Recent headlines about pornography use at the Securities and Exchange Commission stirred public disgust with government officials who viewed thousands of hard-core images while Wall Street banks imploded.
Yet experts and religious groups that have struggled for years to raise awareness about the destructive consequences of pornography use hope the news will contribute to a sea change in social attitudes.
In fact, anti-pornography crusaders received another boost from the American Psychiatric Association, which just released new draft diagnostic guidelines that identified pornography addiction as a form of “hypersexual disorder” and thus worthy of serious study and treatment.
The breakthrough at the American Psychiatric Association provides additional context for a new report endorsed by a broad swath of academic leaders: “The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations.”
Wasn’t there a Presidential Commission dedicated to this subject?
Yeah, James Dobson (among others) was on it, but things have gotten worse and worse since then The recent APA decision to recognize porn addiction as a disorder is welcome, of course, but we’re still dealing with a truly massive cultural problem, a social epidemic. So anything that helps raise public awareness of the extent and seriousness of the problem is to be celebrated and promoted, like this well documented Witherspoon Institute (Princeton) study on [b]The Social Costs of Pornography.[/b]
For me, the money quote was the recent study that showed that on the college campuses surveyed, a whopping (and depressing) 69% of men and 10% of women viewed porn at least once a month. Ugh! That’s nearly 7 out of every ten guys. Yeah, it’s a BIG problem.
Congratulations to the Archdiocese of Kansas City for doing something serious about offering help to those struggling with this pernicious affliction, and those family members suffering from it secondhand.
David Handy+
And they can’t be fired….
Anyone heard if anyone got fired??
Don
I don’t think you’re going to dissuade people from porn very easily (married couples, after all, watch it). But you can try to get people into healthy marriages, which will take a bite out of it. I’m concerned that the religious right has resorted to Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” theme (which of course was not effective with drugs either).