Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
Only 4% of women who were casually dating men reported that their partner regularly consumed porn, when in reality, 50% of the men who were casually dating reported that they regularly consumed porn.
Over 46% of young people reported that they saw online porn for the first time when it just “popped up”, and 22% reported that someone else showed it to them when they weren’t expecting it.
One study that kept track of couples over time found that consuming porn was the second strongest predictor that a relationship would suffer.
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.
According to a 2018 study of "child porn" victims, survivors reported that the images of their abuse caused different problems than the sexual abuse itself, including distress over being recognized from the images.
Research shows that “teen” is one of the most consistently popular porn themes, and that this theme is 1) becoming increasingly popular, and 2) includes the portrayal of underage characters.
Women whose partners consume porn tend to experience more psychological distress, feel more objectified, have poorer body image, and are even more likely to develop eating disorder symptoms.
Pornography is the 2nd-most common form of sex trafficking, according to cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
According to one survey of nonconsensual pornography victims, 51% reported having suicidal thoughts due to the image-based abuse, and 93% reported experiencing severe emotional distress.
According to a 2021 study, only 5.94% of porn-consuming respondents said that they watched porn because of a "lack of sexual satisfaction." In other words, the vast majority of porn consumers are watching porn for reasons other than their partner not being "enough."
Up to two thirds of children say they worry that AI could be used to create fake sexual images of themselves.
According to a survey of more than 16,000 adults across 10 countries, 1 in 7 reported having experienced sextortion.
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