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The problem that
faces us is silent, invasive and destructive. It seriously affects individuals,
the family, school, companies, society and nations. Due to its silent nature,
adults are often unaware of the problem experienced by children and young people
around us, with the consequent lack of professionals adequately trained to help
them. It is known as the new drug of the millennium and it is the addiction of
children and young people to online pornography, be it on the Internet, mobile
phones, and Ipods or Xboxes.
Sooner or later, addiction makes us dependent on the
sensation, and enslaves us and becomes the center of our thoughts and of our
acts.
The addiction to Internet
pornography among children and young people began to emerge some ago following
the introduction of the Internet. Children and young people learned quickly how
to use the computer, which was not the case for adults. Unfortunately, there is
still a great amount of cyber illiteracy among parents. They do not know what
their children are looking at. It is also true that in the beginning, children
and young people did not know what they were getting into. Of course, once
coming across porn on the Internet, there was an initial mistaken decision to go
on. However, this mistake quickly converted into a loss of freedom once the
addiction took hold.
Why has this addiction
overpowered children and teenagers? Especially, in cases of children and
teenagers who are emotionally normal and stable for their age, without serious
problems at school or without problems of family disintegration or social
instability.
The
main cause is due to the fact that they are victims of exposure to porn at an
age when sexual curiosity is natural. The earlier the exposure, the greater the
risk of addiction. Pornography is the commercial exploitation of a natural
curiosity. There are millions of porn sites on the Internet. Unlike pornographic
films or magazines, the Internet has no limits. It is accessible to everyone at
any time of the day or night. The material that can be seen can be easily
concealed in hidden files, with passwords, coded CDs, USB, and the history of
pages visited can be easily deleted. In many cases there is no control, and
filters can still be easily bypassed.
Children and young people can surf the Internet for
hours looking at porn without paying a single cent.
What they see is
a far cry from the goodness and beauty of sex. The most sublime and the lowest
aspects of human nature may be found in the expression of our sexuality.
The first
reaction from children coming across porn on the Internet is one of disgust and
rejection, which is closely taken over by curiosity and viewing. They then become
easy prey to addiction when they
accidentally come across pornography on the Internet.
Although it is true that
addiction to porn mostly affects males, with internet porn, there are now also
cases of girls becoming addicted.
In the analysis
of the causes among adults, it has been seen that addiction to pornography is
most prevalent in people with low self-esteem, who often experience emptiness in
their personal relationships. However, these are actually normal
characteristics during puberty and during the teenage years when children and
young people are searching for their identity, when they suffer from low
self-esteem, and they feel a certain emptiness in their personal relationships.
Pornography creates
addiction like any other drug. The sexual images create a chemical reaction in
the brain by releasing the hormone epinephrine into the bloodstream. This effect
also occurs when the same images are stored in the brain to be recalled later.
The symptoms of addiction may manifest themselves as depression, isolation, problems of concentration, mood changes, loss of hope and/or feelings or threats of suicide. There is also the fear of a loss of love from loved ones if they find out; therefore, it is difficult to ask for help. The child victim of addiction tends to act out what he has seen since it overwhelms his whole being. Suicidal tendencies are more prevalent the younger the child is. When the child feels the need to act out what he has seen, there is a greater danger of abuse with peers or children younger. Addiction in young people manifests itself with fantasies, masturbation and at times visits to brothels or ‘disguised’ spas. Addictive sexual behavior lacks intimacy. The sex addict is totally egocentric and cannot achieve intimacy because obsession with his own needs overrides the needs of others. Therefore, addiction leads to the search for intensity rather than intimacy: “…Bit by bit, addicts intensify their behavior going through moderate stages to others that go beyond what they could have imagined, including doing things that months or years before would have disgusted them.” The stages of addiction are: • First level: fantasy, pornography and masturbation. Fantasies and pornography are the fuel for masturbation and thus provide the small doses with which the addict begins. • Second level: real life pornography, fetishes, love affairs.
• Third level: minor sex crimes, prostitution, voyeurism and exhibitionism.
• Fourth level: serious sex crimes, sexual abuse of minors, incest, rape.
The panorama is
serious. If parents and society do not become aware of what children and young
people are suffering from as a result of this addiction, there may well be a
“tsunami” effect of personal, family and social disintegration, with an increase
in the rate of sexually related crime throughout all levels of society.
How can a harmonious
balance between the harm and the benefit of the Internet as a major source of
information and communication be achieved?
This is the
challenge that faces:
• Governments
• Private enterprise and industry
• Parents
• Interdisciplinary professionals with a family
perspective trained to provide therapy to child and teenage addicts.
Sex education in families
must teach young people to know and understand moral values as a necessary and
precious guarantee for personal and responsible growth in human sexuality, with
positive results for the family and society and in particular, the self
fulfillment of the individual person.
All education involves
personal effort. The correct use of sexuality cannot be achieved without an
inner struggle that sometimes has to be heroic, above all when faced with the
devalued notion of sexuality that is being offered to young people today.
Therefore, due to the
growing addiction to Internet pornography, the role of the family, of educators,
of society and governments in this area of online safety and child protection
has become vitally important.
The reestablishment of sexual health in many children
and young people will depend to a great extent on the endeavours undertaken by
this forum in the promotion of the individual, of the family, of society and of
nations, which will also have to be heroic.
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