That study, written by Dr. John Foubert, an expert on sexual assault prevention at Oklahoma State University, found that "95 percent of the time when someone is violent with another person in porn, usually a man toward a woman, the recipient is shown as either liking that violence or having no objection."
"Think about how an 11-year-old boy, or girl, would interpret what they see. Pornography teaches boys to hit girls, and shows girls that they should like it," Foubert's paper added.
McAneney told CNA that for individuals, "pornography can affect sexual tastes. It can impact what an individual thinks is desirable in terms of dominance or aggression."
Nearly 40 percent of youth participating in a 2014 survey in the Indian state of Goa reported watching "rape porn" regularly. Conducted by the organization Rescue, the survey also found that 76 percent of those who watched "rape porn" admitted it increased their desire to commit sexual assualt, according to the Times of India.
"Pornography is more accessible, available, accepted, and anonymous than ever before so everybody has fairly easy access to it. If not at their fingertips, via smartphone, parents can put filters on devices, they can filter the internet, but chances are that young people are going to see this content at some point," McAneney said
Fight The New Drug reported that in 2017 Pornhub received 28.5 billion visits and 81 million average visits per day.
In an interview with CNA, Hawkins said that any outright ban of pornography is a difficult task. Because of the widespread availability of technology, she said pornography is easily accessed and bans are easily averted. However, she said the Indian government's stance is still an important gesture.
"Pornography is such a prevalent part of our internet and what people are viewing on the internet," she said. "I think they will have a hard time in blocking it, but it's very helpful to have at a government level these controls saying these materials should be blocked by at least from children and on certain platforms."
Correction: This story originally reported that a study on the frequency that sexual violence appeared in pornography took place in 2017. In fact, that study took place in 2010.
Perry West is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency. He graduated from Franciscan University with his bachelor's in English. Prior to his job at CNA, he worked in construction staffing and coffee.