Addiction to porn destroying lives, Senate told (AP Breaking News)
Comparing pornography to heroin, researchers on Thursday called on Congress to finance studies on “porn addiction” and launch a public health campaign about the dangers. “We’re so afraid to talk about sex in our society that we really give carte blanche to the people who are producing this kind of material,” said James B. Weaver, a Virginia Tech professor who studies the impact of pornography.
Internet pornography is corrupting children and hooking adults into an addiction that threatens their jobs and families, a panel of anti-porn advocates told the hearing organized by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., chairman of the Commerce subcommittee on science. Brownback, a father of five, said when he was a boy, the typical kid’s exposure was limited to occasional peeks at dirty magazines illicitly obtained by a buddy. Now, he said, pornography seems pervasive. Children run across it while researching homework on the Internet. Vulgar ads arrive unexpectedly by e-mail. Some of his middle-age male friends limit their time alone in hotel rooms to avoid the temptation of graphic pay-per-view movies, Brownback said.
Mary Anne Layden, co-director of a sexual trauma program at the University of Pennsylvania, said pornography’s effect on the brain mirrors addiction to heroin or crack cocaine. She told of one patient, a business executive, who arrived at his office at 9 a.m. each day, logged onto Internet porn sites, and didn’t log off until 5 p.m.
Are you kidding me? For one thing, why is a Science subcommittee studying this?! For another, what is the basis of Weaver’s assertion that Americans are afraid to talk about sex? It seems like that’s pretty much all we talk about. And just what percentage of business executives spend their entire workday looking at porn?
