Ah, the quote I’ve always wanted to see: “It’s not your father’s porn.”
Several comments come to mind, all of which my mind forces me to censor, since for the life of me I can’t recall if my parents read this journal or not. So instead I’ll mention a paper I wrote many years ago, back when the internet was a much smaller entity, about addiction and new technology. At the time I didn’t buy the idea of “internet addiction disorder”, and I wrote against it, using arguments similar to what people have, and continue to use, about pornography addiction. These days, my resoluteness against the idea of internet addiction disorder has faded, and although I wouldn’t DSM-IV any time soon, I do wonder if there is more validity to it as more folks have access. Thus, my thoughts about pornography addiction seem to need to at least waiver, too.
Access is an interesting issue, and something that came up a lot in discussion last quarter in my philosophy class. Would people think of things like body dysmorphic disorder, where they want to have a limb surgically removed, if they hadn’t encountered the idea in online support sites? Similar arguments are being made about pro-ana websites. The internet does more than allow people who are geographically dispersed to connect, it introduces ideas to people who’ve never had them.
Perhaps more access to the internet, more access to porn, is allowing folks with addictive tendancies to become addicted there, rather than elsewhere?