Pornography Addiction and the Common Good

by CAPP-USA

Addiction is on the Rise in America

We have a problem! All forms of addiction are on the rise:

Drugs and alcohol: There are 28 million American alcoholics. (National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics) 62% of teenagers in 12th grade have abused alcohol. Drug use among 8th graders went up 61% between 2016 and 2020. (National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics) Over 100,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2021. (National Institute on Drug Abuse)

Gambling: 5 million Americans are compulsive gamblers “and gamblers are getting younger and more depressed.” (Rutgers Addiction Research Center) The National Council on Problem Gambling has found that 14 to 19 percent of high-school gamblers “either fit the criteria of having a gambling problem or are showing “signs of losing control”.” (Kindbridge Behavorial Health)

Pornography Addiction

But, perhaps the most potentially debilitating addiction is to pornography because it “represents a serious threat to society as a whole.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 2)

Porn is ubiquitous: There are somewhere between 4.5 and 8 million porn sites — with one site alone logging nearly 6 billion viewing hours, (Human Life International) while Pornhub was the sixth most visited website in the US in 2023. (Semrush.com)

Covid-19 school closures resulted in a huge rise in adolescents accessing porn sites — with devastating “implications on the brain’s nervous system among teenagers.” (Journal of Positive School Psychology)

And the use, acceptance, and addiction to pornography seems to be growing; 1 out of 3 Americans, and nearly half of men, seek out porn monthly. (Ballard Brief) (Pornography Consumption 2022 Stats)

More damaging may be the many studies showing young Americans do not believe pornography is bad for society.

Pornography Addiction Effects

With consistent use pornography rewires the brain. “The majority of scientific studies have highlighted the profound impact of pornography on the thinking and behaviour of children“. (Pope Francis)

“[T]he hypofrontality syndrome suffered by pornographic addicted individuals, put them at risk of serious mental disorders” (Journal of Positive School Psychology) such as schizophrenia, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. While “adverse effects in sexual development and sexual functioning, especially among the young population” often result.

Studies consistently reveal that workers in the pornography industry, as well as consumers, face mental health challenges, become addicted to drugs, and contemplate suicide.

In summary, pornography conditions users to see the real world as being the same as the fantasies and scenes they consume on screen – with devastating effects on the ability to develop meaningful relationships.

And “frequently it [pornography] is linked to human trafficking.” (Pope Francis)

Pornography Devastates the Common Good

Pornography addiction, and its effects are directly opposed to the the common good. “The political community exists…for the sake of the common good, in which it finds its full justification and significance, and the source of its inherent legitimacy”. (Gaudium et Spes, 74)

The “common good” is a critical concept. It as an aspirational result: “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily”. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1906)

As Pope Benedict XVI said, “there cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people’s spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account”. (Caritas in Veritate, 76)

Learn More about the Common Good

Is There Hope?

Armed with Catholic social teaching, we can build a “civilization of love“! (Congregation for Catholic Education, Foot Note, 35)

How? The Church calls us to “increase public concern” and “awareness of the need for decisive intervention by the authorities charged with the promotion of the common good.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 3)

And “To destroy such structures and replace them with more authentic forms of living in community is a task which demands courage and patience.” (Pope St. John Paul II, 38)

Pope Francis calls the porn industry and its exploitation nothing less than “crimes that need to be fought with intelligence and determination, through a broader cooperation among governments and law enforcement agencies”. (To Participants in the Congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World”)

And “A similar concern…should become increasingly felt in the finance and the economy of the digital world.” (Pope Francis)

The Family

But it all starts with the family! “[A]s the primary cell of society the family must be the first champion of the battle against this evil.”

Learn More about the Importance of FAMILY