Porn "Addiction" in the Mainstream Media

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In this latter source, the authors found no accepted diagnostic criteria for ‘pornography addiction’ and no consensus on symptoms.

Doesn't addiction to anything have basic universal precepts? i.e. powerless to cease the behavior?

Porn addiction is real and it is like any other drug. First, you start out with regular/vanilla porn, but you become desensitized and the genres become more extreme and degenerate. Porn may also causes erectile dysfunction and maybe even lead to deviant sexual behavior. If you value healthy intimate and romantic relationships, STAY AWAY FROM PORN!

Porn addiction is real and it is like any other drug. First, you start out with regular/vanilla porn, but you become desensitized and the genres become more extreme and degenerate. Porn may also causes erectile dysfunction and maybe even lead to deviant sexual behavior. If you value healthy intimate and romantic relationships, STAY AWAY FROM PORN!

It’s a pity the scumbags in the liberal media can’t be prosecuted for misrepresentation and lies

I have two friends who told me they struggle with porn. They feel powerless to stop their behavior, they spend too much precious time on it, they have neglected and ruined relationships with it. They’ve used the word addiction.
I’ll just tell them they’re wrong and they shouldn’t worry about it. I mean if it’s not heroin or cigarettes you can’t possibly be addicted, right?
How can they call gambling an “addiction” but not porn?

For Gawd's sake, Michael give this "porn addiction" thing a rest, would ya? People in this world struggle every single day with a wide variety of issues, but the PROBLEM does not lay within the thing itself, but in how they relate to it. Simply put, they are people with little to no sense of moderation or self-control. If a little is good, a lot must be better. Now granted, there are real examples of clinical addiction, most commonly associated with substance abuse. Alcohol and opioids are not the same thing as erotica. The vast majority of healthy, happy sexually mature adults have no problem with erotica/porn. Stop vilifying it.

This was a great article and you highlighted many important details. Thank you for sharing.

There are some areas of our modern world where science leads the way. This is not one of them. In fact, psychology is lagging FAR behind.

Porn--any porn--kills relationships. Period.

"I will set before my eyes no vile thing." Psalm 101:3

Shelton cherry-picked 2 opinion pieces by biased authors, and concluded that "those seeking information on porn addiction are unlikely to come across peer-reviewed journal studies."

Reality - There are at least 2000 studies on pornography (PubMed) and there are several papers that have created validated assessments for problematic porn use/porn addiction. A few examples:
1 - The Development of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS), 2017
2 - A Brief Scale to Measure Problematic Sexually Explicit Media Consumption: Psychometric Properties of the Compulsive
3 - Pornography Consumption (CPC) Scale Among Men Who Have Sex With Men, 2014
4 - The Internet Addiction Test – Sex (IATsex; Brand, Laier, Pawlikowski, Schchtle, Schöler, & Altstötter-Gleich, 2011)
5 - The Sexual Dependency Inventory – Revised (SDI-R; Green et al., 2012)
6 - The Internet Usage Scale for Sexual Purposes-Modified (Velezmoro, Negy, & Livia, 2012)

What's missing from Shelton's article? The elephant in the room: The World Health Organization’s new ICD-11 includes a diagnosis for “Compulsive sexual behavior disorder” - which is an umbrella term for “sex addiction”, “porn addiction”, “cybersex addiction”, hypersexuality, “out of control sexual behaviors”, and the like. So the ICD-11 committees think there’s enough research.

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You would think the shrinks would be celebrating yet another addiction which means big $$$ profits $$$.

With the mental illness of transgenderism being celebrated as a 'lifestyle choice' they need this new problem to solve.

The article said:

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Popular media discussed pornography addiction using the language of addiction, including terms such as ‘cravings,’ ‘tolerance,’ and ‘withdrawal.’

The article is falsely claiming that ‘cravings,’ ‘tolerance,’ and ‘withdrawal.’ Have not been reported in the peer-reviewed literature. Not so.

NEUROLOGICAL STUDIES REPORTING CRAVINGS/CUE-REACTIVITY IN PORN USERS:
1) Watching Pornographic Pictures on the Internet: Role of Sexual Arousal Ratings and Psychological-Psychiatric Symptoms for Using Internet Sex Sites Excessively (2011)
2) Cybersex addiction: Experienced sexual arousal when watching pornography and not real-life sexual contacts makes the difference (2013)
3) Sexual Desire, not Hypersexuality, is Related to Neurophysiological Responses Elicited by Sexual Images (2013)
4) Empirical Evidence and Theoretical Considerations on Factors Contributing to Cybersex Addiction From a Cognitive-Behavioral View (2014)
6) Cybersex addiction in heterosexual female users of internet pornography can be explained by gratification hypothesis (2014)
7) Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviours (2014)
8) Enhanced Attentional Bias towards Sexually Explicit Cues in Individuals with and without Compulsive Sexual Behaviours (2014)
9) Novelty, Conditioning and Attentional Bias to Sexual Rewards (2015)
10) Neural Substrates of Sexual Desire in Individuals with Problematic Hypersexual Behavior (2015)
11) Implicit associations in cybersex addiction: Adaption of an Implicit Association Test with pornographic pictures (2015)
12) Symptoms of cybersex addiction can be linked to both approaching and avoiding pornographic stimuli: results from an analog sample of regular cybersex users (2015)
13) Sexual Excitability and Dysfunctional Coping Determine Cybersex Addiction in Homosexual Males (2015)
14) Compulsive sexual behavior: Prefrontal and limbic volume and interactions (2016)
15) Ventral striatum activity when watching preferred pornographic pictures is correlated with symptoms of Internet pornography addiction (2016)
16) Altered Appetitive Conditioning and Neural Connectivity in Subjects With Compulsive Sexual Behavior (2016)
17) Compulsivity across the pathological misuse of drug and non-drug rewards (2016)
18) Subjective Craving for Pornography and Associative Learning Predict Tendencies Towards Cybersex Addiction in a Sample of Regular Cybersex Users (2016)
19) Exploring the Relationship between Sexual Compulsivity and Attentional Bias to Sex-Related Words in a Cohort of Sexually Active Individuals (2016)
20) Mood changes after watching pornography on the Internet are linked to symptoms of Internet-pornography-viewing disorder (Laier & Brand, 2016)
21) Can Pornography be Addictive? An fMRI Study of Men Seeking Treatment for Problematic Pornography Use (2017)
22) Predictors for (Problematic) Use of Internet Sexually Explicit Material: Role of Trait Sexual Motivation and Implicit Approach Tendencies Towards Sexually Explicit Material (2017)

STUDIES REPORTING FINDINGS CONSISTENT WITH TOLERANCE & ESCALATION:

1) "Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men" (2016)
This 2016 study reports escalation in porn users, as 49% of the men reported viewing porn that was not previously interesting to them or that they once considered disgusting:

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"49% mentioned at least sometimes searching for sexual content or being involved in online sexual activities that were not previously interesting to them or that they considered disgusting."

Interestingly, 20.3% of participants said that one motive for their porn use was "to maintain arousal with my partner." An excerpt:

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This study is the first to directly investigate the relationships between sexual dysfunctions and problematic involvement in OSAs. Results indicated that higher sexual desire, lower overall sexual satisfaction, and lower erectile function were associated with problematic OSAs (online sexual activities). These results can be linked to those of previous studies reporting a high level of arousability in association with sexual addiction symptoms (Bancroft & Vukadinovic, 2004; Laier et al., 2013; Muise et al., 2013). ."

2) "Sexually Explicit Media Use by Sexual Identity: A Comparative Analysis of Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men in the United States"
This 2016 study reported that 21% of straight men watch gay porn and 55% of gay men watch heterosexual porn. This alone debunks the claim that porn viewing tastes mirror real life sexual preferences.

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"The findings also indicated that many men viewed SEM content inconsistent with their stated sexual identity. It was not uncommon for heterosexual-identified men to report viewing SEM containing male same-sex behavior (20.7%) and for gay-identified men to report viewing heterosexual behavior in SEM (55.0)."

3) "Out-of-control use of the internet for sexual purposes as behavioural addiction? (2017)" - An upcoming study which asked about tolerance and withdrawal. It found both in "porn addicts". A few excerpts:

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We conducted in-depth interviews with 21 participants aged 22–54 years (Mage = 34 years). Using a thematic analysis, the clinical symptoms of OUISP were analysed with the criteria of behavioural addiction, with the special focus on tolerance and withdrawal symptoms.

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"Building up tolerance to online porn manifested itself as an increasing amount of time spent on pornographic websites as well as searching for new and more sexually explicit stimuli within the non-deviant spectrum. Withdrawal symptoms manifested themselves on a psychosomatic level and took the form of searching for alternative sexual objects."

4) Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports (2016) - is an extensive review of the literature related to porn-induced sexual problems. Authored by US Navy doctors, the review provides the latest data revealing a tremendous rise in youthful sexual problems. It also reviews the neurological studies related to porn addiction and sexual conditioning via Internet porn. The doctors include 3 clinical reports of servicemen who developed porn-induced sexual dysfunctions. Two of the three servicemen healed their sexual dysfunctions by eliminating porn use while the third man experienced little improvement as he was unable to abstain from porn use. Two of the three servicemen reported habituation to current porn and escalation of porn use. The first servicemen describes his habituation to "soft porn" followed by escalation into more graphic and fetish porn:

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"A 20-year old active duty enlisted Caucasian serviceman presented with difficulties achieving orgasm during intercourse for the previous six months. It first happened while he was deployed overseas. He was masturbating for about an hour without an orgasm, and his penis went flaccid. His difficulties maintaining erection and achieving orgasm continued throughout his deployment. Since his return, he had not been able to ejaculate during intercourse with his fiancée. He could achieve an erection but could not orgasm, and after 10–15 min he would lose his erection, which was not the case prior to his having ED issues."

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Patient endorsed masturbating frequently for “years”, and once or twice almost daily for the past couple of years. He endorsed viewing Internet pornography for stimulation. Since he gained access to high-speed Internet, he relied solely on Internet pornography. Initially, “soft porn”, where the content does not necessarily involve actual intercourse, “did the trick”. However, gradually he needed more graphic or fetish material to orgasm. He reported opening multiple videos simultaneously and watching the most stimulating parts.

The second servicemen describes increased porn use and escalation into more graphic porn. Soon thereafter sex with his wife “not as stimulating as before":

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A 40-year old African American enlisted serviceman with 17 years of continuous active duty presented with difficulty achieving erections for the previous three months. He reported that when he attempted to have sexual intercourse with his wife, he had difficulty achieving an erection and difficulty maintaining it long enough to orgasm. Ever since their youngest child left for college, six months earlier, he had found himself masturbating more often due to increased privacy. He formerly masturbated every other week on average, but that increased to two to three times per week. He had always used Internet pornography, but the more often he used it, the longer it took to orgasm with his usual material. This led to him using more graphic material. Soon thereafter, sex with his wife was “not as stimulating” as before and at times he found his wife “not as attractive”. He denied ever having these issues earlier in the seven years of their marriage. He was having marital issues because his wife suspected he was having an affair, which he adamantly denied.

5) How difficult is it to treat delayed ejaculation within a short-term psychosexual model? A case study comparison (2017) - A report on a "composite case" illustrating the causes and treatments for delayed ejaculation (anorgasmia). "Patient B" represented several young men treated by the therapist. Interestingly, the paper states that Patient B's "porn use had escalated into harder material", "as is often the case". The paper says that porn-related delayed ejaculation is not uncommon, and on the rise. The author calls for more research on porn's effects of sexual functioning. Patient B's delayed ejaculation was healed after 10 weeks of no porn. Excerpts related to escalation:

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The cases are composite cases taken from my work within the National Health Service in Croydon University Hospital, London. With the latter case (Patient B), it is important to note that the presentation reflects a number of young males who have been referred by their GPs with a similar diagnosis. Patient B is a 19-year-old who presented because he was unable to ejaculate via penetration. When he was 13, he was regularly accessing pornography sites either on his own through internet searches or via links that his friends sent him. He began masturbating every night while searching his phone for image…If he did not masturbate he was unable to sleep. The pornography he was using had escalated, as is often the case (see Hudson-Allez, 2010), into harder material (nothing illegal)…

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Patient B was exposed to sexual imagery via pornography from the age of 12 and the pornography he was using had escalated to bondage and dominance by the age of 15.

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We agreed that he would no longer use pornography to masturbate. This meant leaving his phone in a different room at night. We agreed that he would masturbate in a different way…. The article calls for research into pornography usage and its effect on masturbation and genital desensitisation.

6) The Dual Control Model: The Role Of Sexual Inhibition & Excitation In Sexual Arousal And Behavior, 2007. In an experiment employing video porn, 50% of the young men couldn't become aroused or achieve erections with porn (average age was 29). The shocked researchers discovered that the men's erectile dysfunction was….

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related to high levels of exposure to and experience with sexually explicit materials.

The men experiencing erectile dysfunction had spent a considerable amount of time in bars and bathhouses where porn was "omnipresent," and "continuously playing." The researchers stated:

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Conversations with the subjects reinforced our idea that in some of them a high exposure to erotica seemed to have resulted in a lower responsivity to "vanilla sex" erotica and an increased need for novelty and variation, in some cases combined with a need for very specific types of stimuli in order to get aroused.

7) Exploring the effect of sexually explicit material on the sexual beliefs, understanding and practices of young men: A qualitative survey (2016) An excerpt:

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Findings suggest that the key themes are: increased levels of availability of SEM, including an escalation in extreme content (Everywhere You Look) which are seen by young men in this study as having negative effects on sexual attitudes and behaviours (That's Not Good). Family or sex education may offer some ‘protection’ (Buffers) to the norms young people see in SEM. Data suggests confused views (Real verses Fantasy) around adolescents’ expectations of a healthy sex life (Healthy Sex Life) and appropriate beliefs and behaviours (Knowing Right from Wrong). A potential causal pathway is described and areas of intervention highlighted.

8) Unusual masturbatory practice as an etiological factor in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in young men (2014). Excerpts from the paper documenting the patient's habituation and escalation into what he described as more extreme porn genres:

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When asked about masturbatory practices, he reported that in the past he had been masturbating vigorously and rapidly while watching pornography since adolescence. The pornography originally consisted mainly of zoophilia, and bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism, but he eventually got habituated to these materials and needed more hardcore pornography scenes, including transgender sex, orgies, and violent sex. He used to buy illegal pornographic movies on violent sex acts and rape and visualized those scenes in his imagination to function sexually with women. He gradually lost his desire and his ability to fantasize and decreased his masturbation frequency.

An excerpt from the paper documents the patient's recovery from porn-induced sexual problems and fetishes:

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In conjunction with weekly sessions with a sex therapist, the patient was instructed to avoid any exposure to sexually explicit material, including videos, newspapers, books, and internet pornography. After 8 months, the patient reported experiencing successful orgasm and ejaculation. He renewed his relationship with that woman, and they gradually succeeded in enjoying good sexual practices.

9) The Development of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS) (2017) - This paper developed and tested a problematic porn use questionnaire that was modeled after substance addiction questionnaires. Unlike previous porn addiction tests, this 18-item questionnaire assessed tolerance and withdrawal including this question in which many subjects answered yes:

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I gradually watched more “extreme” porn because the porn I watched was less satisfying.

10) "Does deviant pornography use follow a Guttman-like progression?" (2013). An excerpt:

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”Results suggested deviant pornography use followed a Guttman-like progression in that individuals with a younger age of onset for adult pornography use were more likely to engage in deviant pornography (bestiality or child) compared to those with a later age of onset.”

11) "Deviant Pornography Use: The Role of Early-Onset Adult Pornography Use and Individual Differences" (2016). An excerpt:

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”Results indicated that adult + deviant pornography users scored significantly higher on openness to experience and reported a significantly younger age of onset for adult pornography use compared to adult-only pornography users.”

12) How difficult is it to treat delayed ejaculation within a short-term psychosexual model? A case study comparison (2017) - A report on two "composite cases" illustrating the causes and treatments for delayed ejaculation (anorgasmia). "Patient B" represented several young men treated by the therapist. Interestingly, the paper states that Patient B's "porn use had escalated into harder material", "as is often the case". The paper says that porn-related delayed ejaculation is not uncommon, and on the rise. The author calls for more research on porn's effects of sexual functioning. Patient B's delayed ejaculation was healed after 10 weeks of no porn. Excerpts related to escalation:

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The cases are composite cases taken from my work within the National Health Service in Croydon University Hospital, London. With the latter case (Patient B), it is important to note that the presentation reflects a number of young males who have been referred by their GPs with a similar diagnosis. Patient B is a 19-year-old who presented because he was unable to ejaculate via penetration. When he was 13, he was regularly accessing pornography sites either on his own through internet searches or via links that his friends sent him. He began masturbating every night while searching his phone for image…If he did not masturbate he was unable to sleep. The pornography he was using had escalated, as is often the case (see Hudson-Allez, 2010), into harder material (nothing illegal)…
Patient B was exposed to sexual imagery via pornography from the age of 12 and the pornography he was using had escalated to bondage and dominance by the age of 15.

13) Also consider this older study - “Shifting Preferences In Pornography Consumption” (1986): Six weeks of exposure to nonviolent pornography resulted in subjects having little interest in vanilla porn, electing to almost exclusively watch "uncommon pornography" (bondage, sadomasochism, bestiality).

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“Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to one hour of common, nonviolent pornography or to sexually and aggressively innocuous materials in each of six consecutive weeks. Two weeks after this treatment, they were provided with an opportunity to watch videotapes in a private situation. G-rated, R-rated, and X-rated programs were available. Subjects with considerable prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography showed little interest in common, nonviolent pornography, electing to watch uncommon pornography (bondage, sadomasochism, bestiality) instead. Male nonstudents with prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography consumed uncommon pornography almost exclusively. Male students exhibited the same pattern, although somewhat less extreme. This consumption preference was also in evidence in females, but was far less pronounced, especially among female students.”

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A few neurological studies reporting habituation or tolerance:

1) "Modulation of late positive potentials by sexual images in problem users and controls inconsistent with "porn addiction" (Prause et al., 2015.) The results: compared to controls "individuals experiencing problems regulating their porn viewing" had lower brain responses to one-second exposure to photos of vanilla porn.

2) "Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn" (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2014) - This Max Planck Institute fMRI study found less grey matter in the reward system (dorsal striatum) correlating with the amount of porn consumed. It also found that more porn use correlated with less reward circuit activation while briefly viewing sexual photos. Researchers believe their findings indicated desensitization, and possibly tolerance, which is the need for greater stimulation to achieve the same level of arousal. Lead author Simone Kühn said the following about her study:

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"That could mean that regular consumption of pornography more or less wears out your reward system. We assume that subjects with a high porn consumption need increasing stimulation to receive the same amount of reward. That would fit perfectly the hypothesis that their reward systems need growing stimulation."

3) "Novelty, conditioning and attentional bias to sexual rewards" (2015). Cambridge University fMRI study reporting greater habituation to sexual stimuli in compulsive porn users. An excerpt:

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Online explicit stimuli are vast and expanding, and this feature may promote escalation of use in some individuals. For instance, healthy males viewing repeatedly the same explicit film have been found to habituate to the stimulus and find the explicit stimulus as progressively less sexually arousing, less appetitive and less absorbing. We show experimentally what is observed clinically that Compulsive Sexual Behavior is characterized by novelty-seeking, conditioning and habituation to sexual stimuli in males.

4) Conscious and Non-Conscious Measures of Emotion: Do They Vary with Frequency of Pornography Use? (2017) -

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Interestingly, the high porn use group rated the erotic images as more unpleasant than the medium use group. The authors suggest this may be due to the relatively “soft-core” nature of the “erotic” images contained in the IAPS database not providing the level of stimulation that they may usually seek out, as it has been shown by Harper and Hodgins [58] that with frequent viewing of pornographic material, many individuals often escalate into viewing more intense material to maintain the same level of physiological arousal. The “pleasant” emotion category saw valence ratings by all three groups to be relatively similar with the high use group rating the images as slightly more unpleasant on average than the other groups. This may again be due to the “pleasant” images presented not being stimulating enough for the individuals in the high use group. Studies have consistently shown a physiological downregulation in processing of appetitive content due to habituation effects in individuals who frequently seek out pornographic material [3,7,8]. It is the authors’ contention that this effect may account for the results observed.

5) Exploring the Relationship between Sexual Compulsivity and Attentional Bias to Sex-Related Words in a Cohort of Sexually Active Individuals (2017) Excerpt about their findings:

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"One possible explanation for these results is that as a sexually compulsive individual engages in more compulsive behaviour, an associated arousal template develops [36–38] and that over time, more extreme behaviour is required for the same level of arousal to be realised. It is further argued that as an individual engages in more compulsive behaviour, neuropathways become desensitized to more ‘normalised’ sexual stimuli or images and individuals turn to more ‘extreme’ stimuli to realise the arousal desired. This is in accordance with work showing that ‘healthy’ males become habituated to explicit stimuli over time and that this habituation is characterised by decreased arousal and appetitive responses [39]. This suggests that more compulsive, sexually active participants have become ‘numb’ or more indifferent to the ‘normalised’ sex-related words used in the present study and as such display decreased attentional bias, while those with increased compulsivity and less experience still showed interference because the stimuli reflect more sensitised cognition."

The article said:

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Many sources claimed porn addiction is harmful to relationships, including detaching from one’s partner or modifying a couple’s typical sexual routine.

The author is falsely claiming that there are no studies linking porn use to relationship problems. In reality, almost all studies examining porn use and relationships reports more porn use is linked to poorer sexual and relationship satisfaction (about 55 such studies). In the list below, studies 1 & 2 are meta-analyses, study #3 had porn users attempt to quit using porn for 3 weeks, and studies 4 through 8 are longitudinal:

1) Pornography Consumption and Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis (2017) - This meta-analysis of various other studies assessing sexual and relationship satisfaction reported that porn use was consistently related to lower sexual and relationship satisfaction (interpersonal satisfaction). While some studies report little negative effect of porn use on sexual and relationship satisfaction in women, it's important to know that a relatively small percentage of coupled females (across the population) regularly consume internet porn. Cross-sectional data from the largest US survey (General Social Survey) suggest that only 2.6% of women had visited a "pornographic website" in the last month (2002-2004). An excerpt:

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However, pornography consumption was associated with lower interpersonal satisfaction outcomes in cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal surveys, and experiments. Associations between pornography consumption and reduced interpersonal satisfaction outcomes were not moderated by their year of release or their publication status. But analyses by sex indicted significant results for men only.

2) Women's perceptions of their male partners’ pornography consumption and relational, sexual, self, and body satisfaction: toward a theoretical model (2017) - Excerpts:

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This paper’s meta-analysis of quantitative studies conducted to date primarily supports the hypothesis that the majority of women are negatively impacted by the perception that their partner is a pornography consumer. In main analyses including all of the available studies, perceiving partners as pornography consumers was significantly associated with less relational, sexual, and body satisfaction. The association for self satisfaction was also negative. The results also suggested that women’s satisfaction will generally decrease in correspondence with the perception that their partners are consuming pornography more frequently.
Perceiving male partners as more frequent consumers of pornography was significantly associated with less relational and sexual satisfaction.
Finally, the possibility of a publication bias was also explored. Taken in totality, the results did not suggest that publication bias is a significant concern in this literature.

3) A Love That Doesn’t Last: Pornography Consumption and Weakened Commitment to One’s Romantic Partner (2012) – The study had subjects try to abstain from porn use for 3 weeks. Upon comparing the two groups, those who continued using pornography reported lower levels of commitment than those who tried to abstain. Excerpts:

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Study 1 found that higher pornography consumption was related to lower commitment
Study 3 participants were randomly assigned to either refrain from viewing pornography or to a self-control task. Those who continued using pornography reported lower levels of commitment than control participants.
Study 5 found that pornography consumption was positively related to infidelity and this association was mediated by commitment. Overall, a consistent pattern of results was found using a variety of approaches including cross-sectional (Study 1), observational (Study 2), experimental (Study 3), and behavioral (Studies 4 and 5) data.

4) Internet pornography and relationship quality: A longitudinal study of within and between partner effects of adjustment, sexual satisfaction and sexually explicit internet material among newly-weds (2015) - Longitudinal study. Excerpt:

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The data from a considerable sample of newlyweds showed that SEIM use has more negative than positive consequences for husbands and wives. Importantly, husbands’ adjustment decreased SEIM use over time and SEIM use decreased adjustment. Furthermore, more sexual satisfaction in husbands predicted a decrease in their wives’ SEIM use one year later, while wives’ SEIM use did not change their husbands’ sexual satisfaction.

5) Does Viewing Pornography Reduce Marital Quality Over Time? Evidence from Longitudinal Data (2016) - First longitudinal study on a representative cross-section of married couples. It found significant negative effects of porn use on marriage quality over time. Excerpt:

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This study is the first to draw on nationally representative, longitudinal data (2006-2012 Portraits of American Life Study) to test whether more frequent pornography use influences marital quality later on and whether this effect is moderated by gender. In general, married persons who more frequently viewed pornography in 2006 reported significantly lower levels of marital quality in 2012, net of controls for earlier marital quality and relevant correlates. Pornography's effect was not simply a proxy for dissatisfaction with sex life or marital decision-making in 2006. In terms of substantive influence, frequency of pornography use in 2006 was the second strongest predictor of marital quality in 2012.

6) Till Porn Do Us Part? Longitudinal Effects of Pornography Use on Divorce (2017) - This longitudinal study used nationally representative General Social Survey panel data collected from thousands of American adults. Respondents were interviewed three times about their pornography use and marital status -- every two years from 2006-2010, 2008-2012, or 2010-2014. Excerpts:

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Beginning pornography use between survey waves nearly doubled one's likelihood of being divorced by the next survey period, from 6 percent to 11 percent, and nearly tripled it for women, from 6 percent to 16 percent. Our results suggest that viewing pornography, under certain social conditions, may have negative effects on marital stability. Conversely, discontinuing pornography use between survey waves was associated with a lower probability of divorce, but only for women.
Additionally, the researchers found that respondents' initially reported level of marital happiness played an important role in determining the magnitude of pornography's association with the probability of divorce. Among people who reported they were "very happy" in their marriage in the first survey wave, beginning pornography viewership before the next survey was associated with a noteworthy increase -- from 3 percent to 12 percent -- in the likelihood of getting divorced by the time of that next survey.
Additional analyses also showed that the association between beginning pornography use and the probability of divorce was particularly strong among younger Americans, those who were less religious, and those who reported greater initial marital happiness.

7) Pornography Use and Marital Separation: Evidence from Two-Wave Panel Data (2017) – Longitudinal study. Excerpts:

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Drawing on data from the 2006 and 2012 waves of the nationally representative Portraits of American Life Study, this article examined whether married Americans who viewed pornography in 2006, either at all or in greater frequencies, were more likely to experience a marital separation by 2012. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that married Americans who viewed pornography at all in 2006 were more than twice as likely as those who did not view pornography to experience a separation by 2012, even after controlling for 2006 marital happiness and sexual satisfaction as well as relevant sociodemographic correlates. The relationship between pornography use frequency and marital separation, however, was technically curvilinear. The likelihood of marital separation by 2012 increased with 2006 pornography use to a point and then declined at the highest frequencies of pornography use.

8) Are Pornography Users More Likely to Experience A Romantic Breakup? Evidence from Longitudinal Data (2017) – Longitudinal study. Excerpts:

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This study examined whether Americans who use pornography, either at all or more frequently, are more prone to report experiencing a romantic breakup over time. Longitudinal data were taken from the 2006 and 2012 waves of the nationally representative Portraits of American Life Study. Binary logistic regression analyses demonstrated that Americans who viewed pornography at all in 2006 were nearly twice as likely as those who never viewed pornography to report experiencing a romantic breakup by 2012, even after controlling for relevant factors such as 2006 relationship status and other sociodemographic correlates. This association was considerably stronger for men than for women and for unmarried Americans than for married Americans. Analyses also showed a linear relationship between how frequently Americans viewed pornography in 2006 and their odds of experiencing a breakup by 2012.

The remaining studies are listed by date of publication:

1) Effect of Erotica on Young Men's Aesthetic Perception of Their Female Sexual Partners (1984) - Excerpt:

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Male undergraduates were exposed to (a) nature scenes or (b) beautiful versus (c) unattractive females in sexually enticing situations. Thereafter, they assessed their girl friends' sexual appeal and evaluated their satisfaction with their mates. On pictorial measures of bodily appeal profiles of flat through hypervoluptuous breast and buttock, preexposure to beautiful females tended to suppress mates' appeal, while preexposure to unattractive females tended to enhance it. After exposure to beautiful females, mates' aesthetic value fell significantly below assessments made after exposure to unattractive females; this value assumed an intermediate position after control exposure. Changes in mates' aesthetic appeal did not correspond with changes in satisfaction with mates, however.

2) Effects of Prolonged Consumption of Pornography on Family Values (1988) - Excerpt:

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Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. Marriage, cohabitational relationships, and related issues were judged on an especially created Value-of-Marriage questionnaire. The findings showed a consistent impact of pornography consumption. Exposure prompted, among other things, greater acceptance of pre- and extramarital sex and greater tolerance of nonexclusive sexual access to intimate partners. It enhanced the belief that male and female promiscuity are natural and that the repression of sexual inclinations poses a health risk. Exposure lowered the evaluation of marriage, making this institution appear less significant and less viable in the future. Exposure also reduced the desire to have children and promoted the acceptance of male dominance and female servitude. With few exceptions, these effects were uniform for male and female respondents as well as for students and nonstudents.

3) Pornography’s Impact on Sexual Satisfaction (1988) - Excerpt:

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Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. [Porn use] strongly impacted self-assessment of sexual experience. After consumption of pornography, subjects reported less satisfaction with their intimate partners—specifically, with these partners' affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance proper. In addition, subjects assigned increased importance to sex without emotional involvement. These effects were uniform across gender and populations.

4) Influence of popular erotica on judgments of strangers and mates (1989) - Excerpt:

wrote:

In Experiment 2, male and female subjects were exposed to opposite sex erotica. In the second study, there was an interaction of subject sex with stimulus condition upon sexual attraction ratings. Decremental effects of centerfold exposure were found only for male subjects exposed to female nudes. Males who found the Playboy-type centerfolds more pleasant rated themselves as less in love with their wives.

5) Men’s leisure and women’s lives: The impact of pornography on women (1999) - Excerpt:

wrote:

The section of the interview where the women discussed their own current or past relationships with men revealed additional insight into the effect of pornography on such relationships. Fifteen of the women were in, or had been in, relationships with men who rented or bought pornography at least on an occasional basis. Of these 15 women, four expressed strong dislike of their husband’s or partner’s leisure time interest in pornography. It was clear that the husbands’ use of pornography affected the wives’ feeling about themselves, their sexual feelings, and their marital relationships in general

6) Adult Social Bonds and Use of Internet Pornography (2004) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Complete data on 531 Internet users are taken from the General Social Surveys for 2000. Social bonds measures include religious, marital, and political ties. Measures of participation in sexual and drug-related deviant lifestyles, and demographic controls are included. The results of a logistic regression analysis found that among the strongest predictors of use of cyberporn were weak ties to religion and lack of a happy marriage.

7) Sex in America Online: An Exploration of Sex, Marital Status, and Sexual Identity in Internet Sex Seeking and Its Impacts (2008) - Excerpt:

wrote:

This was an exploratory study of sex and relationship seeking on the Internet, based on a survey of 15,246 respondents in the United States Seventy-five percent of men and 41% of women had intentionally viewed or downloaded porn. Men and gays/lesbians were more likely to access porn or engage in other sex-seeking behaviors online compared with straights or women. A symmetrical relationship was revealed between men and women as a result of viewing pornography, with women reporting more negative consequences, including lowered body image, partner critical of their body, increased pressure to perform acts seen in pornographic films, and less actual sex, while men reported being more critical of their partners' body and less interested in actual sex.

8) Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Sexual Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study (2009) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Between May 2006 and May 2007, we conducted a three-wave panel survey among 1,052 Dutch adolescents aged 13–20. Structural equation modeling revealed that exposure to SEIM consistently reduced adolescents’ sexual satisfaction. Lower sexual satisfaction (in Wave 2) also increased the use of SEIM (in Wave 3). The effect of exposure to SEIM on sexual satisfaction did not differ among male and female adolescents.

9) Wives' Experience of Husbands' Pornography Use and Concomitant Deception as an Attachment Threat in the Adult Pair-Bond Relationship (2009) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Evidence is growing that pornography use can negatively impact attachment trust in the adult pair-bond relationship. Analyses uncovered three attachment-related impacts from husbands' pornography use and deception: (1) the development of an attachment fault line in the relationship, stemming from perceived attachment infidelity; (2) followed by a widening attachment rift arising from wives' sense of distance and disconnection from their husbands; (3) culminating in attachment estrangement from a sense of being emotionally and psychologically unsafe in the relationship. Overall, wives reported global mistrust indicative of attachment breakdown.

10) Sexual media use and relational satisfaction in heterosexual couples (2010) - Sharing porn was better than using alone. But how many couples use porn together? Not too many. Porn use is still bad for men. Excerpt:

wrote:

This study assessed how sexual media use by one or both members of a romantic dyad relates to relationship and sexual satisfaction. A total of 217 heterosexual couples completed an Internet survey that assessed sexual media use, relationship and sexual satisfaction, and demographic variables. Results revealed that a higher frequency of men's sexual media use related to negative satisfaction in men, while a higher frequency of women's sexual media use related to positive satisfaction in male partners. Reasons for sexual media use differed by gender: Men reported primarily using sexual media for masturbation, while women reported primarily using sexual media as part of lovemaking with their partners. Shared sexual media use was associated with higher relational satisfaction compared to solitary sexual media use.

11) Exploring actor and partner correlates of sexual satisfaction among married couples (2010) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Using the Interpersonal Exchange Model of Sexual Satisfaction, we consider how infidelity, pornography consumption, marital satisfaction, sexual frequency, premarital sex, and cohabitation are associated with married couples’ sexual satisfaction. Data from 433 couples are analyzed with structural equation models to determine the contributions. Finally, some evidence suggests that pornography consumption is costly for own and spouse’s sexual satisfaction, especially when pornography is used by only one spouse.

12) Individuals who never viewed SEM reported higher relationship quality on all indices than those who viewed SEM alone (2011) - Excerpt:

wrote:

As expected, individuals who did not view SEM (sexually explicit material) at all reported lower negative communication and higher dedication than individuals who viewed SEM alone or both alone and with their partner.

13) Associations between young adults’ use of sexually explicit materials and their sexual preferences, behaviors, and satisfaction (2011) - Excerpts:

wrote:

Higher frequencies of sexual explicit material (SEM) use were associated with less sexual and relationship satisfaction. The frequency of SEM use and number of SEM types viewed were both associated with higher sexual preferences for the types of sexual practices typically presented in SEM. These findings suggest that SEM use can play a significant role in a variety of aspects of young adults' sexual development processes.
Specifically, higher viewing frequency was associated with less sexual and relationship satisfaction when controlling for gender, religiosity, dating status and the number of SEM types viewed.
Because a substantial proportion of the young adults in this study reported using SEM, the potential implications are especially noteworthy, particularly for young men.

14) Viewing Sexually-Explicit Materials Alone or Together: Associations with Relationship Quality (2011) - Excerpt:

wrote:

This study investigated associations between viewing sexually-explicit material (SEM) and relationship functioning in a random sample of 1291 unmarried individuals in romantic relationships. More men (76.8%) than women (31.6%) reported that they viewed SEM on their own, but nearly half of both men and women reported sometimes viewing SEM with their partner (44.8%).
Individuals who never viewed SEM reported higher relationship quality on all indices than those who viewed SEM alone. Those who viewed SEM only with their partners reported more dedication and higher sexual satisfaction than those who viewed SEM alone. The only difference between those who never viewed SEM and those who viewed it only with their partners was that those who never viewed it had lower rates of infidelity.

15) Young Adult Women’s Reports of Their Male Romantic Partner’s Pornography Use as a Correlate of Their Self-Esteem, Relationship Quality, and Sexual Satisfaction (2012) - Excerpt:

wrote:

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between men’s pornography use, both frequency and problematic use, on their heterosexual female partner’s psychological and relational well-being among 308 young adult college women. Results revealed women’s reports of their male partner’s frequency of pornography use were negatively associated with their relationship quality. More perceptions of problematic use of pornography was negatively correlated with self-esteem, relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction.

16) Pornography use: who uses it and how it is associated with couple outcomes (2013) - Excerpt:

wrote:

This study examined associations among pornography use, the meaning people attach to its use, sexual quality, and relationship satisfaction. Participants were couples (N = 617 couples) who were either married or cohabiting at the time the data were gathered. Overall results from this study indicated substantial gender differences in terms of use profiles, as well as pornography's association with relationship factors. Specifically, male pornography use was negatively associated with both male and female sexual quality, whereas female pornography use was positively associated with female sexual quality.

17) Internet Pornography Exposure and Women's Attitude Towards Extramarital Sex: An Exploratory Study (2013) - Excerpt:

wrote:

This exploratory study assessed the association between adult U.S. women's exposure to Internet pornography and attitude towards extramarital sex using data provided by the General Social Survey (GSS). A positive association between Internet pornography viewing and more positive extramarital sex attitudes was found.

18) Pornography and Marriage (2014) - The abstract:

wrote:

We used data on 20,000 ever-married adults in the General Social Survey to examine the relationship between watching pornographic films and various measures of marital well-being. We found that adults who had watched an X-rated movie in the past year were more likely to be divorced, more likely to have had an extramarital affair, and less likely to report being happy with their marriage or happy overall. We also found that, for men, pornography use reduced the positive relationship between frequency of sex and happiness.
Finally, we found that the negative relationship between pornography use and marital well-being has, if anything, grown stronger over time, during a period in which pornography has become both more explicit and more easily available.

19) More than a dalliance? Pornography consumption and extramarital sex attitudes among married U.S. adults (2014) - Excerpts:

wrote:

This brief report used national panel data gathered from two separate samples of married U.S. adults. Data were gathered from the first sample in 2006 and in 2008. Data were gathered from the second sample in 2008 and in 2010. Consistent with a social learning perspective on media, prior pornography consumption was correlated with more positive subsequent extramarital sex attitudes in both samples, even after controlling for earlier extramarital sex attitudes and nine additional potential confounds.
In total, the results of the present study are consistent with the theoretical premise that pornography consumption leads to the acquisition and activation of sexual scripts, which are then used by many consumers to inform their sexual attitudes (Wright, 2013a; Wright et al., 2012a).

20) Korean Men’s Pornography use, Their Interest in Extreme Pornography, and Dyadic Sexual Relationships (2014) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Six-hundred eighty-five heterosexual South Korean male college students participated in an online survey. The majority (84.5%) of respondents had viewed pornography, and for those who were sexually active (470 respondents), we found that higher interest in degrading or extreme pornography was associated with the experience of role-playing sexual scenes from pornography with a partner, and a preference for using pornography to achieve and maintain sexual excitement over having sex with a partner.
We found that higher interest in viewing degrading or extreme pornography ... has a significant positive ... association with sexual concerns.

21) Pornography and the Male Sexual Script: An Analysis of Consumption and Sexual Relations (2014) - Excerpt:

wrote:

We argue pornography creates a sexual script that then guides sexual experiences. To test this, we surveyed 487 college men (ages 18-29 years) in the United States to compare their rate of pornography use with sexual preferences and concerns. Results showed the more pornography a man watches, the more likely he was to use it during sex, request particular pornographic sex acts of his partner, deliberately conjure images of pornography during sex to maintain arousal, and have concerns over his own sexual performance and body image. Further, higher pornography use was negatively associated with enjoying sexually intimate behaviors with a partner.

22) Psychological, Relational, and Sexual Correlates of Pornography Use on Young Adult Heterosexual Men in Romantic Relationships (2014) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine theorized antecedents (i.e., gender role conflict and attachment styles) and consequences (i.e., poorer relationship quality and sexual satisfaction) of men's pornography use among 373 young adult heterosexual men. Findings revealed that both frequency of pornography use and problematic pornography use were related to greater gender role conflict, more avoidant and anxious attachment styles, poorer relationship quality, and less sexual satisfaction. In addition, the findings provided support for a theorized mediated model in which gender role conflict was linked to relational outcomes both directly and indirectly via attachment styles and pornography use.

23) Associations between relational sexual behaviour, pornography use, and pornography acceptance among US college students (2014) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Using a sample of 792 emerging adults, the present study explored how the combined examination of pornography use, acceptance, and sexual behaviour within a relationship might offer insight into emerging adults' development. Results suggested clear gender differences in both pornography use and acceptance patterns.
High male pornography use tended to be associated with high engagement in sex within a relationship and was associated with elevated risk-taking behaviours.
High female pornography use was not associated with engagement in sexual behaviours within a relationship and was general associated with negative mental health outcomes.

24) Factors Predicting Cybersex Use and Difficulties in Forming Intimate Relationships among Male and Female Users of Cybersex (2015) - Excerpt:

wrote:

This study used the Cybersex addiction test, Craving for pornography questionnaire, and a Questionnaire on intimacy among 267 participants (192 males and 75 females) mean age for males 28 and for females 25, who were recruited from special sites that are dedicated to pornography and cybersex on the Internet.
Results of regression analysis indicated that pornography, gender, and cybersex significantly predicted difficulties in intimacy and it accounted for 66.1% of the variance of rating on the intimacy questionnaire. Second, regression analysis also indicated that craving for pornography, gender, and difficulties in forming intimate relationships significantly predicted frequency of cybersex use and it accounted for 83.7% of the variance in ratings of cybersex use.

25) Male Partners’ Perceived Pornography Use and Women’s Relational and Psychological Health: The Roles of Trust, Attitudes, and Investment (2015) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Results revealed that women’s reports of their male partners’ pornography use were related to less relationship satisfaction and more psychological distress. Results from the moderation analyses indicated that the direct effect of male partners’ perceived pornography use and relationship trust and the conditional indirect effects of male partners’ perceived pornography use on both relationship satisfaction and psychological distress were contingent on relationship investment.
These findings indicated that when male partners’ perceived pornography use is high, women who have low or mean levels of relationship investment have less relationship trust. Finally, our results revealed that the relationship between male partners’ perceived pornography use and relational and psychological outcomes exist regardless of women’s own attitudes toward pornography

26) Relationship of love and marital satisfaction with pornography among married university students in Birjand, Iran (2015) - Excerpts:

wrote:

This descriptive-correlation study was conducted on 310 married students studying at private and public universities in Birjand, in 2012-2013 academic year using random quota sampling method. It appears that pornography has a negative impact on love and marital satisfaction.

27) From Bad to Worse? Pornography Consumption, Spousal Religiosity, Gender, and Marital Quality (2016) - Excerpts:

wrote:

I test the above hypotheses using data from Wave 1 of the Portraits of American Life Study (PALS), which was fielded in 2006. PALS is a nationally representative panel survey with questions focusing on a variety of topics.... Looking at bivariate correlations, for the full sample, viewing pornography is negatively associated with overall marital satisfaction, suggesting that those who view pornography more often tend to be less satisfied in their marriage than those who view pornography less often or never

28) Sexually explicit media use and relationship satisfaction a moderating role of emotional intimacy? (2016) - The authors attempted to obfuscate their findings in the abstract by stating that once sexual and relationship variables were "controlled for," they found no link between porn use and relationship satisfaction. Reality: The study found significant correlations between porn use and poorer relationship and sexual satisfaction in both males and females. Excerpt from discussion section:

wrote:

For both men and women, significant, yet modest negative zero-order correlations between SEM use and relationship satisfaction were found, indicating that increased SEM use was associated with lower relationship satisfaction across gender.

29) Effect of soft core pornography on female sexuality (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

An overall 51.6% of participants who were aware that their husbands were positive watchers reported experiencing negative emotions (depression, jealous), whereas 77% reported changes in their husbands’ attitude. Non-watchers watchers were more satisfied with their sexual life compared with their counterparts. Although watching soft-core pornography had a statistically significant effect on sexual desire, vaginal lubrication, ability to reach orgasm, and masturbation, it had no statistically significant effect on coital frequency. Watching soft-core pornography affects female sexual life by increasing sexual boredom in both men and women, causing relational difficulties.

30) A Common-Fate Analysis of Pornography Acceptance, Use, and Sexual Satisfaction Among Heterosexual Married Couples (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Results indicated that the shared variance of pornography acceptance was positively associated with both spouses' pornography use and that spouses' pornography use was negatively associated with their own sexual satisfaction. Wives' pornography use was found to be positively associated with the couple's shared variance of sexual satisfaction, but pornography use did not significantly mediate the relationship between pornography acceptance and sexual satisfaction.

31) Differences in Pornography Use Among Couples: Associations with Satisfaction, Stability, and Relationship Processes (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

The present study utilized a sample of 1755 adult couples in heterosexual romantic relationships to examine how different patterns of pornography use between romantic partners may be associated with relationship outcomes. While pornography use has been generally associated with some negative and some positive couple outcomes, no study has yet explored how differences between partners may uniquely be associated with relationship well-being.
Results suggested that greater discrepancies between partners in pornography use were related to less relationship satisfaction, less stability, less positive communication, and more relational aggression. Mediation analyses suggested that greater pornography use discrepancies were primarily associated with elevated levels of male relational aggression, lower female sexual desire, and less positive communication for both partners which then predicted lower relational satisfaction and stability for both partners.

32) Internet Pornography Consumption and Relationship Commitment of Filipino Married Individuals (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Internet pornography has many adverse effects, especially to the relationship commitment. The use of pornography directly correlates to a decrease in sexual intimacy. Hence, this might lead to weakening of the relationship of their partner. To find out the relevance of the claim, the researchers aimed to explore the relationship of Internet pornography consumption to the relationship commitment of married individuals in the Philippines.
It is revealed that Internet pornography consumption has an adverse effect on the relationship commitment of married Filipino couples. Furthermore, watching porn online weakened the relationship commitment that leads to an unstable relationship. This investigation found out that internet pornography consumption has a nominal negative effect on the relationship commitment of Filipino married individuals.

33) Perceptions of relationship satisfaction and addictive behavior: Comparing pornography and marijuana use (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

This study contributes to the broader literature on how pornography use impacts perceptions of romantic relationships. This study examined if negative outcomes due to a romantic partner’s excessive pornography use are different than negative outcomes produced by other compulsive or addictive behaviors, specifically marijuana use. This study suggests that problematic partner pornography use and problematic partner marijuana use are perceived to similarly impact romantic relationships and contribute to a decrease in relationship satisfaction.

34) The effects of sexually explicit material use on romantic relationship dynamics (2016) - Excerpts:

wrote:

More specifically, couples, where no one used, reported more relationship satisfaction than those couples that had individual users. This is consistent with the previous research (Cooper et al., 1999; Manning, 2006), demonstrating that the solitary use of sexually explicit material results in negative consequences.
With gender effects held constant, individual users reported significantly less intimacy and commitment in their relationships than non-users and shared users.
Overall, how frequently someone views sexually explicit material can have an impact on users’ consequences. Our study found that high frequency users are more likely to have lower relationship satisfaction and intimacy in their romantic relationships.

35) Cyberpornography: Time Use, Perceived Addiction, Sexual Functioning, and Sexual Satisfaction (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

First, even when controlling for perceived addiction to cyberpornography and overall sexual functioning, cyberpornography use remained directly associated with sexual dissatisfaction. Even though this negative direct association was of small magnitude, time spent viewing cyberpornography seems to be a robust predictor of lower sexual satisfaction.

36) Relationship quality predicts online sexual activities among Chinese heterosexual men and women in committed relationships (2016) - Excerpt:

wrote:

In this study, we examined the online sexual activities (OSAs) of Chinese men and women in committed relationships, with a focus on the characteristics of OSAs and the factors prompting men and women with steady partners to engage in OSAs. Almost 89% of the participants reported OSA experiences in the past 12 months even when they had a real-life partner. As predicted, individuals with lower relationship quality in real life, including low relationship satisfaction, insecure attachment, and negative communication patterns, engaged in OSAs more frequently. Overall, our results suggest that variables influencing offline infidelity may also influence online infidelity.

37) The Role of Internet Pornography Use and Cyber Infidelity in the Associations between Personality, Attachment, and Couple and Sexual Satisfaction (2017) - Excerpts:

wrote:

Our results indicated that pornography use is associated with couple and sexual difficulties through increased cyber infidelity.
Pornography use was negatively related to sexual satisfaction for men, but positively for women. In men, pornography use is associated with higher sexual desire, stimulation, and gratification. However, these effects may lead to decreased sexual desire their partner and decreased sexual satisfaction within the couple.

38) The Development of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS) (2017) - This paper's goal was the creation of a problematic porn use questionnaire. In the process of validating the instruments, the researchers found that higher scores on the porn use questionnaire were related to lower sexual satisfaction. An excerpt:

wrote:

Satisfaction with sexual life was weakly and negatively correlated with PPCS scores.

39) Explicit Sexual Movie Viewing in the United States According to Selected Marriage and Lifestyle, Work and Financial, Religion and Political Factors (2017) - Excerpts:

wrote:

Analyses involved 11,372 adults who responded to questions about demographics and explicitly sexual movie use in the General Social Survey (GSS) from 2000 to 2014. Viewing such movies was related to less happiness in marriage, multiple sex partners in past year, less satisfaction with one’s financial situation, no religious preference, and a more liberal political orientation.
Explicit sexual movie viewing is associated with factors from diverse domains, including poorer relationship quality, more liberal sexual views and practices, poorer economic conditions, lower religious orientation or commitment, and more liberal political views.

40) Associative pathways between pornography consumption and reduced sexual satisfaction (2017) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Guided by sexual script theory, social comparison theory, and informed by prior research on pornography, socialization, and sexual satisfaction, the present survey study of heterosexual adults tested a conceptual model linking more frequent pornography consumption to reduced sexual satisfaction via the perception that pornography is a primary source of sexual information, a preference for pornographic over partnered sexual excitement, and the devaluation of sexual communication. The model was supported by the data for both men and women.
Pornography consumption frequency was associated with perceiving pornography as a primary source of sexual information, which was associated with a preference for pornographic over partnered sexual excitement and the devaluation of sexual communication. Preferring pornographic to partnered sexual excitement and devaluing sexual communication were both associated with less sexual satisfaction.

41) The use of pornography and sexual behaviour among Norwegian men and women of differing sexual orientation (2013) - Hidden away in the study: Greater pornography use in men was correlated with lower sexual satisfaction (or "greater sexual dissatisfaction").

42) IASR Fortieth Annual Meeting Book of Abstracts - Dubrovnik, Hrvatska, 25.-28. lipnja, 2014 - This is an abstract of a presentation given by Landripet and Stulhofer at a sexology conference. These 2 researchers published a portion of their data in this "brief communication," which is cited as finding no relationship between porn use and sexual problems. In reality, their "brief communication" doesn't mention a pretty important correlation mentioned in their paper: Only 40% of the Portuguese men used porn "frequently," while the 60% of the Norwegians used porn "frequently." The Portuguese men had far less sexual dysfunction than the Norwegians. In a shocking move, Landripet & Stulhofer omitted three other correlations between porn use and sexual problems which they presented to at the Dubrovnik conference:

wrote:

However, increased pornography use was slightly but significantly associated with decreased interest for partnered sex and more prevalent sexual dysfunction among women.
Reporting a preference for specific pornographic genres were significantly associated with erectile, but not ejaculatory or desire-related male sexual dysfunction.

43) The pervasive role of sex mindset: Beliefs about the malleability of sexual life is linked to higher levels of relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction and lower levels of problematic pornography use (2017) - Excerpt:

wrote:

The examined model showed that growth sex mindset had moderate positive association with sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction while problematic pornography use only showed a negative, but weak one.

44) He’s Just Not That Into Anyone: the Impact of Sex Fantasy on Attraction (2017) - This "extended abstract" discusses 4 experiments that involved fantasizing about sexual stimuli. All results suggested that sexual fantasy reduces desire for romantic relationships. Excerpt:

wrote:

Engaging in sexual fantasy increases attraction to sexual targets, but decreases attraction to romantic targets. This research adds to the literature on sex fantasy, attraction, and offers practical implications on porn watching, sex in advertising, and relationships.

45) Is the Relationship Between Pornography Consumption Frequency and Lower Sexual Satisfaction Curvilinear? Results From England and Germany (2017) - Excerpts:

wrote:

Several studies using different methods have found that pornography consumption is associated with lower sexual satisfaction. The language used by media-effects scholars in discussions of this association implies an expectation that lowered satisfaction is primarily due to frequent-but not infrequent-consumption. Actual analyses, however, have assumed linearity. Linear analyses presuppose that for each increase in the frequency of pornography consumption there is a correspondingly equivalent decrease in sexual satisfaction.
Survey data from two studies of heterosexual adults, one conducted in England and the other in Germany, were employed. Results were parallel in each country and were not moderated by gender. Simple slope analyses suggested that when the frequency of consumption reaches once a month, sexual satisfaction begins to decrease, and that the magnitude of the decrease becomes larger with each increase in the frequency of consumption.

46) Personal Pornography Viewing and Sexual Satisfaction: A Quadratic Analysis (2017) - Excerpts

wrote:

This article presents results from a survey of approximately 1,500 U.S. adults. Quadratic analyses indicated a curvilinear relationship between personal pornography viewing and sexual satisfaction in the form of a predominately negative, concave downward curve. The nature of the curvilinearity did not differ as a function of participants' gender, relationship status, or religiosity.
For all groups, negative simple slopes were present when viewing reached once a month or more. These results are correlational only. However, if an effects perspective were adopted, they would suggest that consuming pornography less than once a month has little or no impact on satisfaction, that reductions in satisfaction tend to initiate once viewing reaches once a month, and that additional increases in the frequency of viewing lead to disproportionately larger decrements in satisfaction.

47) The Survey of Sexual Health and Pornography among Divorce-Asking Women in West Azerbaijan-Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study (2017) - Excerpts:

wrote:

One of the factors affecting the incidence of divorce and relationship problems between couples is the sexual and marital behaviors. There are several different reasons to suspect that pornography might affect divorce in either a positive or a negative way. Therefore this study evaluated the sexual health of divorce-asking in Urmia, Iran.
Conclusions: The results of the study indicated that who had low sexual satisfaction score, had higher rate of watching pornography clips. Based on current study, paying attention to family education and counseling programs especially in the sexual field will be more fruitful.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted research on the effects of porn. My marriage is broken; we are separated; and the usage of pornography (on both ends) has really hurt us. We are in therapy, we are abstaining from porn, and we are researching every article we can about what could have gone wrong. So these resources are invaluable. Thank you again for taking the time to share the studies! I’m looking up each one.

The article suggested that the following assertion was NOT supported by studies.

wrote:

There was a consensus that males are far more likely to develop a pornography addiction.

Every study ever published on rates has reported far higher porn use rates for males.

As for full blown porn addiction, in 2016, two groups of researchers (one from Europe, one from the States) assessed or questioned male porn users. Both groups reported that 28% of their subjects either met the test for problematic use (“Clinical Characteristics of Men Interested in Seeking Treatment for Use of Pornography”) or were concerned about their porn use (“Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men”).

In 2017, academics also assessed US college students (some of whom were not porn users) for porn addiction. Results indicated that 19% of the male students and 4% of the female students met the test for addiction (“Cybersex Addiction Among College Students: A Prevalence Study”).

Finally a 2017 study (Who’s a Porn Addict? Examining the Roles of Pornography Use, Religiousness, and Moral Incongruence) reported rates of male porn users who answered “yes” to one of the following questions ranged from 8-20% in three large samples: “I believe that I am addicted to internet pornography.” or “I would call myself an internet pornography addict.”

The article claimed no research supports the following:

wrote:

The popular media frequently asserted that initial pornography use can act as a gateway to accessing increasingly deviant forms of pornography.

Once again, the few studies that have examined this assertion have found it to be accurate. For example:

1) "Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men" (2016)
This 2016 study reports escalation in porn users, as 49% of the men reported viewing porn that was not previously interesting to them or that they once considered disgusting:

wrote:

"49% mentioned at least sometimes searching for sexual content or being involved in online sexual activities that were not previously interesting to them or that they considered disgusting."

2) "Does deviant pornography use follow a Guttman-like progression?" (2013). An excerpt:

wrote:

The findings of the current study suggest Internet pornography use may follow a Guttman-like progression. In other words, individuals who consume child pornography also consume other forms of pornography, both nondeviant and deviant. For this relationship to be a Guttman-like progression, child pornography use must be more likely to occur after other forms of pornography use. The current study attempted to assess this progression by measuring if the “age of onset” for adult pornography use facilitated the transition from adult-only to deviant pornography use. Based on the results, this progression to deviant pornography use may be affected by the individuals “age of onset” for engaging in adult pornography. As suggested by Quayle and Taylor (2003), child pornography use may be related to desensitization or appetite satiation to which offenders begin collecting more extreme and deviant pornography. The current study suggests individuals who engage in adult pornography use at a younger age may be at greater risk for engaging in other deviant forms of pornography.

3) "Deviant Pornography Use: The Role of Early-Onset Adult Pornography Use and Individual Differences" (2016). An excerpt:

wrote:

Results indicated that adult + deviant pornography users scored significantly higher on openness to experience and reported a significantly younger age of onset for adult pornography use compared to adult-only pornography users.
Finally, the respondents’ self-reported age of onset for adult pornography significantly predicted adult-only vs. adult + deviant pornography use. That is to day, adult + deviant pornography users selfreported a younger age of onset for nondeviant (adult-only) pornography compared to the adult-only pornography users. Overall, these findings support the conclusion drawn by Seigfried-Spellar and Rogers (2013) that Internet pornography use may follow a Guttman-like progression in that deviant pornography use is more likely to occur after the use of nondeviant adult pornography.

4) “Is Internet Pornography Causing Sexual Dysfunctions? A Review with Clinical Reports” (2016) - is an extensive review of the literature related to porn-induced sexual problems. Authored by US Navy doctors, the review provides the latest data revealing a tremendous rise in youthful sexual problems. It also reviews the neurological studies related to porn addiction and sexual conditioning via Internet porn. The doctors include 3 clinical reports of servicemen who developed porn-induced sexual dysfunctions. Two of the three servicemen healed their sexual dysfunctions by eliminating porn use while the third man experienced little improvement as he was unable to abstain from porn use. Two of the three servicemen reported habituation to current porn and escalation of porn use. The first servicemen describes his habituation to "soft porn" followed by escalation into more graphic and fetish porn:

wrote:

"A 20-year old active duty enlisted Caucasian serviceman presented with difficulties achieving orgasm during intercourse for the previous six months. It first happened while he was deployed overseas. He was masturbating for about an hour without an orgasm, and his penis went flaccid. His difficulties maintaining erection and achieving orgasm continued throughout his deployment. Since his return, he had not been able to ejaculate during intercourse with his fiancée. He could achieve an erection but could not orgasm, and after 10–15 min he would lose his erection, which was not the case prior to his having ED issues."

wrote:

Patient endorsed masturbating frequently for “years”, and once or twice almost daily for the past couple of years. He endorsed viewing Internet pornography for stimulation. Since he gained access to high-speed Internet, he relied solely on Internet pornography. Initially, “soft porn”, where the content does not necessarily involve actual intercourse, “did the trick”. However, gradually he needed more graphic or fetish material to orgasm. He reported opening multiple videos simultaneously and watching the most stimulating parts.

The second servicemen describes increased porn use and escalation into more graphic porn. Soon thereafter sex with his wife “not as stimulating as before":

wrote:

A 40-year old African American enlisted serviceman with 17 years of continuous active duty presented with difficulty achieving erections for the previous three months. He reported that when he attempted to have sexual intercourse with his wife, he had difficulty achieving an erection and difficulty maintaining it long enough to orgasm. Ever since their youngest child left for college, six months earlier, he had found himself masturbating more often due to increased privacy. He formerly masturbated every other week on average, but that increased to two to three times per week. He had always used Internet pornography, but the more often he used it, the longer it took to orgasm with his usual material. This led to him using more graphic material. Soon thereafter, sex with his wife was “not as stimulating” as before and at times he found his wife “not as attractive”. He denied ever having these issues earlier in the seven years of their marriage. He was having marital issues because his wife suspected he was having an affair, which he adamantly denied.

5) “How difficult is it to treat delayed ejaculation within a short-term psychosexual model? A case study comparison” (2017) - A report on a "composite case" illustrating the causes and treatments for delayed ejaculation (anorgasmia). "Patient B" represented several young men treated by the therapist. Interestingly, the paper states that Patient B's "porn use had escalated into harder material", "as is often the case". The paper says that porn-related delayed ejaculation is not uncommon, and on the rise. The author calls for more research on porn's effects of sexual functioning. Patient B's delayed ejaculation was healed after 10 weeks of no porn. Excerpts related to escalation:

wrote:

The cases are composite cases taken from my work within the National Health Service in Croydon University Hospital, London. With the latter case (Patient B), it is important to note that the presentation reflects a number of young males who have been referred by their GPs with a similar diagnosis. Patient B is a 19-year-old who presented because he was unable to ejaculate via penetration. When he was 13, he was regularly accessing pornography sites either on his own through internet searches or via links that his friends sent him. He began masturbating every night while searching his phone for image…If he did not masturbate he was unable to sleep. The pornography he was using had escalated, as is often the case (see Hudson-Allez, 2010), into harder material (nothing illegal)…

wrote:

Patient B was exposed to sexual imagery via pornography from the age of 12 and the pornography he was using had escalated to bondage and dominance by the age of 15.

wrote:

We agreed that he would no longer use pornography to masturbate. This meant leaving his phone in a different room at night. We agreed that he would masturbate in a different way…. The article calls for research into pornography usage and its effect on masturbation and genital desensitisation.

6) “The Dual Control Model: The Role Of Sexual Inhibition & Excitation In Sexual Arousal And Behavior”, 2007. In an experiment employing video porn, 50% of the young men couldn't become aroused or achieve erections with porn (average age was 29). The shocked researchers discovered that the men's erectile dysfunction was….

wrote:

related to high levels of exposure to and experience with sexually explicit materials.

The men experiencing erectile dysfunction had spent a considerable amount of time in bars and bathhouses where porn was "omnipresent," and "continuously playing." The researchers stated:

wrote:

Conversations with the subjects reinforced our idea that in some of them a high exposure to erotica seemed to have resulted in a lower responsivity to "vanilla sex" erotica and an increased need for novelty and variation, in some cases combined with a need for very specific types of stimuli in order to get aroused.

7) “Exploring the effect of sexually explicit material on the sexual beliefs, understanding and practices of young men: A qualitative survey” (2016) An excerpt:

wrote:

Findings suggest that the key themes are: increased levels of availability of SEM, including an escalation in extreme content (Everywhere You Look) which are seen by young men in this study as having negative effects on sexual attitudes and behaviours (That's Not Good). Family or sex education may offer some ‘protection’ (Buffers) to the norms young people see in SEM. Data suggests confused views (Real verses Fantasy) around adolescents’ expectations of a healthy sex life (Healthy Sex Life) and appropriate beliefs and behaviours (Knowing Right from Wrong). A potential causal pathway is described and areas of intervention highlighted.

8) “Unusual masturbatory practice as an etiological factor in the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in young men” (2014). Excerpts from the paper documenting the patient's habituation and escalation into what he described as more extreme porn genres:

wrote:

When asked about masturbatory practices, he reported that in the past he had been masturbating vigorously and rapidly while watching pornography since adolescence. The pornography originally consisted mainly of zoophilia, and bondage, domination, sadism, and masochism, but he eventually got habituated to these materials and needed more hardcore pornography scenes, including transgender sex, orgies, and violent sex. He used to buy illegal pornographic movies on violent sex acts and rape and visualized those scenes in his imagination to function sexually with women. He gradually lost his desire and his ability to fantasize and decreased his masturbation frequency.

An excerpt from the paper documents the patient's recovery from porn-induced sexual problems and fetishes:

wrote:

In conjunction with weekly sessions with a sex therapist, the patient was instructed to avoid any exposure to sexually explicit material, including videos, newspapers, books, and internet pornography. After 8 months, the patient reported experiencing successful orgasm and ejaculation. He renewed his relationship with that woman, and they gradually succeeded in enjoying good sexual practices.

9) “The Development of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS)” (2017) - This paper developed and tested a problematic porn use questionnaire that was modeled after substance addiction questionnaires. Unlike previous porn addiction tests, this 18-item questionnaire assessed tolerance and withdrawal including this question in which many subjects answered yes:

wrote:

I gradually watched more “extreme” porn because the porn I watched was less satisfying.

10) Also consider this older study - “Shifting Preferences In Pornography Consumption” (1986): Six weeks of exposure to nonviolent pornography resulted in subjects having little interest in vanilla porn, electing to almost exclusively watch "uncommon pornography" (bondage, sadomasochism, bestiality).

wrote:

“Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to one hour of common, nonviolent pornography or to sexually and aggressively innocuous materials in each of six consecutive weeks. Two weeks after this treatment, they were provided with an opportunity to watch videotapes in a private situation. G-rated, R-rated, and X-rated programs were available. Subjects with considerable prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography showed little interest in common, nonviolent pornography, electing to watch uncommon pornography (bondage, sadomasochism, bestiality) instead. Male nonstudents with prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography consumed uncommon pornography almost exclusively. Male students exhibited the same pattern, although somewhat less extreme. This consumption preference was also in evidence in females, but was far less pronounced, especially among female students.”

11) A qualitative study of cybersex participants: Gender differences, recovery issues, and implications for therapists (2000) Excerpts:

wrote:

Some respondents described a rapid progression of a previously existing compulsive sexual behavior problem, whereas others had no history of sexual addiction but became rapidly involved in an escalating pattern of compulsive cybersex use after they discovered Internet sex. Adverse consequences included depression and other emotional problems, social isolation, worsening of their sexual relationship with spouse or partner, harm done to their marriage or primary relationship, exposure of children to online pornography or masturbation, career loss or decreased job performance, other financial consequences, and in some cases, legal consequences.

One of the examples given:

wrote:

A 30-year-old man with a previous history of “porn, masturbation, and frequent sexual thoughts,” wrote about his cybersex experience: In the last couple of years, the more porn I’ve viewed, the less sensitive I am to certain porn that I used to find offensive. Now I get turned on by some of it (anal sex, women peeing, etc.) The sheer quantity of porn on the Net has done this. It’s so easy to click on certain things out of curiosity in the privacy of your home, and the more you see them, the less sensitized you are. I used to only be into softcore porn showing the beauty of the female form. Now I’m into explicit hardcore.

12) Novelty, conditioning and attentional bias to sexual rewards" (2015). Cambridge University fMRI study reporting greater habituation to sexual stimuli in compulsive porn users. An excerpt from the press release:

wrote:

They found that when the sex addicts viewed the same sexual image repeatedly, compared to the healthy volunteers they experienced a greater decrease of activity in the region of the brain known as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, known to be involved in anticipating rewards and responding to new events. This is consistent with 'habituation', where the addict finds the same stimulus less and less rewarding – for example, a coffee drinker may get a caffeine 'buzz' from their first cup, but over time the more they drink coffee, the smaller the buzz becomes.
This same habituation effect occurs in healthy males who are repeatedly shown the same porn video. But when they then view a new video, the level of interest and arousal goes back to the original level. This implies that, to prevent habituation, the sex addict would need to seek out a constant supply of new images. In other words, habituation could drive the search for novel images.
"Our findings are particularly relevant in the context of online pornography," adds Dr Voon. "It's not clear what triggers sex addiction in the first place and it is likely that some people are more pre-disposed to the addiction than others, but the seemingly endless supply of novel sexual images available online helps feed their addiction, making it more and more difficult to escape."

13) “Internet pornography and paedophilia” (2013) - Excerpt:

wrote:

Clinical experience and now research evidence are accumulating to suggest that the Internet is not simply drawing attention to those with existing paedophilic interests, but is contributing to the crystallisation of those interests in people with no explicit prior sexual interest in children.

14) "Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption: The Brain on Porn" (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2014) - This Max Planck Institute fMRI study found less grey matter in the reward system (dorsal striatum) correlating with the amount of porn consumed. It also found that more porn use correlated with less reward circuit activation while briefly viewing sexual photos. Researchers believe their findings indicated desensitization, and possibly tolerance, which is the need for greater stimulation to achieve the same level of arousal. Lead author Simone Kühn said the following about her study:

wrote:

"That could mean that regular consumption of pornography more or less wears out your reward system. We assume that subjects with a high porn consumption need increasing stimulation to receive the same amount of reward. That would fit perfectly the hypothesis that their reward systems need growing stimulation."

15) “Conscious and Non-Conscious Measures of Emotion: Do They Vary with Frequency of Pornography Use?” (2017) -

wrote:

Interestingly, the high porn use group rated the erotic images as more unpleasant than the medium use group. The authors suggest this may be due to the relatively “soft-core” nature of the “erotic” images contained in the IAPS database not providing the level of stimulation that they may usually seek out, as it has been shown by Harper and Hodgins [58] that with frequent viewing of pornographic material, many individuals often escalate into viewing more intense material to maintain the same level of physiological arousal. The “pleasant” emotion category saw valence ratings by all three groups to be relatively similar with the high use group rating the images as slightly more unpleasant on average than the other groups. This may again be due to the “pleasant” images presented not being stimulating enough for the individuals in the high use group. Studies have consistently shown a physiological downregulation in processing of appetitive content due to habituation effects in individuals who frequently seek out pornographic material [3,7,8]. It is the authors’ contention that this effect may account for the results observed.

16) “Exploring the Relationship between Sexual Compulsivity and Attentional Bias to Sex-Related Words in a Cohort of Sexually Active Individuals” (2017) Excerpt about their findings:

wrote:

"One possible explanation for these results is that as a sexually compulsive individual engages in more compulsive behaviour, an associated arousal template develops [36–38] and that over time, more extreme behaviour is required for the same level of arousal to be realised. It is further argued that as an individual engages in more compulsive behaviour, neuropathways become desensitized to more ‘normalised’ sexual stimuli or images and individuals turn to more ‘extreme’ stimuli to realise the arousal desired. This is in accordance with work showing that ‘healthy’ males become habituated to explicit stimuli over time and that this habituation is characterised by decreased arousal and appetitive responses [39].”

Michael Shelton MS, LPC, I am confused why you are publishing this article - what is your intent? It is misleading and I wonder why.

I think most people understand the difference between a common sense term like "porn addiction" and a clinical diagnosis like 6C92 Compulsive Sexual Behaviour disorder as considered in the ICD-11. Similar to the difference between "alcoholism" used in popular culture and "Alcohol Dependency" as a clinical diagnosis in the DSM. Does anyone doubt that alcoholism is real, because medical providers have a different word for it?

What is your personal interest in convincing people that porn addiction isn't a problem, when there is so much credible evidence that it is?

Sometimes these kinds of articles are written because authors feel that identifying and treating problems caused by porn (e.g., PIED, emotional/relational problems, self-esteem problems) is equivalent to sexual repression or homophobia, so they want to banish the topic's legitimacy. Is that a concern of yours? As a therapist who treats people with pornography-related pain I can reassure you, ethical sexual care providers celebrate diversity in sexual orientation and gender expression - while they offer support for the porn-induced problems. I just don't understand your slant in today's culture. Your article reads as pro-porn propaganda to me, and I think it's harmful.

After my latest interview promoting my book "The Addiction Nobody Will Talk About: How I Let My Pornography Addiction Hurt People And Destroy Relationships" I decided to come find this article that is making its way around the web as is becoming truth in many people's eyes.

As somebody with cross-addiction, I can tell you that alcohol did the exact same things, came with the exact same cravings and essentially made me feel the same as porn. The pull to it, the shame, the bad choices...it's the same.

I would urge people to take pause with anybody who claims pornography addiction is not an addiction. There is some advantage to that narrative for them. In this author's case, it got another line on the publications line in his CV.

If wordsmithing the DSM and blaming the media is a way to help this problem, you really have to explain to me how...