This, in effect, creates "a cultural and ideological revolution driven by relativism, and secondarily a juridical revolution, since such beliefs claim specific rights for the individual and across society."
Walt Heyer, a "detransitioner" and founder of SexChangeRegret.com, said he's received inquiries from people anywhere from several days after their gender-transition surgery to 32 years after surgery, expressing their regret and asking him for help. "People today in the hundreds, in the thousands, regret having been caught up in this madness," he said.
Children are also threatened by the increasing availability-and graphic nature-of pornography, said Haley Halverson of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE).
"It is no longer a question of if children will be exposed to pornography; it is a question of when," Halverson said on Wednesday. Children may either first be exposed through their friends, through using Google for school projects, or even playing age-appropriate video games, she said.
While "not everyone who is exposed has the same response," she said, "for many, repeat exposure leads to a myriad of harms on adolescent development, relationships, and even sexual function." There have been 40 peer-reviewed studies since 2011 revealing that porn harms a child's brain structure and development, she said.
The violent nature of pornography also teaches impressionable young minds "that 'no' means 'yes,' and that violence is sexy," Halverson said. Children also feel the need to "act out" the media they have received, and there is a "rising crisis of children who are sexually abusing other children."
The NCSE has authored resolutions that have passed in 15 states calling pornography a public health crisis. In 2016, the Republican National Committee platform adopted at the convention also called pornography a "public health crisis."
There is also a new push in the U.S. to normalize and decriminalize sex trafficking, panel experts warned.
Decriminalization would include the exploiters of women, Halverson said, pimps, sex traffickers and buyers, and "would lead to an exponential boom" in commercial sexual exploitation.
Natasha Chart, a board member of the Women's Liberation Front, described how she was almost caught up in the sex trade at 17 years old, and added that young women are vulnerable to being ensnared in an exploitative industry-but if they are desensitized to abusive sex through violent pornography, they may not have the awareness to say no.
"Are they going to have that fear if they've been watching violent porn since 2011?" she asked.
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Yet some progressive non-profits have been working to normalize commercial sexual exploitation. One media guide that Chart referenced recommends usage of the terms "involved in the sex trade" or "trading sex" or "sex worker."
People are now saying it's "feminism to whitewash the commercial sexual exploitation of children," she said.
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.