Porn, the new crack cocaine

This was the view expressed, yesterday, by visiting psychotherapist Dr Mary-Anne Layden, in relation to the widespread use of pornography in the United States (US).

“Psychologists are saying that it is harder to get a pornography addict into remission than it is to get a heroin addict into remission and it is more likely that the pornography addict is going to relapse than the cocaine addict,” she stressed.

“Let me just say that when working with the cocaine addict or heroin addict or any other kind of addict, the first step in that treatment is to get that addictive substance out of the system, clean out the heroin, detox, how do you clean out the pornography? It is in your brain forever.” Layden was addressing the start of a two-day symposium titled Consider This: A National Conversation of Protecting Children From The Harmful Effects of Pornography, at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s.

The event, hosted by the Archdiocesan Family Life Commission, sought to develop a framework for addressing the problem of pornography use in this country.

It also featured presentations by Texas-based neurosurgeon Dr Donald Hilton, developmental and forensic paediatrician Dr Sharon Cooper, human rights activist Dawn Hawkins and clinical and community psychologist Dr Dianne Douglas.

The conference attracted teachers, social workers, civil society lobbyists, family life education practitioners and other stakeholders.

Saying that therapists in the US were finding it extremely difficult to treat persons with pornographic addiction, Layden noted that society had become increasingly “pornified” to the point where it is regarded as a public health crisis. “We have now decided and this is worldwide - that sex is a product and the body is a commodity,” she said.

“We are now involved in buying a selling these things - sex and the body. It is now a commodity for sale. If it is a product and you can sell it, then you can also steal it.

Director of Education at the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, Layden specialises in the treatment of sexual violence victims and perpetrators as well as sex addicts and those engaged in the sexual exploitation industry.

She observed that a large part of the problem of pornography use among children and teenagers had to do with the fact that it was free via the Internet.

“It is available everywhere and all the time,” Layden said, appealing for a united, frontal approach from all stakeholders - school, church, government - to combat the problem.

“It takes a broad range of individuals to address the problem of pornography,” she said.

So grave is the problems of child pornography, Layden said, paedophiles were using Internet libraries “that are not filtered,” to download porn.

“I had a paedophile say to me, ‘How bad can child pornography be if you can get it at the library.

If you can get it at the library, then it must be fine’.” Regarding girls and women, Layden said men were often aroused by violent images on the Internet.

“Sex is not about intimacy, caring, love and respect. None of that is happening in pornography,” she said, adding that it was very easy to get violence to be sexy.

Layden said research has shown that 25 percent of men between the ages of 19 and 25 in the US had either been with prostitutes or said they intended to.