Fr. Shenan J. Boquet: Protecting Families, Children and Society from a Pornographic Culture

Should underage children have access to unlimited, hardcore, high definition, streaming pornography?

You’d think that this is a question on which everybody agrees. But you would be wrong.

I have warned in recent years that the euphemism that refers to the porn industry as the “adult entertainment industry” is dangerously wrong. Study after study has revealed that children are not only being exposed to pornography at younger and younger ages, but that a shocking percentage of underage teens use pornography on a regular basis.

In one recent study in the UK, for instance, researchers spoke with 4,000 teens between the ages of 14 and 18. In theory, these children should have zero access to pornography, since it is illegal for porn providers to make pornography available to those under the age of 18. The reality, however, is very different.

Twenty-two percent of these underage teens told the researchers that they had viewed pornography on multiple occasions. One in five said that they had a porn “habit.” Worst of all, one in ten said that they were “addicted” to pornography. While this study found that the average age of first exposure to pornography was 12 years old, they also reported that almost a third of respondents had seen it before the age of 11, with the youngest being three years old. …

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