Should Pornography Be Banned To Protect Children?

[Smoke]

I'm having trouble imagining just how pornography could be harmful to children in the first place. I think people who imagine pornography to be harmful to children should refrain from keeping pornography in their homes and be careful where their children go, lest they accidentally see some breasts, or adult genitalia, or -- heaven forfend! -- a sex act. That way, their children can grow up to be warped in just the "right" way, as Bertrand Russell noted:

Every boy is interested in trains. Suppose we told him that an interest in trains is wicked; suppose we kept his eyes bandaged whenever he was in a train or a railway station; suppose we never allowed the word 'train' to be mentioned in his presence and preserved an impenetrable mystery as to the means by which he is transported from one place to another. The result would not be that he would cease to be interested in trains; on the contrary, he would become more interested than ever but would have a morbid sense of sin, because this interest had been represented to him as improper. Every boy of active intelligence could by this means be rendered more or less neurasthenic. This is precisely what is done in the matter of sex; but, as sex is more interesting than trains, the results are worse. ​

 

[EiNsTeiN]

Well, the problem isn't just with pornography being ethical or not..

Letting the little children get used to porn and explicit nudity can come with totally negative results on their personalities..

It's totally dangrous to expose children to stuff with violance or any sexual material...And you just can't stop that unless banning them

 

[EiNsTeiN]

I'm having trouble imagining just how pornography could be harmful to children in the first place. I think people who imagine pornography to be harmful to children should refrain from keeping pornography in their homes and be careful where their children go, lest they accidentally see some breasts, or adult genitalia, or -- heaven forfend! -- a sex act. That way, their children can grow up to be warped in just the "right" way, as Bertrand Russell noted:

Every boy is interested in trains. Suppose we told him that an interest in trains is wicked; suppose we kept his eyes bandaged whenever he was in a train or a railway station; suppose we never allowed the word 'train' to be mentioned in his presence and preserved an impenetrable mystery as to the means by which he is transported from one place to another. The result would not be that he would cease to be interested in trains; on the contrary, he would become more interested than ever but would have a morbid sense of sin, because this interest had been represented to him as improper. Every boy of active intelligence could by this means be rendered more or less neurasthenic. This is precisely what is done in the matter of sex; but, as sex is more interesting than trains, the results are worse. ​

I disagree...the train analogy isn't valid..

Children are in the stage of development, psyclogically and socially and mentally, etc..
Being exposed to stuff they can't get expect years later can cuz many harms to the development of their personalities..

It's like teaching a Kindergarten algebra and calculus....He would feel it's mathematics, but his mind will certainly underestimate it..

Let the children live thier age!

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Well, the problem isn't just with pornography being ethical or not..

Explain

Letting the little children get used to porn and explicit nudity can come with totally negative results on their personalities..

Proof Required

It's totally dangrous to expose children to stuff with violance or any sexual material...And you just can't stop that unless banning them

Explanation and proof required

You have given your opinion but you have made no attempt to justify it or give any reasoning for it.
as violence is not in the OP I am not considering that part of your answer as it is off topic.

 

[EiNsTeiN]

Explanation and proof required

Ok, here it's:

Exposure to Pornography Frequently Results in Sexual Illnesses, Unplanned Pregnancies, and Sexual Addiction

As more and more children are exposed not only to soft-core pornography, but also to explicit deviant sexual material, they are learning an extremely dangerous message from pornographers: Sex without responsibility is acceptable and desirable. Because pornography encourages sexual expression without responsibility, it endangers children's health.
One of the grimmer consequences of adult-like sexual activity among children has been a steady increase in the extent to which youth are afflicted with venereal disease.[SIZE=-2]iv[/SIZE] In the United States about one in four sexually experienced teenagers acquires a sexually transmitted disease (STD) every year, resulting in three million cases of teenage STDs. Infectious syphilis rates have more than doubled among teenagers since the mid-1980s. More children contract sexually transmitted diseases each year than all the victims of polio in its eleven-year epidemic, 1942-1953.[SIZE=-2]v[/SIZE]
Another obvious result of children involved in adult sexual activity is the increased rate of pregnancy among teenagers.

Research has shown that "males who are exposed to a great deal of erotica before the age of 14 are more sexually active and engage in more varied sexual behaviors as adults than is true for males not so exposed."[SIZE=-2]vi[/SIZE] One study reveals that among 932 sex addicts, 90 percent of the men and 77 percent of the women reported that pornography was significant to their addiction.[SIZE=-2]vii[/SIZE]
Exposure to Pornography May Incite Children to Act Out
Sexually against Other Children

Children often imitate what they've seen, read, or heard. Studies suggest that exposure to pornography can prompt kids to act out sexually against younger, smaller, and more vulnerable children. Experts in the field of childhood sexual abuse report that any premature sexual activity in children always suggests two possible stimulants: experience and exposure. This means that the sexually deviant child may have been molested or simply exposed to sexuality through pornography.[SIZE=-2]viii[/SIZE]
In a study of six hundred American males and females of junior high school age and above, researcher Dr. Jennings Bryant found that 91 percent of the males and 82 percent of the females admitted having been exposed to X-rated, hard-core pornography. Over 66 percent of the males and 40 percent of the females reported wanting to try out some of the sexual behaviors they had witnessed. And among high schoolers, 31 percent of the males and 18 percent of the females admitted actually doing some of the things they had seen in the pornography within a few days after exposure.

 

[EiNsTeiN]

<H2 align=left>Exposure to Pornography Shapes Attitudes and Values

Most of us caring, responsible parents want to instill in our children our own personal values about relationships, sex, intimacy, love, and marriage. Unfortunately, the powerful irresponsible messages of pornography may be educating our children on these very important life issues. Just as thirty-second commercials can influence whether or not we choose one popular soft drink over another, exposure to pornography shapes our attitudes and values and, often, our behavior.
Photographs, videos, magazines, virtual games, and Internet pornography that depict rape and the dehumanization of females in sexual scenes constitute powerful but deforming tools of sex education. The danger to children stems at least partly from the disturbing changes in attitude that are facilitated by pornography. Replicated studies[SIZE=-2]x[/SIZE] have demonstrated that exposure to significant amounts of increasingly graphic forms of pornography has a dramatic effect on how adult consumers view women, sexual abuse, sexual relationships, and sex in general. These studies are virtually unanimous in their conclusions: When male subjects were exposed to as little as six weeks' worth of standard hard-core pornography, they:

• developed an increased sexual callousness toward women
• began to trivialize rape as a criminal offense or no longer considered it a crime at all
• developed distorted perceptions about sexuality
• developed an appetite for more deviant, bizarre, or violent types of pornography (normal sex no longer seemed to do the job)
• devalued the importance of monogamy and lacked confidence in marriage as either a viable or lasting institution
• viewed nonmonogamous relationships as normal and natural behavior[SIZE=-2]xi[/SIZE]

Exposure to Pornography Interferes with a Child's
Development and Identity

During certain critical periods of childhood, a child's brain is being programmed for sexual orientation. During this period, the mind appears to be developing a "hardwire" for what the person will be aroused by or attracted to. Exposure to healthy sexual norms and attitudes during this critical period can result in the child developing a healthy sexual orientation. In contrast, if there is exposure to pornography during this period, sexual deviance may become imprinted on the child's "hard drive" and become a permanent part of his or her sexual orientation.[SIZE=-2]xii[/SIZE]

Psychologist Dr. Victor Cline's findings suggest that memories of experiences that occurred at times of emotional arousal (which could include sexual arousal) are imprinted on the brain by epinephrine, an adrenal gland hormone, and are difficult to erase. (This may partly explain pornography's addicting effect.) Viewing pornography can potentially condition some viewers to have recurring sexual fantasies during which they masturbate. Later they may be tempted to act out the fantasies as sexual advances.
Sexual identity develops gradually through childhood and adolescence. In fact, children generally do not have a natural sexual capacity until between the ages of ten and twelve. As they grow up, children are especially susceptible to influences affecting their development. Information about sex in most homes and schools, comes, presumably, in age-appropriate incremental stages based on what parents, educators, physicians, and social scientists have learned about child development. But pornography short-circuits and/or distorts the normal personality development process and supplies misinformation about a child's sexuality, sense of self, and body that leaves the child confused, changed, and damaged.[SIZE=-2]xiii[/SIZE]
Pornography often introduces children prematurely to sexual sensations that they are developmentally unprepared to contend with. This awareness of sexual sensation can be confusing and overstimulating for children.
The sexual excitement and eventual release obtained through pornography are mood altering. For example, if a young boy's early stimulus was pornographic photographs, he can be conditioned to become aroused through photographs. Once this pairing is rewarded a number of times, it is likely to become permanent. [SIZE=-2]xiv[/SIZE] The result is that it becomes difficult for the individual to experience sexual satisfaction apart from pornographic images. Most of us find it difficult to talk to our children about sex in general, let alone the harmful effects of pornography, as graphically described in this chapter. We want to protect the innocence and purity of childhood for as long as possible.
</H2>

Refrences in the next post

 

[EiNsTeiN]

W. L. Marshall, "The Use of Sexually Explicit Stimuli by Rapists, Child Molesters, and Nonoffenders," The Journal of Sex Research 25, no.2 (May 1988): 267-88.
ii See H.J. Eysenck, "Robustness of Experimental Support for the General Theory of Desensitization," in Neil M. Malamuth and Edward Donnerstein, eds., Pornography and Sexual Aggression (Orlando, Florida: Academic Press, 1984), 314. D. Zillmann, "Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography," in Pornography: Research Advances and Policy Considerations, eds. D. Zillman and J. Bryant (Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1989), 129.

iii Take Action Manual (Washington, D.C.: Enough is Enough, 1995-96), 9.

iv Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (New York: Vintage, 1994), 137.

v Tom Minnery, Pornography: A Human Tragedy (Wheaton: Tyndale House).

vi K.E. Davis and G.N. Braucht, Exposure to Pornography, Character and Sexual Deviance, Technical Reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (1970), 7.

vii Patrick Carnes, Don't Call It Love: Recovery from Sexual Addictions (New York: Bantam, 1991).

viii Stephen J. Kavanagh, Protecting Children in Cyberspace (Springfield, VA: Behavioral Psychotherapy Center, 1997), 58-59.

ix Victor B. Cline, Pornography's Effects on Adults and Children (New York: Morality in Media, 1990), 11.

x Edward Donnerstein, "Ordinances to Add Pornography to Discrimination against Women," statement at Public Hearing of Minneapolis City Council Session (12 December 1983). See also Luis T. Garcia, "Exposure to Pornography and Attitudes about Women and Rape: A Correlative Study," AG 22 (1986), 382-83. This study found "subjects with a greater degree of exposure to violent sexual materials tended to believe that: (a) women are responsible for preventing their own rape, (b) rapists should not be severely punished, and (c) women should not resist a rape attack. In addition, researchers found that exposure to violent sexual material correlated significantly with the belief that rapists are normal. See also Zillman, "Effects of Prolonged Consumption," 129; and N. Malamuth and J. Ceniti, 129-37. "Study…results consistently showed a relationship between one's reported likelihood to rape and responses associated with convicted rapists such as sexual arousal to rape stimuli, callous attitudes toward rape, beliefs in the rape myths, and hostility towards women."

xi Cline, Pornography's Effects, 8.

xii Kavanagh, Protecting Children in Cyberspace, 58-59.

xiii Interview with Ann Burgess, professor of nursing, University of Pennsylvania, 15 January 1997. "Pornography - Victims and Perpetrators," Symposium on Media Violence & Pornography, Proceedings Resource Book and Research Guide, ed. D. Scott (1984).

xiv Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. , "The Influence of Pornography on Sexual Development: Three Case Histories," Family Therapy IX, no. 3 (1982): 265.

BTW, I have provided a proof, while the other opinion believers didn't!

Thats a point for me

 

[Willamena]

Should all pornography be banned to protect children from viewing it? If so, why? If not, why not?

"Pornography" is a broad blanket term. Something so simple as viewing nudity should not be banned, whereas more physically abusive activities should.

Should some kinds of pornography be banned to protect children from viewing it? If so, why? If not, why not?

Monkey see, monkey do.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Einstein

Forum rules say...

7. Plagiarism
Plagiarism is illegal and never permitted. To quote another author you must always identify the Title, Author, and Publisher. You may insert a short paragraph or one or two sentences from it into your post, showing a link to the source. When using material in this way, you must indicate the significance of the material in your own words. Posts that just show a link and source material will be removed. This rule will be enforced with in our understanding of intellectual property rights and fair use.

However the pages you pasted are clearly for anti porn sites as they give no counter arguments, and are certainly not proof.

The vast majority of children in this world have always grown up to be well balanced citizens.
As your pages show ..large numbers are and have always been exposed to pornography as children.

They surprisingly manage this, with out decent sex education, a proper appreciation of the sexual needs of the opposite sex, or the ability to discuss and learn about relationships... but mainly from the biased view of sexuality obtained from young friends, Pornography, magazines, films and the media in general.

I have yet to see statistics that show that either the Young or adults have somehow become degenerate because of it.

 

[Smoke]

The sexual excitement and eventual release obtained through pornography are mood altering. For example, if a young boy's early stimulus was pornographic photographs, he can be conditioned to become aroused through photographs. Once this pairing is rewarded a number of times, it is likely to become permanent. [SIZE=-2]xiv[/SIZE] The result is that it becomes difficult for the individual to experience sexual satisfaction apart from pornographic images.

Then you will undoubtedly want to ban religious books and movies, lest children grow up to incapable of experiencing god apart from books and movies.

 

[EiNsTeiN]

Einstein

Forum rules say...


However the pages you pasted are clearly for anti porn sites as they give no counter arguments, and are certainly not proof.

The vast majority of children in this world have always grown up to be well balanced citizens.
As your pages show ..large numbers are and have always been exposed to pornography as children.

They surprisingly manage this, with out decent sex education, a proper appreciation of the sexual needs of the opposite sex, or the ability to discuss and learn about relationships... but mainly from the biased view of sexuality obtained from young friends, Pornography, magazines, films and the media in general.

I have yet to see statistics that show that either the Young or adults have somehow become degenerate because of it.

Well, I haven't notice the rule..Sorry for that (i've been doing it very often lately :s)

But however, I provided refrences to these paragraphes..
Although I took the paragraphs from a "children protection" site, but they refrenced their work, and thus the quoted paragraphs are also refrenced..

Edited to add:

However the pages you pasted are clearly for anti porn sites

That wasn't an anti porn site...It was a children protection one

 

[EiNsTeiN]

BTW, if you googled "impacts of porn exposure on kids", you won't find any result that says, porn is cool for kids!

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

BTW, if you googled "impacts of porn exposure on kids", you won't find any result that says, porn is cool for kids!

If you googled death from gun shots you would not find any that it is good for kids either.

 

[Luke_17:2]

I personally don't think so. You can't ban it: if a person wants to look at it, it's their right.

A parent should make darn sure his kid can't come into contact with it.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Along with the ballyhooed Meese Commission back in the '80s (I think?) - that imo unsuccessfully showed a link between porn and criminal behavior - there have been studies conducted that show a neutral impact pornography has on society. There was (and still is) a popular argument suggesting that porn creates a degrading attitude toward women...........here is a study suggesting otherwise:

Pornography, sex crime, and public policy

Much of the material acquired to "prove" that porn is harmful to marriages and specifically to women is based on either assumptions (most of the time) or is cherry-picked from "causal links" of violent pornographic material and violent crimes committed by men.

So now we come to the focus group of children. Personally, I know that my kids would rather chew hay than watch me and my husband in an intimate moment, but they are at an age where they are becoming much more aware of their bodies and their sexuality. Will they search for porn out there? Of course. But this is where we enter the picture to talk about it, talk about it again, and talk about it even more.

Our point is that we don't want to ban porn from them because we think it's harmful (it isn't), but because we want to continue to educate that this is a form of fantasy. Erotica (and even teen erotica aimed toward girls), is another form of fantasy, but in the end it's best to continue to have constant open and frank discussions about sex and sexuality. In the end, it's the parents who are the source for education about sex, the consequences, and the expectations.

I worry more about children who are neglected, abandoned, and abused than whether or not they're exposed to porn.




Peace,
Mystic

 

[Don Penguinoini]

BTW, if you googled "impacts of porn exposure on kids", you won't find any result that says, porn is cool for kids!

My friend, being a mad animal he is, was insistent on showing me porn, so i saw it, quite funny if anything. I learnt something new! 42 is the magic number, and well, Japanese people love the Expresss Train. Am i messed up. Maybe it made me more intelligent? I was aware of what some sick people make, how i should not wind up like them? But porn is a nasty thing. It should be eradicated like a bug.

 

[Don Penguinoini]

I personally don't think so. You can't ban it: if a person wants to look at it, it's their right.

A parent should make darn sure his kid can't come into contact with it.

Why not? I like!:yes:

(JOKE)

 

[Panda]

In Japan the amount of pornography has greatly increased throughout the 20th and 21st century. In this time the reported level of rape has dropped dramatically and Japan also has the highest rate for catching sexual criminals.
The idea that pornography is damaging to people does not stand under valid criticisms and research.

There are no scientific studies that show that exposure to nonviolent sexual material causes a person to commit a sexual crime or become more sexually aggressive.
Dr. Judith Becker, associate professor
of clinical psychology at Columbia University

Contrary to popular opinion, empirical research does not support a relationship between nonviolent sexual imagery (including adult pornography) and sex crimes. At the same time, as we will see, there are negative aspects to pornography -- but they may not be what you think.

and more

The British have also investigated the alleged link between sexual materials and sex crime.

After considerable study they issued the following conclusion: "We unhesitatingly reject the suggestion that the available statistical information for England and Wales lends any support at all to the argument that pornography acts as a stimulus to the commission of sexual violence."
Subsequently a report by the Danish Council of Forensic Medicine concluded, "No scientific experiment exists which can lay a basis for the assumption that pornography or 'obscene' pictures and films contribute to the committing of sexual offenses by normal adults or young people."​

Also research by The Presidential Commission on Obesity and Pornography(1967) states:​

The Presidential Commission concluded that the real problem is not sexual imagery, but "the inability or reluctance of people in our society to be open and direct in dealing with sexual matters."

The same Commision in 1986 states

"There is a causal relationship between exposure to sexually violent materials and an increase in aggressive behavior directed toward women."

Notice it says violent materials and aggrssive behavior. Violent crime is not mentioned

However two woman on the Commission Ellen Levine and Dr. Judith Becker saw the data differently and stated.

There are no scientific studies that show that exposure to nonviolent sexual material causes a person to commit a sexual crime or become more sexually aggressive."

Quotes and information taking from Pronography, Sexual Imagery, research, attitudes, effects, snuff films, sexual predators, statistics, Internet porn

 

[EiNsTeiN]

If you googled death from gun shots you would not find any that it is good for kids either.

Well, thanks for saying that..
You just proved what I say!
Your analogy is gun shots---->porn exposure!

I personally don't think so. You can't ban it: if a person wants to look at it, it's their right.

A parent should make darn sure his kid can't come into contact with it.

So you are preventing you children from watching porn?
Why is that?

 

[EiNsTeiN]

In Japan the amount of pornography has greatly increased throughout the 20th and 21st century. In this time the reported level of rape has dropped dramatically and Japan also has the highest rate for catching sexual criminals.
The idea that pornography is damaging to people does not stand under valid criticisms and research.

and more

Also research by The Presidential Commission on Obesity and Pornography(1967) states:​

The same Commision in 1986 states

Notice it says violent materials and aggrssive behavior. Violent crime is not mentioned

However two woman on the Commission Ellen Levine and Dr. Judith Becker saw the data differently and stated.
Quotes and information taking from Pronography, Sexual Imagery, research, attitudes, effects, snuff films, sexual predators, statistics, Internet porn

I just wanna say that we are talking about children watching porn, and not adults..