We all know that a TED or TEDx Talk can be thought-provoking and really start fresh conversations. That’s why we always love seeing TED platform healthy perspectives encouraging viewers to think twice before engaging with pornography.
The conversation about the harms of porn continues in this TEDx Talk, shining a bright light on this important topic in our society.
Following in the footsteps of Gary Wilson’s Great Porn Experiment and Ran Gavrieli’s Why I Stopped Watching Porn, and others, Megan Johnson from South Carolina recently delivered an incredibly powerful and informative talk at TEDx Greenville titled, The Porn Paradox.
Watch Megan Johnson’s powerful TEDx talk below:
Porn is legal. Sex trafficking is not. They are completely unrelated. Right? This talk is a paradigm-shifting concept that will have you asking, “Am I part of the problem? Or will I be part of the solution?”
About the speaker
Megan Johnson grew up in Michigan and graduated from Furman University with a degree in psychology. She now resides in Greenville, South Carolina, with her husband and four children, while holding a position on the board of directors for Sari Bari USA, a freedom business where women who have been exploited in the sex trade or who are vulnerable to trafficking can experience a new life in the making.
Learn more
To learn more about the harms of pornography check out Fight the New Drug’s resources, including our Get The Facts articles.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
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