How does porn effect society ?
In May 1989, the Pontifical Council for Social Communication (Vatican) had already issued warnings to the media concerning the effect of porn – dangers which are today much better recognised and understood. Taken from a document which aims to “illustrate the most serious effects pornography and violence have on individuals and on society”.
Day-to-day experience will confirm what we have found in studies, carried out across the world, on the negative consequences of pornography. In pornography, present at the heart of the media industry thanks to the use of audio-visual technologies, we witness a violation of the right to the “privacy” of the human body, in its manly or womanly nature. It’s a violation which reduces the human person, and the human body, to an anonymous object destined to be misused and whose intention is to trigger concupiscent pleasure. Violence, in this context, can be understood as an exhibition, provoking the most basic of human instincts, behaviour which is contrary to the dignity of the person and which exercises an intense physical strength in a deeply offensive and often impassioned manner. Specialists are sometimes divided on the extent of the impact of this phenomenon and the manner in which individuals and groups are marked by it. The basic outlines of the problem however, are now clearly defined and deeply worrying.
1. Porn = sexual impairment, perversion of human relationships, slavery of individuals, destruction of the couple and the family
Nobody can consider themselves exempt from the degrading effects of pornography and violence, or safe from the damage caused by those who let themselves be seduced by it. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable, especially at risk to exposure and becoming victims themselves. Pornography and sadistic violence impair sexuality, pervert human relationships, enslave individuals – in particular children and women -, destroy marriage and family life, create anti-social attitudes and weaken the moral fibre of society.
Nobody can consider themselves exempt from the degrading effects of pornography and violence, or safe from the damage caused by those who let themselves be seduced by it. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable, especially at risk to exposure and becoming victims themselves. Pornography and sadistic violence impair sexuality, pervert human relationships, enslave individuals – in particular children and women -, destroy marriage and family life, create anti-social attitudes and weaken the moral fibre of society.
It’s obvious that one of the effects of pornography is sin (= cutting yourself off from the love of God, ndlr). The voluntary participation in the production and diffusion of these harmful products must be considered as a serious moral evil. In addition, its production and diffusion wouldn’t be taking place if there wasn’t a market for it or a demand. Those who use this material are not just injuring themselves but are also contributing to the promotion of a harmful trade.
This is extremely troubling for young children who are frequently exposed to violence through digital media, at an age where they still unable to distinguish clearly between imagination and reality. Sadistic violence at the heart of digital media can condition people who are particularly impressionable, especially young people, to the point that they consider it acceptable, normal and worthy of imitation.
2. The link between pornography, sadistic violence and murder
We’ve already stated that a link exists between pornography and sadistic violence. A certain type of pornography is openly violent in its expression and content. Those who watch, listen to or read such material risk introducing it into their own behaviour. They end up losing any respect for others as the children of God, and as brothers and sisters of the same human family. Such a link between pornography and sadistic violence has particular implications on people suffering from mental illness.
What we call “softcore” pornography can progressively paralyse our sensitivity to it, gradually suffocating the moral compass of individuals to the point of rendering them morally and personally indifferent to the rights and dignity of others. Pornography – like drugs – creates a need and pushes individuals to look for more exciting and perverse material, “hardcore” pornography. The probability of developing an anti-social attitude will be all the greater, as the process continues.
Pornography favours fantasies and unhealthy behaviours. It compromises the moral development of the person and their healthy adult relationships, particularly within marriage and the context of a family, which demands a certain mutual trust between everyone, as well as moral integrity in word and deed.
Pornography undermines the familial character of authentic human sexuality. In the sense that it turns sexuality into the frenetic search for personal pleasure, rather than a durable expression of love within a marriage. Pornography appears to be capable of undermining family life in its entirety.
At its worst, pornography becomes an inciting or reinforcing element for cases concerning serious and dangerous sexual aggression, and so is an indirect accomplice. Crimes against children, abductions and murders.
One of the central messages of pornography and violence is contempt for others: who are no longer considered as people. Pornography and violence erase tenderness and compassion, paving the way for indifference and even brutality.
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