's true, but the internet has made porn much easier to access, and has also removed the stigma of buying it. I remember discovering my friend's father's stash when we were kids. When porn makes it into print it's going to eventually get into the hands of children. That's just the way it is.
And becasue we grow up seeing ten's of thousands of fictional murders and other acts of violence, we now expect what?
Oh, you and your urban legends.
I think this problem is older than the internet. Is it a problem? The Secret Room: Erotica from the Naples Archaeological Museum http://www.solomonsrefuge.com/secret_room.htm Robert Fulford's column about the erotic art of Pompeii http://www.robertfulford.com/PompeiiEroticArt.html Sex Sells: Pornography: Thse Secret History of Civilisation http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/sssecret.htm It is worth noting that with public scenes of pornography accessible to all in the Roman Empire in 79 B.C. when Pompeii was suddenly buried by a volcanic eruption, that Rome survived another 500 years. Within a century of being puritanized, Rome was in tatters. Of course, all trace of artistic debauchery was erased elsewhere through the Dark Ages. So it came as a total surprise when the Pompeiian 'time capsule' was unearthed. The return of a progression from artistic nudes to erotica to overt sexuality has parallel the rise of modern civilization. To give a multi-cultural example, consider the ultra-puritanical views of Islam and the decrepit condition in which most of that civilization languishes. That's true, but the internet has made porn much easier to access, and has also removed the stigma of buying it. I remember discovering my friend's father's stash when we were kids. When porn makes it into print it's going to eventually get into the hands of children. That's just the way it is. In what way were you scarred for life by it?
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