Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
Studies show that frequent porn consumers are more likely to carry out sexual violence in real life.
Over 90% of police officers report that self-generated intimate images of minors are common in their investigations of CSEM.
A 2021 study analyzed videos from popular porn sites and found that porn featuring Black people tends to perpetuate harmful racist stereotypes, disproportionately emphasize violence and aggression, and often depicts Black people as “worse than objects.”
According to a 2021 study, only 5.94% of porn-consuming respondents said that they watched porn because of a "lack of sexual satisfaction." In other words, the vast majority of porn consumers are watching porn for reasons other than their partner not being "enough."
Research suggests that frequent porn consumers are less likely to intervene during a sexual assault.
LGBTQ+ youth who are rejected because of their sexual orientation or gender identity are particularly vulnerable to potential psychological/emotional manipulation by traffickers or predators who may take advantage of them.
Some experts have determined four major brain changes common to addicted brains—sensitization, desensitization, hypofrontality, and a malfunctioning stress system— all of which can be found in cases of pornography consumption.
Research has shown that those who don’t consume porn report higher relationship quality—on every measure— than those who viewed pornography alone.
Researchers have found that representations of step-relationships in porn titles were actually less common than depictions of blood relationships, with the majority of incest-themed titles describing sexual activity between immediate family members.
Research suggests that porn can influence women to be more submissive in sexual encounters.
Some frequent porn consumers can become so accustomed to the exaggerated forms of sex they see in porn, that they may have a difficult time becoming aroused in real-life sexual encounters unless porn is also present.
Over 46% of young people reported that they saw online porn for the first time when it just “popped up”, and 22% reported that someone else showed it to them when they weren’t expecting it.
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