Pumped on porn

I REPORT‘s current addictions feature discovers that while getting hooked on pornography would have taken some doing less than two decades ago, the proliferation of relatively cheap bootleg sex DVDs, as well as increasing access to the Internet, has made it easier for some Filipinos to get hooked on porn.

According to the U.S.-based Internet Filter Review, there are now about 4.2 million pornographic websites alone, or about 12 percent of all websites. The global porn industry, in which it includes “novelties” along with adult websites, escort services, and magazines, also takes in a whopping annual revenue of about $57 billion, says the Review. In the United States, this industry exceeds the combined revenues of the three main television networks ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Medical anthropologist Michael L. Tan does say, “Repeated exposure to pornography actually leads, for most people, to a decrease in interest (in it).” Those who do get addicted, however, are in danger of suffering from what U.S. psychologist Gary Brooks calls the “centerfold syndrome,” which renders them practically incapable of having real intimate relationships.

Read on at pcij.org.