Pornography leads to increased sexual violence, majority says

Research found that 75% of women and 51% of men believe that pornography leads to increased sexual violence in society.

The majority of people (71%) believe that pornography is harming society, a new report from Women’s Aid has found.

Almost two-thirds of people (63%) in Ireland now believe that pornography leads to increased sexual violence in society, the Time To Talk About Porn report shows.

However, when this figure is broken down into male and female respondents, 75% of women agreed with the statement while 51% of men did. This was a trend across the report with men perceiving less danger from pornography than women.

Research shows that boys as young as eight years of age are accessing pornography online and one in every three porn videos depicts explicit sexual violence or aggression. Mainstream pornography now frequently shows violence against women such as strangulation and degradation as standard, fuelling gender-based violence and preventing gender equality, research shows.

Some 65% of people in Ireland now believe that pornography reduces men’s respect for women, with 77% of women believing pornography reduces men’s respect for women while just 53% of men agree with the statement.

More than half of people (57%) believe that pornography increases inequality between men and women.

Some 81% of young people, aged 18-25, agree that pornography increases men’s interest in trying rough or violent sex.

Most people agree (74%) that pornography negatively impacts sexual development for young people.

More vulnerable

The research shows that 75% of people believe that pornography makes children and young people more vulnerable to requests for sexually explicit images and videos.

A vast majority of respondents believe more education, more government intervention, and more tech company action are needed to protect young people from the damaging impacts of porn. 

"The vast majority (81%) [of people aged 18-25] believe that pornography is contributing to more frequent demand by some young men for rough/violent sex and undermining consent, which is truly alarming as this is an age where many are engaging in their very first sexual relationships, and we know from engaging with young people and from other studies that what young men are expecting in sex due to their consumption of porn is something that young women, in particular, are genuinely fearful about," said Women’s Aid CEO Sarah Benson.

We hear regularly from women accessing our frontline services that pornography regularly plays a role in the verbal, sexual, and physical abuse they are subjected to by their male partners. 

"The levels of physical aggression during sexual assaults are shocking, with women disclosing that they have been strangled to the point of unconsciousness during sex and have been called the most horrific names. 

"Women have disclosed that their abusers have forced them to watch and re-enact pornography. This includes disclosures where women have been raped and coerced into sexual acts, including with other men. Women have also disclosed that their partners have criticised and compared them with women featured in pornography.

“Women have also reported that children have been exposed to inappropriate content on their fathers’ phones, including dating sites and sexualised photos or pornography. We have also offered support to women who were recorded having sex without their consent or through coercion and whose intimate images were circulated online, including on porn sites. Women have been threatened by their partners or exes to have images shared with others unless they gave into their demands. That is why Women’s Aid conducted this research as an urgent priority.” 

Accessibility

Gail Dines, a leading international expert on pornography who advises the US, UK, Icelandic, and Canadian governments and is founder and CEO of Culture Reframed, said the average age a boy consumes pornography is between eight and 11, proving that free porn sites are too easily accessible.

Porn sites get more visits each month than Netflix, Twitter, and Amazon combined, she said, with Mindgeek being the biggest distributor.

Its flagship site, Pornhub, got 130m daily visits and 47bn visits overall in 2021, she said.

“This is the main form of sex education people are getting and we wonder why violence against women and girls is increasing," said Dr Dines.

“The more pornography boys and men consume, the more likely they are to be perpetrators.

This is a public health crisis of the digital age."

Studies have found that boys who are exposed to porn are 3.3 times more likely to engage in problematic sexual behaviour, while boys who intentionally sought out porn were six times more likely to self-report sexually aggressive behaviour.

Dr Dines said that the pornography industry has one of the most efficient PR machines in the world, fighting all attempts at better regulation and legislation which may curtail its freedoms or increase its responsibilities.

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“If you want to oppose violence against women you have to oppose the porn industry,” said Dr Dines. 

However, she said that fighting the pornography industry was not hopeless and campaigners have adopted a Gulliver strategy, where little by little, the industry is attacked from different fronts and will hopefully be dismantled piece by piece.

• If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.