The feeling of isolation, anxiety, sadness, boredom, loneliness and despair caused by Covid-19 has left an important mark on the human beings of our generation. A new stage for which we were not prepared, and where our resilience and coping mechanisms have had to draw all their weapons to keep us afloat.
Meanwhile, the pornography industry took advantage of the virus effect to spread and infect its explicit sexual material to more corners, more homes and more adolescents. Using marketing strategies associated with social or charitable goods, such as: “If you watch this porn video you will save the bees from extinction” or by publishing some of its Premium content for free, as if it were a gift to society, a consolation to sadness for those who survived the toughest days of the pandemic.
This is how the consumption of pornography became a source of relief or refuge for many people who spent hours and hours at home killing time. A fleeting and ephemeral relief, short-term, that could not see beyond the instantaneous pleasure, something, unfortunately, very common in human beings. According to a study published after the first confinement in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, the consumption of pornography increased worldwide by 11% during the month of March 2020.
In this way, many adolescents, locked up at home and with unlimited access to the internet, where fathers and mothers juggled to reconcile work, personal and family life, began to use pornography more and more routinely.
“In the pandemic I started with porn, before I did not watch it regularly, but loneliness led me to consume it more and more. Now I need more quantity and more intense porn every time. I think I’m getting hooked and I’m not able to quit ”(Raúl 17 years old)”
These words were related by the first teenager I attended in person after confinement, they saddened me, and made me think about the parallels that pornography and a virus as lethal as Covid-19 have: the contagion effect and the deterioration of health .
The contagion effect
An industry that has completely conquered the internet, where we can find more than 750 million pornographic websites, 230 million pornographic apps downloaded each year and more than 219,000 videos viewed per minute. Its ability to spread is really powerful.
So much so that, in Spain, according to the latest report published by the University of the Balearic Islands, 62.5% of adolescents between 13 and 17 years of age have seen pornography at some point in their life, with an average age for initiation contact between 9-11 years, even ahead of 8 years in some cases.
In addition, internationally, 37.7% of men and 19.3% of women are risk users, because they have a greater probability of developing an addiction to pornography, a percentage that should concern us.
Deteriorating health
Let’s not be alarmists porn doesn’t kill, but it can become a crisis, a public health crisis that has already been declared in other countries of the world, such as the US. Pornography can generate addiction and other harmful consequences, deteriorating the sexual, academic, personal, family or social life of adolescents.
According to recent studies, pornography can alter the vision that men have of women in the youngest, generating a more macho, misogynistic and objectifying vision of sex, favoring gender stereotypes. Several studies also argue that the repeated consumption of pornography can promote the development of risky sexual behaviors, increasing promiscuity, the number of sexual partners and favoring the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
The recent Save The Children report warns about how the consumption of pornography can affect the sexual satisfaction of adolescents, where 36.8% do not distinguish between reality and fiction and between 14.4% -35.3% of teens consume more pornography than they would like.
When does it become a problem?
The porn pandemic and crisis is already a problem in itself. An issue that must be debated from a clinical, educational, social, political and legal point of view. However, from a clinical point of view, not everyone who consumes pornography becomes addicted. The international clinical criteria for determining that a Problematic Use of Pornography (UPP) or a Pornography Addiction in an adolescent they are:
1.- Highly frequent, excessive and compulsive use of pornography.
2.- Urge to engage in the behavior, in order to achieve or maintain a positive emotional state or to escape / avoid a negative emotional state.
3.- Decreased control over behavior.
4.- Repetition of the behavior despite adverse consequences, leading to significant personal discomfort and functional difficulties.
How to detect addiction in a teenager?
When suspecting, it is better to ask, approach with affection and respect, without surprise and without shame and start a conversation with him or her. Some keys that you can take into account to detect if there is an addiction to pornography or signs that can serve as alarm are the following:
-Depression and loss of interest: the adolescent can be generating a behavior of social and family self-isolation due to his consumption of pornography.
-Lies, robberies and secrets: due to shame or addiction, the adolescent can hide certain things, use credit cards to access payment websites and keep his consumption of pornography secret.
-Stay up late: the addicted person usually spends a lot of hours hooked on pornography, altering their normal sleep rhythm.
-Weakness to delay gratification: children with low tolerance for frustration and high impulsivity are at risk for developing problematic use of pornography.
-Obsession with technology: dependence on technology, being glued to the screen all day and the inability to be without a device with an internet connection, can be a warning sign of a possible problem with my child’s pornography.
-Decreased academic performance: As a consequence of addiction and personal deterioration, changes in school performance may be a manifestation of a larger problem.
-Development of negative attitudes or …