Channel 4 aired an amazing show on Channel 4 the other day. It originally aired on the 30th of September 2013. You can currently catch it on 4OD at the moment too http://www.channel4.com/programmes/porn-on-the-brain/4od at the time of writing its only up for another 7 days so it may not be up any longer.

Anyway this show was a great look at the change in exposure of Pornography to our kids and teenagers. There were some really heartfelt scenes from, Calum who says he is addicted to porn so much he can masturbate 16 times a day and even pops into the pub at one point to masturbate after seeing a girl in hotpants which triggers him.

A really good point raised was that the older generations never had access to this amount of hardcore porn and not this easily. It was totally disturbing to see that kids at GCSE age were talking about pigs and girls and beastiality as if it was totally normal for that to be passed around schools.

The one point to really come out of this was that we need to talk to our kids. Whenever that time comes, sit down, explain to them that it isn’t normal. We promote sex toys here and a healthy sex life. Everything should be done with the key point in mind that porn isn’t reality and that while you may have fun, it is important to separate porn and reality but equaly as important to ensure kids know this when growing up too.

The brains of porn addicts showed similar responses to other addicts such as drug addicts

The brain scan stuff is from 13.30 onwards

I was surprised to see no mention of sites and movements like reddit.com/r/nofap who are actively seeking to reduce and ocntrol their masturabtion and pornography habbits for a variety of reasons. Another amazing fact was that around 1/4 of guys they survey’d has tried and failed to give it up. While plenty of people can do it day in and day out with no effect on other parts of their lives there is a significant portion of people who need to control that aspect of their lives and there really isn’t much support for them out there as we saw. Hopefully Calum and other people with similar problems can find the help they need to combat porn addiction and more studies and research can be formalised on the subject, I’d love to read more about it. You may also find the site http://yourbrainonporn.com/ an interesting read too if you want to see current research done on the subject.