I just turned 54 years of age and my memories of pornography are very vague. The simple fact is when I was in my rambunctious years–which I would say lasted from late adolescence until my late 20’s–pornography was not a big deal. To tell the truth, porn was more myth than substance to many. Sure, there were the obligatory bachelor parties where someone brought in a grainy 8MM film of some forlorn creature of God who was talked into participating in a demeaning process. These certainly weren’t the “girls next door.” At least most of us thought so.
In fact, I probably never saw a porn video until I was in my 30’s and technology made these videos available for home use. Whether it was VHS or Beta, in the beginning, many video stores had a dark corner reserved for this material. As far as pornography in magazine form, there were your sleazy bookstores, usually located in the worst neighborhoods. However, one could buy a Playboy from behind the counter of your local convenience store. There seemed to be a legitimate effort to keep this material away from children–even though what most of us would now consider tame, was met by strong resistance from the pro-family community. Pornography in books and magazines has always been there though Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine introduced this mode of voyeurism into the public mainstream in the mid 1950’s. Some historians say pornography dates back thousands of years to ancient Egypt to the Persian Empire and more.
In the United States, pornography truly hit the ground running in the 1980’s. The sexual revolution (which began a little more than a decade past) and cable television acted like rocket fuel regarding the take-off of pornography. People could now sit at home in privacy and watch what previously lurked in the dark recesses of their imagination. Attending X or triple X-rated films outside the home was left to men wearing raincoats as they slithered into cheap porno palaces in the seedier parts of town.
How things have changed in a little over a quarter century. Today pornography is a multibillion dollar business. Indeed, some porno stars are well-known figures to those who follow the trade. In fact, actors–if you can call them that–have obtained celebrity status to some. And radio jocks, includingHoward Stern promote the sex industry at every turn. With the touch of a button, you can watch the most salacious offerings at home and in the finest hotels on the road. Pornography has truly made its way into the mainstream of American consciousness.
Yet with this new dedication to observing of the prurient has come a steep price. According to Family Safe Media 60 million people in the U.S. admitted to purposely visiting Internet porn sites this year (70% indicate that they keep their online porn use a secret). There are over 4.2 million known separate and distinct porn web sites on the Internet, with 2,500 new sites coming online every week. According to Family Safe Media, the largest demographic accessing pornography on the Internet is the 12 to 17 year age group.
These statistics–which come from the year 2006–most certainly are out of date. By now, the number of those involved with pornography has increased dramatically.
In 2006, worldwide revenues from the sale of pornography totaled nearly $100 billion as tabulated by Top Ten Reviews. Taken from 2006 figures, China leads the way, spending $27.4 billion–which was 28% of revenue earned by the pornography industry worldwide. South Korea was second, spending $25.73 billion. Surprisingly, Japan came in third in the pornography spending spree with $19.98 billion and, finally, the U.S. tallied $13.33 billion in dollars spent on pornography. The pornography industry earns more than all the top high-tech companies combined. Porn brings in more cash worldwide than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink.
But the highest cost pornography may levy–which cannot be calculated–is on our society. Yet sociologists, psychologists and many other health professionals believe pornography is responsible for the increase in child molestation by adults and siblings, the increase in sexual assault and murder against women, and the break up of the traditional family. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says, at any given time, from 30 to 60 serial killers are at large in the United States. This figure has drastically increased since the 1980’s and many criminologists draw a direct link between pornography and violent crimes against women.
When facing the electric chair near the end of his life, Ted Bundy said pornography played an integral part in his twisted psychosocial development and led to his hatred of the fair sex.
