For years, a handful of scholars like David Ley have run cover for the porn industry, insisting that “porn addiction” does not actually exist. Millions of people struggling with porn addiction would beg to differ.
In fact, a recent study showed that the phrase “porn addiction symptoms” is searched an average of 70,000 times per month in the United States, with “porn addiction signs” and “porn addiction” ranking as the most commonly searched terms related to addiction. The study indicates that porn addiction appears to be the most common form of addiction in the United States.
I have spoken to thousands of students about pornography in the last several years, and I can state unequivocally that not only is porn addiction a growing problem – porn addiction is starting at younger and younger ages.
I have met porn addicts who started when they were five years old and had been hooked for a decade by the time they turned 15. I have met teens who were first exposed at ages 7, 8, or 9. I most frequently hear that porn addiction begins around Grade 6, with one school I recently spoke at having an issue with pornography in Grade 5. This problem is real, it is growing, and every community must recognize and respond to that fact.
61 percent of American adults admit to using pornography, with half of porn users saying that nobody knows.
84 percent of porn users say that they have nobody helping them avoid pornography.
44 percent still mistakenly believe that if they only view a “little” bit of porn, it will not impact other aspects of their life. (As one expert put it, you do not have one brain for porn and another for fantasy – it is the same brain, and everything bleeds together.)
63 percent mistakenly believe that porn consumption can be compatible with a sexually healthy lifestyle.
62 percent of self-identified Christians – three in five – told Barna that people can view porn regularly and have a sexually healthy lifestyle.
58 percent of Christians say it is important to them that their church has programming that helps people avoid or recover from porn addiction – but only 10 percent say their church offers such help.
89 percent of Christian youth leaders say they wish teens were taught about healthy sexuality by their parents, and 69 percent say that “friends” and “social media” have the biggest influence on what teens think of sex.
75 percent of American pastors say that they are personally helping people struggling with porn addiction. 51 percent of those seeking help are married men.
67 percent of pastors admit to having a history of porn use, with 18 percent saying that the struggle is current and 86 percent saying that they feel porn use is common amongst pastors.
These numbers are not surprising to me in the least. In our digital age, young people will be catechized by online culture – that is, pornography, entertainment, and social media – or by their parents.
Most young people receive next to no instruction or mentorship on healthy sexuality, while they are simultaneously bombarded by destructive and often vile messaging from the culture. As a result, the sexual economy of Christian communities has been badly damaged over the past decade and a half in particular, and I believe it is of the utmost importance that parents, educators, and church leaders take this seriously. To put it bluntly, I believe it is an emergency.
The good news is that many of those struggling want to get help. They want parents to mentor them. They want recovery groups that will help them get freedom. They want accountability partners to help them beat their addictions. They want to recover some sense of what healthy sexuality and genuine intimacy look like. They know that pornography is destructive but feel trapped and are often too ashamed to ask for help. That means it is up to us to confront this problem, and to offer help to the struggling.
The culture is evangelical. We must recognize that they are winning miserable converts through Pornhub and other dens of sleaze and horror, and that it is our task to fight back.
