If you’ve seen Fight the New Drug billboards around your town, you might be wondering who Fight the New Drug is and what these billboards are all about. Allow us to explain.
Decades of studies from respected institutions have demonstrated significant impacts of porn consumption on individuals, relationships, and society. As porn becomes increasingly normalized, education on its well-documented harms becomes increasingly important. This grassroots movement was founded in 2009 by four passionate college students ready to change the conversation about pornography.
Fight the New Drug (FTND) is a non-religious and non-legislative nonprofit that exists to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.
Think of it this way: most people are exposed to porn at an early age before they’ve been educated on the decades of science and research demonstrating porn’s harms on consumers, relationships, and society. We exist to educate individuals on the harms of porn, so they can make an educated decision on whether they’d like to consume it or not.
Fight the New Drug is an educational and awareness-raising organization.
Since 2009, we have existed with the purpose of providing individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.
We do this not by conducting our own research but by aggregating and giving a platform to the existing quality science and research that exists. We share this research online via social media, and our team presents this research in schools and youth forums around the world to educate individuals about the harmful effects of porn.
A great place to start diving into the available information is by reading our Get the Facts articles, listening to our Consider Before Consuming podcast, checking out our constantly-updated blog, and visiting TruthAboutPorn.org where we catalog the latest peer-reviewed research that illustrates porn’s harmful nature. You can also watch our documentary series, Brain, Heart, World, for free to learn more about how porn impacts individuals, relationships, and society.
Fight the New Drug has no religious affiliation.
Our mission is and has always been to use only science, facts, and personal accounts to educate and raise awareness about the harms of porn. We are extremely intentional in making sure that everything we create, repost, share, or promote is aligned with our mission.
We invite people from all backgrounds or beliefs to apply what they learn from this movement to their own lives and encourage all of our supporters to remain respectful of the diverse backgrounds of our supporters.
Ultimately, we’re raising awareness on this from a public health perspective, and this is information that we think anyone should be able to access, regardless of any diversifying factor.
Fight the New Drug has no legislative agenda and does not seek to ban porn.
We are educating and raising awareness, first and foremost, and we are not out to ban or censor porn.
We support efforts to protect children from easily accessing hardcore pornography. However, FTND does not work to take away adults’ rights to view legal forms of pornography.
Our goal from day one has been to decrease the demand for porn and sexual exploitation through education, not legislation. We believe in empowering individuals through education to make their own informed decisions about pornography.
Fight the New Drug is not choice-restricting.
We accept and respect that an individual has the right to develop their own stance on the topic of pornography, whether or not it is consistent with FTND’s position. We do believe that if people truly understand the impact porn can have on individuals, relationships, and our society, they will make an informed decision not to consume it—but we’re not trying to force anyone to agree with us.
This is why we allow healthy debate and conversation on our social media platforms, welcoming any and all viewpoints from people who span the range on this topic. Ultimately, it is up to each individual to make their own informed decision regarding pornography.
Fight the New Drug is not a “modesty” movement.
While we respect people’s personal values, our mission is to educate on the impacts of pornography.
The science-based resources we provide specifically shed light on the impact of hardcore, violent, demeaning, degrading internet porn. Our fight is against the selfish, unequal, harmful ideas that porn teaches, and how it destroys intimacy in relationships. Our fight is against an industry that objectifies people.
Our fight is against the inseparable links of pornography to exploitation and to sex trafficking. Our fight is for love, healthy intimacy, and real relationships and connection.
Fight the New Drug is pro-sex, pro-love, and anti-shame.
Millions of people across the world consume porn every day—we don’t think that inherently makes them “bad” people.
Again, many people who consume porn haven’t been made aware of its harmful effects, which is why we’re hoping to educate them so they can make an informed decision. Science and research consistently show the harms of viewing pornography, so we are focusing our efforts on the porn itself and its proven impacts, rather than promoting shame of those who consume porn.
Research has shown that feeling shame and shaming other people is unhelpful and unhealthy, and it’s not an approach we take. We are an anti-shame movement as much as we are an anti-porn movement—and we encourage all of our supports to join us in these efforts.
We take great care in our presentations, online content, and overall influence to be a voice of positivity and hope. FTND fights for real love and healthy relationships, including healthy sexual relationships. Thanks to science, we know that porn can negatively affect consumers’ sex lives, which is one of the many reasons we fight against it.
Being pro-sex and anti-porn is not only possible, it’s necessary. Given how porn divides people in relationships, stunts sexual pleasure, and messes with consumers’ arousal and sexual function, it’s clear porn is anything but sex-positive, once you look past the surface.
Fight the New Drug is not looking to shut the porn industry down.
Though it would indicate a massive shift in cultural attitudes around porn if the porn industry collapsed because of lack of demand for its product, that is not our ultimate goal.
Our aim as an organization is to reach individuals and give them the chance to make educated decisions regarding pornography. So far, we have reached over 800,000 people with our live, in-person presentations, thousands more with our three-part documentary series, and millions more through our online resources. Our ultimate hope is that people will understand what the research is saying about how porn can negatively impact individuals, relationships, and our world.
It’s ultimately a heartbreaking reality that our organization has to exist in the first place, but everyone deserves to know what research is saying about porn and make educated decisions for themselves.
How to get involved
First, educate yourself! The best way to educate others on the harms of porn is to become educated yourself! We have tons of free educational resources to help ramp up your knowledge of this issue, including our Get The Facts articles, Consider Before Consuming podcast, or Truth About Porn research database.
Educate your community! If you’re looking for a way to help raise awareness on the harms of porn in your community, consider hosting a live presentation by Fight the New Drug! We’ll send one of our certified presenters to your school, company, or community event so they can present the harms of porn in an engaging and age-appropriate live event. As an organization, we’ve held thousands of live events, with over 1 million audience members, in various places across the globe. Learn more by requesting more information here.
Not quite ready to book a presentation? You can still host a live event to educate your community on the harms of porn by hosting a screening of our documentary, Brain, Heart, World. This documentary features science, research, and personal stories demonstrating the harms of porn, but in a light-hearted, educational, and entertaining way. You can purchase a public screening license available for 30 days, 1 year, or lifetime access. Learn more about our public screening licenses here.
If you’re looking for more ideas on how to get involved in this global grassroots movement, we invite you to explore our resources or find more ideas in this article.
Support the movement
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we rely on generous donations from our supporters to mobilize this movement! Throughout the years, and through the support of our Fighters, we’ve been able to educate countless individuals on the harms of pornography and sexual exploitation with our educational resources!
When you donate to Fight the New Drug, your donation goes directly toward helping us create free educational resources that help individuals make an educated decision regarding pornography.
