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FEATURE
tion along with substance addiction, because the same Donald L. Hilton Jr., MD meeting the Pope.
changes in these varied addictions are found in brain studies
and the behaviors are almost identical. 88% of the scenes contain physical aggression and 49% contain
verbal aggression toward women. Therefore, many girls are thus
For instance, a study published in the Journal of the scripted to be ‘porn-ready’ for ‘porn-conditioned’ boys. For in-
American Medical Association (JAMA) from of the Max stance, the push for teen girls to allow porn-programmed boys to
Planck Institute in Germany showed alterations in the re- perform painful anal sex on them was described as “coercion” in a
ward area of the brain in compulsive pornography use, and recent study in the British Medical Journal , yet Teen Vogue then
the more hours of pornography viewed per week, the more contributed to this coercion by encouraging minor teenage females
the alteration. A study done at Cambridge University ex- to allow porn-scripted boys to perform anal sex on them. Their
amining compulsive pornography users also demonstrated sexual scripts are thus programed to cater to males and to suppress
a different alteration in a region associated with the reward their own feelings and desires.
center, and both the British and German studies demon-
strated impaired connectivity with the frontal executive con- Fourth, the brain’s mirror neuron systems are also an important
trol centers of the thinking brain. consideration in understanding the impact of pornography on
young brains. Mirror neurons cause us to project ourselves into
Children and emerging adults are particularly vulnerable to these what we are seeing. A study out of France used functional MRI to
brain changes. Let us consider five reasons for this. First, the frontal examine the effect of pornography on the brains of those watching
executive centers in the thinking brain are not fully developed until it. The authors found that “…the mirror-neuron system prompts
the mid-twenties. This is because the connections have not matured the observers to resonate with the motivational state ….” of those
and the brain wires are not yet insulated, processes which are re- they are watching. What is the motivational state these youth are
spectively called pruning and myelination. Yet this age represents a emotionally ‘resonating’ with?
large percentage of those who view pornography and those used
as performers in pornography without real informed consent. Bill Margold, a famous male pornography performer, said, “I’d
Wealthy companies like MindGeek are profiting from the exploita- like to really show what I believe the men want to see: violence
tion of vulnerable emerging adults. Their profits are built on the against women. I firmly believe that we serve a purpose by showing
broken minds and bodies of these young people. that. We want to inundate the world…” He and his fellow per-
formers are infusing the next generation of males and females with
Second, brain chemicals such as DeltaFosB which are important a violent “motivational state.” They are programming the sexual
in pleasure reward processing and in addiction are expressed more templates of millions of youth with toxic sexual scripts through a
potently in immature brains. Children and emerging adults are powerful neuroplastic process of pathological learning. Porn is
more responsive and vulnerable to rewards than adults. Drugs like also destroying the ability to feel emotion. As one woman said of
cocaine and behaviors like sex can reset the hedonic set point, or the change that came over her husband because of pornography,
pleasure thermostat, of their brains more easily and create a new “A layer of empathy had been ground away.”
normal. Thus, the evidence supports greater vulnerability in forming
novel attachments to powerful rewards such as pornography. An continued on page 30
immature braking system is in effect paired with an accelerated re- visit us at www.bcms.org 29
ward system drive.
Third, pornography has effectively become the primary mode of
sexual education of youth. Because pornography is often the first
exposure to sexuality it influences sexual arousal templates and pro-
grams sexual scripts. Consider that 93% of boys and 62% of girls
under the age of 18 have been exposed to internet pornography.
What are these minors seeing? Ninety four percent reported watch-
ing mixed sexual intercourse, 69% watched same sex intercourse,
and 83% watched sexual intercourse between more than two people.
A review of the 250 most popular pornographic films found that
