The devastating harm from pornography is becoming more evident with each passing day. Now a website has been launched to provide ready access to credible, peer-reviewed research documenting that harm. “Pornography Harms is a one-stop location for sound research, news articles and opinion pieces demonstrating the harm from pornography,” said Patrick Trueman, creator of the site. The site will be of great help to researchers at all academic levels and the press and concerned public.
Trueman, the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, expressed strong concern for the direction of America due to the prominence of pornography in the daily lives of our citizens. “Since the advent of the internet, pornography has flooded homes, businesses, public libraries, and even schools. The results have been devastating to the social and family fabric of America,” Trueman said.
Trueman observed that, for nearly two decades, a large segment of America’s children have had ready access to internet pornography. In the latest trend called, “sexting”, children are producing and distributing cell phone child pornography. This phenomenon may well be an outgrowth of the viewing of internet pornography over long periods of time by children resulting in diminishment of their natural inhibitions against such activity. “Pornography, in other words, is altering minds, destroying taboos, and reordering society,” Trueman said.
Addiction to pornography, Trueman noted, is now common among men, women, and even many children, bringing life-long consequences. Pornography use is a significant factor in divorce; a contributing cause of the spread of prostitution and the sexual trafficking of adults and children.
Trueman credited a multi-disciplinary group of professionals and concerned citizens from around the country for the research work on Pornography Harms.
“Pornography is a neglected pandemic and it will remain so until knowledge of its destructive forces is widely understood and disseminated. The Pornography Harms website is dedicated to this task of education.” Trueman said.
