According to the study, a survey of divorce lawyers found that 68 percent of divorce cases involved one party meeting a new paramour over the internet while 56 percent involved one party having an “obsessive interest” in pornographic websites.
Pornography encourages greater sexual permissiveness, leading to a greater risk of out-of-wedlock births and sexually transmitted diseases, the study says. Severe clinical depression was also reported twice as frequently among internet pornography users compared to non-users.
Pornography on the internet also has major affects on adolescents. A reported 70 percent of youth aged 15-17 have come across pornography accidentally while online. The youth did not disclose such incidents to anyone almost half the time. Those who accidentally encountered such images were more than 2.5 times more likely to intentionally seek it out than those never exposed.
While adolescents initially experience shame, embarrassment and disgust at pornography, these feelings recede with repeated exposure.
Teens are more likely to view pornography if they have high levels of computer use, fast internet connections, personal dissatisfaction, younger friends or a sensation-seeking personality.
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Adolescents who watch the most explicit sexual content available on television doubled the likelihood that they would initiate sexual intercourse, an action with long-lasting consequences. Studies indicate that marital stability in later life decreases as the number of pre-marital sexual partners increases.
Dr. Fagan discussed the study in an FRC statement announcing its release.
“This is a ground-breaking review of what pornography costs families trying to create a life together. Men, women and sometimes even children are saturated by sexual content, and more significantly, are told that it has no real effect. It's just a little amusement,” Fagan said.