Porn’s disastrous effect on our youth

With our country experiencing rising rates of teenage pregnancy plus an alarming increase in HIV infections, our policymakers would do well to incorporate a serious, intensified crackdown on pornography in their programmes.
Studies across the world have shown the numerous negative consequences of porn use – addiction, sexual dysfunction, destruction of marital relations, escalation to more violent and degrading forms of pornography, and contribution to the worldwide human trafficking. With all these adverse effects, why aren’t serious measures being against the ubiquity of freely available porn on the Internet?
The simple answer is greed. The greed of pornography producers and distributors who cash in on other people’s degradation and exploitation. Pornography is a $97-billion industry, $3 billion of which is revenue from child pornography.
US states including South Dakota and Utah have already marked pornography as a “public health crisis”, and several US lawmakers have introduced resolutions to criminalise porn producers.
Surely our lawmakers can draft laws to combat pornography’s spread in our culture, given the overwhelming evidence of its dangers. Erotic entertainment is now deeply rooted in our society. The Philippines still has cinemas that specialise in porno films, while our most popular magazine is a soft-porn publication. These media channels are contributing to an acceleration of misogynistic and chauvinist attitudes in an already-male-dominated culture.
Pornography degrades human beings into objects of exploitation. According to anti-porn campaigner Gail Dines, “To think that so many men hate women to the degree that they can get aroused by such vile images is quite profound. Pornography is the perfect propaganda piece for patriarchy. In nothing else is their hatred of us quite as clear.”
The recent arrests of pornographers like Liezyl Margallo, who abused an infant on camera, are only the first steps toward the eradication of pornography. Our law enforcers should be doubly vigilant: cyberporn has become a cottage industry, often operating out of homes and involving families and relatives. As for ordinary citizens, they should be made aware that, in using or supporting pornography, they are cultivating an industry that destroys lives.
Gerard Biagan
Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN