The Epidemic Spread of Pornography Addiction and its Adverse Effects

By: Abu Bilaal Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare


This write-up is quite graphic! The intent is to fully expose the harmful effects of pornography on our society without mincing words, and to serve as a wake-up call to all and sundry to join the vanguard for the anti-pornification of society.

The society is under a heavy bombardment from the media with so much sexual content. In some mainstream newspapers, a picture of a nude or scarcely clad girl is always on Page 3, usually referred to as the iconic page. The fact that many men buy these newspapers for that purpose exposes the level of moral decadence in our society. Even the so-called home movies (Nollywood and Ghallywood) are not left out. They churn out tons of so-called “soft porn” movies year in year out and a lot of people (including children) are exposed to these contents. It has become so widespread that people now see it as normal. Parents sit around their children to watch these filths together, oblivious of the great harm it poses to them and their families.

Some married couples argue that they watch pornographic videos in order to enhance their sexual performance with their spouses. But this argument lacks credibility. A healthy sexual relationship between husband and wife is not developed or enhanced in any way by watching porn. On the contrary, it reduces the sexual enjoyment between partners as it deadens their natural sexual impulses, desensitizes their natural stimulants, and makes them used to the damaging images they see on the screens which are usually more cosmetic than real. Therefore, when people no longer find their spouses as arousing as the people they see in porn movies, they tend to derive less sexual enjoyment from them.

There are also those who argue that in watching erotic pictures and videos, they do not harm anyone else but themselves. This is not a good argument because harm done to one’s self is harm done to one’s family and the society, as it takes away from one’s potentials which the family and the society ought to benefit from. Moreover, indulging in porn means misdirecting one’s energy and deriving sexual satisfaction from other than one’s spouse, and in that sense it is tantamount to cheating.

The addiction to pornography is far more serious than the addiction to crack cocaine. The logic is simple: the body can easily be cleansed and detoxicated from crack cocaine, but getting rid of the lasting mental imprints of pornographic images from the mind is almost impossible.

Most people prefer to live in denial and just avoid discussing these ills with their children and wards, fearing that it will rather unnecessarily expose them to things they previously never knew. But the fact is that, brushing things under the carpet and opting to live in denial only amounts to self-deceit. If we allow evil to spread unchecked and simply shy away from tackling it head-on, then it is likely going to affect everyone and we would not be exempted.

The pornification/over-sexualization of society is a global epidemic. It is addictive, easily accessible, corrosive, corrupting, destructive, and above all, anti-human. Particularly, it has a destructive impact on the younger generation.

In today’s society, the street is the main educator of children, followed by the internet. The school comes a distant third. There is currently an unprecedented onslaught of pornography targeted at the youngsters. With only a few clicks, children are exposed to hardcore pornographic content. According to a study by the London School of Economics, six out of every ten children in the UK are exposed to pornography – that is, the majority of children. Approximately 90% of children aged 8 to 16 have seen pornography on the Internet. There are many game sites on the internet which allow harmless games to be played, but advertise sexually explicit websites. According to the Top Ten Reviews report, at least twenty-six names of cartoon characters were linked to porn sites, thus exposing children to adult content on the Web. How bad it is for matures to view such damaging, misogynistic, and anti-human images, let alone children of 14 years old or less. If you think your children are innocent, then I truly wish they are. But the incontrovertible nature of our contemporary society is that porn is everywhere and is now accessible by everyone. It is no longer something which is hidden at the top of shelves or concealed in the innermost compartments of bags. No one seems to be shy or embarrassed about it anymore. Young girls now aspire to be porn stars, lap dancers, glamour models, etc. Children now post nude images of themselves on social media. Some uncritical parents buy their children G-strings and teach them to dress sexy. Political office holders now visit strip clubs to watch lap dances, belly dances, and whatnot, and they are not shy of it. At one time, it was reported that a former Minister of Justice/Federal Attorney General of Nigeria who was addicted to porn travelled to Brazil to watch teenage Samba girls dance nude in a carnival.

Reports have it that many of the child rapists who were imprisoned in America had been previously exposed to child-pornography. They had unfettered access to the over one hundred thousand Child Pornography websites available on the internet, and the thousands of others which are called Barely Legal, a genre of porn involving girls who look underage but are over eighteen. These men, after seeing girls being sexually abused repeatedly, became desensitized and started seeing it as normal. And shortly afterwards, they committed the act themselves. According to them, when they first saw child porn they were disgusted. But in barely six months of seeing it repeatedly after the first experience, they raped a child.

As humans, we are expected to see and treat each other as ourselves. That is justice to humanity. But to allow somebody to be used, abused, and discarded like mere pieces of meat, rather than as dignified human beings with souls – which is what happens to girls in the porn industry – is a crime against humanity.

Porn is not fun. It is a perversion. Those who allowed it to spread unhindered in the name of “freedom” are now running helter-skelter looking for solutions to the now confirmed societal menace, having realized the colossal harm they have caused themselves and their societies. But it’s a bit too late. They have fully deregulated/liberalized society to accept pornography, just like they did with other vices like gambling and alcoholism. No amount of internet filters can work again. The result of total deregulation is the birth of a Godless society.

Today, 72 million people visit porn sites regularly every month, there are 24 million porn sites around the world, 24% of internet searches are directly related to porn, and 13,000 porn movies are produced every year. The porn industry, worth 13.3 billion dollars, is now the most prolific film industry in the world – bigger than Amazon, Ebay, and even Microsoft. Statistics show that 89% of all the porn in the world comes from the US alone, and some of the highest consumers of porn in the world are from the Middle-East and South-Asia. This multi-billion dollar industry is a capitalist machine that is driven by exploitation of the vulnerable.

This epidemic porn addiction has made people to become sexually dysfunctional and unable to maintain normal relations. It has also lead to the increase in sexual violence towards women. Research has it that people who regularly watch porn have decreased empathy for violence against women. This is largely due to the fact that they have seen repeatedly in porn movies, a culture in which women are being humiliated, tortured, gagged, choked, slapped, urinated on, degraded, and abused. They become misogynistic and totally numb to what they watch everyday, and that accounts for their decreased empathy for violence against women. They say that women who dress provocatively deserve to be raped. They get angry when women refuse their sexual advances because they are used to seeing women fall sheepishly even for passers-by. They feel a sense of entitlement to any girl they desire. They become increasingly coercive on their wives, wanting them to act like porn stars and do absurd sexual acts in a bid to enact in their marital lives the things they see in porn videos. And worse-off is that it decreases their sexual interest in their wives. Instead, they become married to the internet, watching hit after hit of porn, in total abandonment of their legally married wives at home. They become overly preoccupied with porn, thinking of it, watching it for hours, and masturbating along with it. Some have lost their jobs because of porn addiction, just like some students have failed their exams for same reason.

Porn destroys masculinity by making men think that being a real man is all about abusing women sexually. It destroys femininity by making women think of themselves as sex objects (every woman – even those who are above 50 – wants to appear sexy). And porn destroys intimacy and normal sex life between legally married couples by replacing their natural instincts with distorted mental programming.

The pornography industry is driven by novelty. Their continued sustenance is guaranteed majorly by producing things that people have not seen before. Therefore, in order to capture the audience and sustain their patronage, they bombard them with a barrage of bizarre and novel pornography genres; like Celebrity Porn, Oral Porn, Anal Porn, Arab Girl Porn, Pakistani Girl Porn, Gang Rape Porn, Incest Porn, Homosexual Porn, Lesbian Porn, Rape Porn, Revenge Porn, etc. There is also the Multiple Penetration Porn – comprising of double-penetration, triple penetration, and quadruple penetration – in which multiple men penetrate a woman in every orifice. In fact, describing the porn industry as animalistic is an insult to the animal kingdom, as animals don’t become that perverse.

The reason for the sustained escalation in the categories of porn is that after watching one level or type of porn, the brain develops a tolerance for it and finds it no longer fascinating. Therefore, in order to derive the same level of pleasure/satisfaction or more, the mind craves for more and more porn novelties and harder hits, which are usually more degrading and violent. And that way, a person sinks deeper into pornography addiction until it becomes an obsession, such that even when he doesn’t derive any more pleasure from it, he just can’t stop watching it. It is the same thing with drug addiction. Every drug pusher gives you the first spliff or parcel free of charge. But that small quantity is enough to lure you into doing drugs until you get incurably immersed in and addicted to it, and then they start using you to run deadly errands and to make nasty money.

Getting over porn addiction, like any other addiction, is usually not very easy, yet it is doable. One has to first realize the harm of it, and make a firm resolve to give it up. The process involves understanding what porn does to the brain through subliminal desensitization, classical conditioning, and sequential persuasion. When an individual realizes this, then it becomes easier for him to pull out of this absolutely reprehensible depravity.

One should feel shy and embarrassed watching other men and women shamelessly committing fornication and adultery in front of cameras.

Evil is evil, no matter how widespread and widely accepted it may be. Conversely, good is good, no matter how unpopular it may be. Let’s all work to check the spread of pornography and its attendant evils, and to insulate ourselves and our families from it.

Abu Bilaal, Abdulrazaq bn Bello bn Oare
Kaduna, Nigeria
sahaabah@aol.com