Porn is harmful, can cause an uncontrollable addiction, loss of employment, and may destroy a child’s ability to enjoy future loving, long-term relationships.

Study after study shows this is true. But you might not think so if you believe the media. That's because the PR machine of the porn industry is hard at work.

Recently I and my team attended the Utah Coalition Against Pornography’s annual conference. Keynote speaker Dr. Donald L. Hilton, Jr., MD, a neurosurgeon and expert on pornography addiction, described four ways the porn industry is working to make over its bad image.

Porn Industry Tactics You Need to Know About

Tactic # 1: Pay for junk science that "proves" porn is good or at least not harmful. Companies with lots of money can hire PhD’s to conduct “studies” whose results conveniently help promote the corporations’ products and are used as ammunition against their critics. (Years ago the dairy industry got caught doing this when they touted a “study” which said that eating dairy helped people lose weight. They got sued and had to retract.)

For example, people are waking up to the fact that using pornography can become an addiction, so the porn industry comes out with a “study” that says that porn is not addictive—there are just people out there with “high sex needs” who use it. According to Dr. Hilton, the press publicizes these junk science studies and ignores other valid studies that show how pornography damages brains, lives and relationships.

Tactic #2: Make up a nicer word. In the academic world, pornography is now “visual sexual stimulation”—a much nicer, sanitized euphemism that helps to cosmetically improve the dark underworld image of porn--the one associated with sex trafficking, prostitution, addiction and child abuse.

Tactic # 3: Sue the psychologist! According to Hilton, some clients in California are encouraged to report their psychologist if they are diagnosed and then treated for a porn addiction—a condition that isn't recognized in the psychologist’s bible, the DSM, as an actual addiction. WHAT???

Tactic # 4: Watch it so you don’t need it! The porn industry wants us to believe that watching porn provides a “safety valve” for people with "high sex needs" so they don’t go out and commit rape on innocent victims. As long as potential perpetrators are satiated by watching porn, we’re all a lot safer, they reason.

Hmmmm….let’s extend this logic to the real world. As long as your kids simply watch commercials portraying tempting visuals of hamburgers, fries, and sodas, they won’t actually want to eat the potentially harmful fast food. That works, right?

I don’t think so. It’s a well-known fact that virtually all sexual predators have a history of porn use.

[[CTA]]

‍

The infamous serial killer Ted Bundy admitted in a final interview that pornography was a huge contributing factor to perpetrating his violent sexual fantasies, something he had in common with other serial killers.

And there's this troubling news from the UK:

A new report in the United Kingdom revealed a startling trend of young boys being charged with rape or other sexual crimes, with authorities claiming online pornography is leading to the increase.

So what’s the takeaway?

Your kids will “hear” these and many more pro-porn arguments as they grow up. Begin young to teach your kids the truth about pornography. Teach them your values before popular culture teaches them something completely false. For example, older children can understand:

1. Not everything we hear or read in the media is true. Scientific studies must be designed and interpreted with great care, and some studies that get reported in the press are poorly done or purposefully misinterpreted.
2. Pornography is harmful to the brain and psyche no matter what you call it.
3. Pornography can become an actual physical and chemical addiction.
4. Viewing pornography can lead to acting out physically in inappropriate ways. In other words, watching porn can instigate people to commit crimes.

Have you noticed “pro-porn” news stories or media? How do you push back against these influences on your kids?