Brief report: private pleasures and the damage done: asking the unasked question about consumption of online pornography

Abstract

The domestication of the Internet has invigorated debate about the harms of pornography. The difference between pre-Internet and online pornography is not in any straightforward sense only one of degree. Compared to pre-Internet pornography, speed, and ease of access to an extensive range of pornographic content, along with the consumption of pornography in a virtual context, have introduced new prudential risks. In this Brief Report I restrict my focus to the impact on sexual health and on personal relationships and summarise the relevant research. Drawing on a psychoanalytically informed conceptual framework, I argue that the online medium changes, in prudentially significant ways, the consumer’s relationship to the sexual materials by providing a virtual space within which sexual desire is gratified quickly and non-reflectively, undermining the consumer’s capacity a) to mentalise their sexual desire and that of the other and b) to evaluate the prudential risks associated with the consumption of online pornography. The risks are especially significant for the digital generation whose sexual development is now more likely to be shaped by online pornography. I conclude by outlining one key practice implication arising from the research.