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The impact of pornography on
gender-based violence, sexual health
and well-being: what do we know?
Megan S C Lim,
1,2
Elise R Carrotte,
1
Margaret E Hellard
1,2
INTRODUCTION
As Internet access and literacy increases,
pornography has become highly access-
ible, cheap and diverse. Online pornog-
raphy use is common in the USA, with
nearly 9 out of 10 men and 1 out of 3
women aged 18–26 reporting accessing
pornography online.
1
In June 2013, legal
pornographic websites received more
UK-based traffic than social networks,
shopping, news and media, email, finance,
gaming and travel websites.
2
For example,
popular pornography website ‘pornhub’
received 79 billion video views in 2014.
3
Increased access to pornography online
has been accompanied by rising concerns
that it negatively impacts health and well-
being, particularly with regard to young
people. These concerns include that
viewing any sexually explicit material
erodes morals and that specific types of
pornography, such as that depicting vio-
lence against women, leads to increased
violence against women in real life. Even
in the case of non-violent pornography,
there is anxiety that people view pornog-
raphy as ‘real’rather than fantasy and that
this negatively influences attitudes and
real-life sexual behaviour, particularly
when people’s sexual experience is
limited such as in adolescence.
4
Other
concerns include the scarcity of condom
use in pornography (both for diminishing
condom use as a social norm and for the
risks to the health of performers), impacts
on body image (including trends in pubic
hair removal and labiaplasty), and the
harms of pornography addiction.
Despite the myriad of fears about
online pornography, questions remain
over its actual harm. Do viewers really
imitate pornography in their own lives
and does this negatively influence their
health and well-being? Does watching vio-
lence in pornography lead to misogyny
and gender-based violence? Are young
people at greater risk of the negative
effects of viewing pornography (if they
exist) than older adults? In this paper, we
explore the most commonly cited con-
cerns over online pornography by provid-
ing evidence, if available, to support or
refute these concerns.
SEXUAL RISK BEHAVIOUR
Studies have described young people
incorporating ideas inspired by pornog-
raphy into their real-life sexual experi-
ences.
5–9
By itself, this need not be
problematic. If, however, online pornog-
raphy is the primary source of a young
person’s sexual education, and they do
not recognise that pornography is fantasy
and not designed to be educational, then
it may be giving unhealthy educational
messages. Given the lack of standardised
and quality formal sexual education in
most countries, this is a real concern.
Only 2–3% of heterosexual pornography
online includes any condom use.
10–12
Condom use was shown to be more
common in pornography depicting men
having sex with men (MSM), with one
study reporting condom use in 78% of acts
of anal sex.
12
Non-use of condoms in
sexual intercourse is a key factor in HIV
and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
risk. Importantly, several studies demon-
strate that viewing unprotected anal inter-
course is negatively associated with condom
use among MSM; researchers have mea-
sured a correlation between the proportion
of pornography featuring sex without
condoms and the likelihood of engaging in
unprotected anal intercourse.
13 14
The evi-
dence among heterosexuals is both limited
and inconsistent.
15
The near absence of
condoms from heterosexual pornography
makes it difficult to demonstrate such a
relationship.
Research on the relationships between
pornography consumption and other
sexual behaviours continues, and the
majority show some significant correla-
tions. Increased pornography viewing has
been associated with younger sexual
debut, higher numbers of partners and
casual sex partners.
91516
Certain sexual
risk behaviours that are not widely
practised among heterosexuals occur
commonly in pornography; a content ana-
lysis found that 28% of scenes include sex
between three or more people.
12
The
increasing popularity of heterosexual anal
sex, which many women report disliking,
has also been attributed anecdotally to its
depiction in pornography where it fea-
tures in 15–42% of scenes.
10–12 17
Importantly all of these behaviours are
associated with increased risk of STIs.
The current state of evidence is limited
to correlation and does not demonstrate a
causal relationship where viewing porn
leads to an increase in sexual risk behav-
iour. Existing studies have significant lim-
itations in being unable to determine
causality; many have major study design
flaws, including lack of a control group
for comparison, lack of longitudinal
follow-up to determine temporality of
exposures and behaviours and limited
ability to control for confounding factors.
Different studies are difficult to compare
due to inconsistent measurements and
definitions of pornography. Studies have
also tended to use non-representative
samples (eg, convenience samples of uni-
versity students), and as a consequence
have low external validity.
15
Therefore,
the direction of the relationship is not
certain; while pornography may influence
behaviour, sexual experience may also
influence pornography viewing and both
sets of behaviours may be strongly driven
by other common factors such as sensa-
tion seeking and age of sexual maturity.
18
VIOLENCE AND GENDER
Between 37% and 88% of mainstream
pornographic scenes include acts of phys-
ical aggression (mostly gagging and spank-
ing), most commonly towards female
actors with the scene usually suggesting
that the recipient was a willing partici-
pant.
19 20
Women are also more likely
than men to be depicted as submissive
during sex and as exploited or manipu-
lated into sexual activity.
10 20
Despite copious research into the phe-
nomenon over many decades, the direct
evidence for how viewing violent pornog-
raphy impacts on gender-based violence is
inconclusive. Experimental studies which
involve exposing men to violent pornog-
raphy have demonstrated an increase in
sexual aggression;
21
however, the artifici-
ality of the experimental setting limits the
validity of these findings in real-world
situations. A meta-analysis of non-
experimental studies revealed a significant
association between pornography use
(particularly of violent pornography) and
attitudes supporting violence against
women.
22
This association cannot be
1
Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia;
2
School of Population
Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Correspondence to Dr Megan S C Lim, Centre for
Population Health, Burnet Institute, 85 Commercial Rd,
Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia; lim@burnet.edu.au
Lim MSC, et al.J Epidemiol Community Health Month 2015 Vol 0 No 0 1
Commentary
JECH Online First, published on May 28, 2015 as 10.1136/jech-2015-205453
Copyright Article author (or their employer) 2015. Produced by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd under licence.
interpreted as causation, however, as men
with a disposition towards violence
against women are more likely to seek out
violent pornography.
23
Ecological data
from many countries show that the popu-
lation rate of rape has decreased signifi-
cantly while pornography use has
significantly increased.
21
This has led
some researchers to hypothesise that
exposure to violent pornography is cathar-
tic, diverting sexual aggression away from
real-life violence.
21
Ecological data,
however, are a very weak form of evi-
dence, as changes at a national level over
time may be driven by a multitude of
other societal factors.
SEXUAL WELL-BEING
There are many reports about the adverse
impacts of pornography on relationships,
sexual enjoyment and well-being, but evi-
dence is predominantly limited to per-
sonal anecdotes or surveys with subjective
measures. For example, a common com-
plaint from young heterosexual women is
a feeling of subservience to male pleasure,
being pressured or being expected to do
things their male partners had seen in
pornography (such as anal intercourse and
ejaculation onto the female’s face).
79
Women’s pornography use is under-
represented in research, but surveys of
couples in heterosexual partnerships show
that men viewing pornography is asso-
ciated with decreased sexual satisfaction
for both partners while the female partner
viewing pornography is associated with
increased sexual satisfaction for both
partners.
24 25
Research also suggests that excessive use
of pornography among men can lead to a
reliance on pornography to maintain sexual
arousal and consequently, loss of enjoyment
during sex with a partner.
826
Although
pornography addiction is not listed as an
addictive disorder in the American
Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(Fifth edition), many do believe in its exist-
ence. For example, studies have shown that
pornography viewing is associated with
brain changes similar to those observed in
addiction and that pornography addiction
is often associated with sexual dysfunc-
tion.
26 27
Worryingly this research also
showed that adolescents take longer than
adults to recover from pornography addic-
tion, which the authors attribute to the
younger age of pornography exposure.
26
BENEFITS OF PORNOGRAPHY
There are many advocates for the benefits
of pornography and a growing, albeit
limited, body of supporting evidence that
to date has primarily relied on subjective
assessments. Watson and Smith
4
reviewed
literature relating to the personal, relational
and social value of pornography, stating
that use of pornography may diminish
sexual anxiety and dysfunction, encourage
sexual expression and provide entertain-
ment and satisfaction. Pornography has
been associated with more open views
towards sex and sexuality. For example,
pornography use has been correlated with
acceptance of homosexuality among US
men
28
and may allow non-heterosexual
young people to explore and learn about
their sexuality in a way that they are not
able to from mainstream culture.
Australian
29
and Danish
30
adults have self-
reported that pornography has significantly
more positive than negative effects, such as
an improved sex life, feeling more comfort-
able and open-minded about sex and being
more attentive to their partner’ssexual
pleasure. Similarly, in a sample of 245 US
students, viewing pornography was asso-
ciated with a willingness to explore new
sexual behaviours and reported to be a
source of empowerment for the viewer,
building confidence among the female par-
ticipants in particular.
31
Furthermore, there
is a rising interest in more positive forms of
pornography, for example ‘feminist pornog-
raphy’and ‘sex-positive pornography’
which emphasise the real sexual pleasure of
female performers, represent diversity,
display sexual consent and agency and
provide ethical working environments for
performers.
32
It should be noted that some of these
identified possible benefits are in direct
contradiction with the possible harms
described above. Sample or study design
differences may play a role in this contra-
diction; however, it is also likely that
pornography does not influence all indivi-
duals in the same way. Further research is
needed to identify factors which may
mediate the impact.
DISCUSSION
Online pornography is extremely common
in modern society, but its impact on sexual
health and well-being remains uncertain.
The available evidence suggests that porn-
ography does affect our behaviour, some-
times in problematic ways. However, it is
also likely that for many people, viewing
pornography has no adverse effects and
may even have beneficial outcomes.
Research to date has produced mixed
results and has overlooked some key
groups, particularly young women. As our
commentary has identified several
common flaws in methodology, there is a
need to conduct further research,
including systematic review, longitudinal
research, and experimental studies into the
various effects of pornography in repre-
sentative samples of adolescents.
Despite the importance of clarifying the
impact of pornography, several factors
indicate that it will always be extremely
difficult to provide conclusive evidence.
First, due to the sensitive nature of the
topic, asking adolescents about pornog-
raphy and getting parental consent to do
so poses ethical problems. However, given
that pornography viewing typically begins
from a young age (a median age of
14 years in our unpublished study), it is
vital that research does include adoles-
cents before they begin this behaviour.
Another key problem is that viewing
pornography is so common in our society
that studies often have no meaningful
control groups, limiting the quality of the
research. Even studies investigating porn-
ography and outcomes in a dose–response
design suffer from a lack of clarity regard-
ing cut-off values for problematic use.
The impact of pornography on sexual and
relationship well-being will be particularly
difficult to determine given the lack of
objective methods to measure these.
Finally, a causal relationship between
pornography viewing and outcomes is dif-
ficult to prove as both behaviours must
surely be mediated by the choice to watch
pornography—for example, those people
more interested in sex and with stronger
sexual desires are more likely to both
engage in sexual behaviour and to watch
pornography.
Another difficulty in obtaining high-
quality evidence about the negative or posi-
tive health and social impacts of pornog-
raphy is the rapidly changing environment
and medium in which it is consumed.
Near-instant on-demand access to billions
of pornographic videos from a handheld
device is likely to have a very different
impact than a sexually explicit magazine
kept under the bed. Furthermore, research
on previous generations of young people
may not be relevant to the current gener-
ation, who are now typically exposed to a
high volume of diverse and explicit pornog-
raphy before they have had the chance to
test and develop their own sexual practices
and relationships.
What responses could we implement if
pornography is found to be unhealthy?
Some attempts at legislation have been
made; examples include international
efforts to eliminate child pornography
and nationwide internet provider blocks
on any material deemed explicit (eg, in
China). In most countries, pornography is
technically restricted to viewing by adults
2 Lim MSC, et al.J Epidemiol Community Health Month 2015 Vol 0 No 0
Commentary
aged over 18 years; however, these restric-
tions are widely ignored and near-
impossible to enforce.
California, one of the world’s largest
pornography-producing jurisdictions,
recently made the decision to mandate
condom use in all films—not to reduce
the potential for harm to viewers, but to
protect adult film workers. This was a
clear evidence-based response; performers
are at risk of extremely high rates of STIs,
including HIV.
33
Less clearly evidence
based was the recent ruling for pornog-
raphy introduced in the UK, which
banned depicting behaviours, including
spanking, fisting, face-sitting and female
ejaculation. Critics of this ruling contend
that the list of behaviours was chosen
based on moral judgement rather than evi-
dence of the negative health impacts of
viewing these behaviours.
Evidence is also needed to inform
policy and practice regarding education
about pornography. Young people are
watching pornography more frequently
and from a younger age; it is becoming an
entrenched part of their sexual develop-
ment. This suggests that education on this
topic is essential. Education may involve
improving media literacy, such as building
understanding of concepts including the
reality and fantasy of sex depicted in
pornography, expectations for real-life sex
and consent. However, quality education
requires a strong evidence base, which is
not yet established for pornography. The
most important question still to be
answered is whether pornography’s risks
to adolescents are greater than those that
have been inadequately demonstrated for
adults.
Contributors MSCL and ERC conducted the literature
review; all authors contributed to writing and editing
the manuscript.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned;
externally peer reviewed.
To cite Lim MSC, Carrotte ER, Hellard ME.
J Epidemiol Community Health Published Online First:
[please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/jech-
2015-205453
J Epidemiol Community Health 2015;0:1–3.
doi:10.1136/jech-2015-205453
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