Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
Research assessing the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in treating porn addiction found that “over 95% of clients were able to manage symptoms at the end of the twelve weeks and 78% sustained recovery six months following treatment.”
Research suggests that pornography can make young people more sexually illiterate —in other words, it’s actively spreading harmful misinformation about sex.
In comparison to couples who never viewed porn, a 2011 study found that those who watched porn alone reported twice the rate of cheating, and individuals who viewed porn alone and with their partners reported three times the rate of cheating.
One study that kept track of couples over time found that consuming porn was the second strongest predictor that a relationship would suffer.
Sex trafficking is a commercial sex act that is brought about by force, fraud, or coercion, or where someone under 18 is involved.
Research indicates that porn can fuel sexist attitudes in porn consumers.
According to one report on domestic minor sex trafficking, survivors indicate that they were sometimes “advertised” on porn sites.
Desensitization, or a numbed pleasure response, has been shown to happen in cases of pornography consumption.
Some experts have determined four major brain changes common to addicted brains—sensitization, desensitization, hypofrontality, and a malfunctioning stress system— all of which can be found in cases of pornography consumption.
Of the approximately 24.9 million trafficking victims globally, an estimated 4.8 million—about 19%—are trafficked for sex, and more than 1 in 5 sex trafficking victims—an estimated 21%—are children, according to the International Labour Office.
Nearly 1 in 5 sexually active 16- to 17-year-olds said they had either asked or been asked to incorporate acts from porn into their sexual experiences, according to a 2020 report from the UK.
The Internet Watch Foundation recently reported that during 2020, approximately 44% of all child sexual abuse material reported to the IWF involved self-generated material. That’s a 16% increase from 2019 when only a third of reports involved self-generated imagery.
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