Fast Facts - Fight the New Drug

Longitudinal, qualitative research has found that young people's narratives surrounding anal sex often encourage coercion, pain, and other risky behaviors, and that they often attribute these narratives to pornography, as it can normalize sexual behaviors and attitudes.

(Marston & Lewis, 2014)

Citations

Marston, C., & Lewis, R. (2014). Anal heterosex among young people and implications for health promotion: a qualitative study in the UK. BMJ open, 4(8), e004996. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-004996

Fast Fact #47

Research has found that porn featuring Asian people often promotes racism by focusing on degrading stereotypes, including presenting Asian women as submissive objects.

(Zhou & Paul, 2016)

Citations

Zhou, Y., & Paul, B. (2016). Lotus blossom or dragon lady: A content analysis of “Asian women” online pornography. Sexuality & Culture, 20(4), 1083-1100. doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9375-9

Fast Fact #91

1 in 12 U.S. adults report that they have been victims of image-based abuse —sometimes called “revenge porn—and 1 in 20 report that they have been perpetrators of image-based abuse.

(Ruvalcaba & Eaton, 2020)

Citations

Ruvalcaba, Y., & Eaton, A. A. (2020). Nonconsensual pornography among U.S. adults: A sexual scripts framework on victimization, perpetration, and health correlates for women and men. Psychology of Violence, 10(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000233

Fast Fact #73

There is an ever-growing body of research showing that pornography addiction is very real.

(Love, Laier, Brand, Hatch, & Hajela, 2015; Gola, Wordecha, Sescousse, Lew-Starowicz, Kossowski, Wypych, Makeig, Potenza, & Marchewka, 2017)

Citations

Love, T., Laier, C., Brand, M., Hatch, L., & Hajela, R. (2015). Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 5(3), 388–433. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs5030388
Gola, M., Wordecha, M., Sescousse, G., Lew-Starowicz, M., Kossowski, B., Wypych, M., Makeig, S., Potenza, M. N., & Marchewka, A. (2017). Can Pornography be Addictive? An fMRI Study of Men Seeking Treatment for Problematic Pornography Use. Neuropsychopharmacology: Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 42(10), 2021–2031. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2017.78

Why Porn Can Be Difficult to Quit

Fast Fact #6

Research indicates that only 18.3% of women in popular porn videos (compared to 78% of men) were depicted as reaching climax.

(Séguin, Rodrigue, & Lavigne, 2018)

Citations

Séguin, L. J., Rodrigue, C., & Lavigne, J. (2018). Consuming Ecstasy: Representations of Male and Female Orgasm in Mainstream Pornography. Journal of sex research, 55(3), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1332152

How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

Fast Fact #27

According to a 2020 report, approximately 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys aged 13-17 report sharing their own nudes, despite the fact that those images are legally considered “child pornography”.

(Thorn, 2020)

Citations

Thorn. (2020). Thorn research: Understanding sexually explicit images, self-produced by children. Retrieved from https://www.thorn.org/blog/thorn-research-understanding-sexually-explicit-images-self-produced-by-children/

Fast Fact #71

Nearly half of porn scenes (48.7%) contained verbal aggression, according to a study of popular porn videos.

(Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, & Liberman, 2010)

Citations

Bridges, A. J., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C., & Liberman, R. (2010). Aggression and sexual behavior in best-selling pornography videos: a content analysis update. Violence against women, 16(10), 1065–1085. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801210382866

How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

Fast Fact #60

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.

(Gewirtz-Meydan, Walsh, Wolak, & Finkelhor, 2018)

Citations

Gewirtz-Meydan, A., Walsh, W., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D. (2018). The complex experience of child pornography survivors. Child abuse & neglect, 80, 238–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.031

Fast Fact #77

Pornography is the 3rd-most common form of sex trafficking, according to cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

(Polaris, 2020)

Citations

Polaris. (2020). 2019 data report: The U.S. national human trafficking hotline. Retrieved from https://polarisproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Polaris-2019-US-National-Human-Trafficking-Hotline-Data-Report.pdf

How Porn Can Fuel Sex Trafficking

Fast Fact #58

Research has found that those who enjoy extreme porn tend to prefer porn to real-life sex as a way to achieve sexual arousal.

(Sun, Miezan, Lee, & Shim, 2015)

Citations

Sun, C., Miezan, E., Lee, N., & Shim, J. W. (2015). Korean Men’s pornography use, their interest in extreme pornography, and dyadic sexual relationships. International Journal of Sexual Health. 27(1), 16-35. doi:10.1080/19317611.2014.927048

How Porn Can Harm Consumers’ Sex Lives

Fast Fact #35

Qualitative research reveals that young women often feel pressured to play out the “scripts” their male partners had learned from porn —they feel badgered into having sex in uncomfortable positions, faking sexual responses, and consenting to unpleasant or painful acts.

(Rothman, Kaczmarsky, Burke, Jansen, & Baughman, 2015)

Citations

Rothman, E. F., Kaczmarsky, C., Burke, N., Jansen, E., & Baughman, A. (2015). 'Without Porn … I Wouldn't Know Half the Things I Know Now': A Qualitative Study of Pornography Use Among a Sample of Urban, Low-Income, Black and Hispanic Youth. Journal of sex research, 52(7), 736–746. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2014.960908

Fast Fact #88

1 out of every 8 porn titles shown to first-time users on porn home pages describe acts of sexual violence, according to a 2021 study.

(Vera-Gray, McGlynn, Kureshi, & Butterby, 2021)

Citations

Vera-Gray, F., McGlynn, C., Kureshi, I., & Butterby, K. (2021). Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography. The British Journal of Criminology, doi:10.1093/bjc/azab035

How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

Fast Fact #98

59% of online victim recruitment in active sex trafficking cases in the U.S. occurred on Facebook.

(Feehs & Wheeler, 2021)

Citations

Feehs, K., & Wheeler, A. C. (2021). 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report. Human Trafficking Institute. Retrieved from https://www.traffickinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2020-Federal-Human-Trafficking-Report-Low-Res.pdf

Fast Fact #105

Research shows that women are almost always the targets of violence or aggression in porn —about 97% of the time.

(Fritz, Malic, Paul, & Zhou, 2020)

Citations