Lockdowns and restrictions that have characterised the past two years have led to a dramatic rise in the consumption of online p*rnography, increasing the risk of abuse to women and warping healthy male sexuality, according to leading experts.
Women most at risk of abuse
Both Tyler and Tankard Reist agree that more women are on the receiving end of abuse inspired by habitual p*rn consuming men since a pandemic was declared in early 2020.
Consent an issue for socially isolated
Ms Tankard Reist said that the p*rn industry had capitalised on social isolation, with a recent study suggesting it led to 32 percent of respondents saying a partner tried to force them to watch p*rnography when they did not want to.
“What we have seen is an intensification of a pre-existing issue,” she said.
“P*rnhub was offering free premium subscriptions almost as if they were offering a free community service and while there was clearly an increase in usage, it’s the flow on effect that concerns me the most.
“What we’re seeing with covid-related lockdowns and restrictions is that women who had pre-existing vulnerabilities to being abused, those vulnerabilities have increased and men who are habitually consuming p*rn are acting out on their partners and wanting them to do things that they don’t want to do.”
Extreme sexual acts now ‘normalised’ through porn
Both Ms Tankard-Reist and Dr Tyler pointed to the rise in the “normalisation” of once extreme sexual practices like choking and slapping as being directly inspired by the saturation of freely available online p*rnography.
Both also agreed that while the harmful effects on women is clear, the availability of p*rn and normalisation of p*rn-inspired practices has destroyed the development of healthy sexuality and attitudes towards women for an entire generation of young men and boys.
“Women bear the brunt of that because they’re the ones that often get choked or slapped or abused in various ways but also what are we doing grooming young men and boys into believing that’s what it is to be a man?” Dr Tyler said.
“What we’re seeing now is the normalcy of consumption but also how young that happens and it is a very formative process, as in it is normal to have consumed so many hours of p*rnography when you’re very young and long before you’ve had any sexual contact with another person.
“That’s obviously going to have a significant impact on you.”
P*rn ‘destroys healthy male sexual development’
Ms Tankard Reist said the work she did with Collective Shout in schools revealed that young boys are being exposed to p*rn from an early age, which was causing some alarming behaviours towards young girls.
“Boys are being targeted, preyed upon and groomed to have a sense of entitlement to the bodies of women and girls,” she said
“What they’ve learned from watching p*rn is that they think that violence is sexy… I have more girls saying to me that boys want to choke them, strangle them and think that girls will like that.
“Boys aren’t born that way, they’ve learned this through the biggest sex educator in the world – the porn industry.
“It’s really a crime against those young boys in the way that they then go on to behave and not know what healthy respectful and healthy intimate relationships look like.
“We’ve really destroyed the healthy sexual development of a generation in my view.”
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