The values of a society are made clear not only by what it celebrates, but also by what it tolerates. Americans have a proud history of instituting protections to shield the rising generation from harmful substances. In the 80’s, we created the D.A.R.E program to try to keep hard drugs out of schools, earning the famous title of “war on drugs”. [1] Even as a child who grew up in the early 2000’s, I distinctly remember being educated about the harms of drugs thanks to programs like D.A.R.E in my kindergarten classroom in Detroit, Michigan.
Despite this history of striving to protect children, for far too long, Americans and our government have tolerated the practically unfettered reign and proliferation of the porn industry. Often dismissed from mainstream conversations due to its image as a matter of personal concern, it has instead become a deeply influential public force – one that commodifies the human body, erodes cultural understanding of dignity and human worth, and is too easily accessible by our society’s young and developing minds. It is time to declare yet another war, not on any nation or people, but rather the porn industry itself.
The failure by many government leaders to excise this mass has brought us to today, where the online adult entertainment industry saw over seven billion dollars in growth between 2023 and 2024, and is expected to top over $118 billion in annual revenue by 2030 [2].
A nation that proudly claims to protect the vulnerable and value families cannot, in good conscience, continue to ignore an industry whose influence has been so far-reaching and destructive. Pornography is not simply a “private matter”; it is a public problem, and one that, if we fail to place real and effective restrictions on, will lead to the further degradation of our society.
The biggest question many pose is why? Why is the porn industry bad? Is it not a freedom that consenting adults should be able to enjoy? In part due to the limited dialogue around the topic, people are not naturally aware of the dangers of porn as much as they are of things like alcohol or hard drugs.
Unfortunately, porn has higher consumption rates of either of those things while still having just as impactful effects, with nearly 85% of university-aged American males surveyed reporting consuming it at least once a week. [3] The long-term mental health effects are also dire. A study found that when surveying various university students, “17.0, 20.4, and 13.5% of students reported severe or extremely severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively, with compulsive pornography use significantly affecting all three mental health parameters in both sexes” [3].
Deeper than just mental health, pornography corrupts the vision of society that we all hope for. Happy families, healthy communication, more equality and partnership with friends and neighbors. Unfortunately, pornography consumption has been significantly linked to less egalitarian attitudes toward women and more hostile sexism [4]. A meta-analysis of twenty-two studies focused on pornography and their effects found that porn consumption is linked to acts of sexual aggression (r = .28), including both instances of verbal (r = .3) and physical (r = .2). [9] Porn is damaging, not healing, the relationships that our youth are experiencing. Left unchecked, I see a future where society’s young men and women will avoid each other out of fear and a lack of skill in communication.
Now we must evaluate potential solutions. States like Utah and Louisiana have put in place age-verification checks for adult content sites. [5] Refusing to comply with such measures, some of the largest distributors of adult content have pulled their services from these states. Let me be abundantly clear, this is a victory for children’s protections. Companies that refuse to invest in basic and essential protections to keep minors off their platforms do not deserve the right to operate as a legal entity. In other instances, states have tightened restrictions on content being shown to minors at all. Not just stopping at actual adult content platforms, but ensuring that advertisements, video games, and normal websites won’t be sexualized and commercialized to students. CIPA, a program that offers cheaper internet to school districts, requires that they have measures in place to block and filter out any content that might be described as “obscene”. [8]
Currently, the US court system has fought to bring other sources of addiction to some form of reconciliation. A court held hearings on Meta’s role in designing an effectively addictive model of their social media platforms to hook youth. [6] [7] I am not here to argue whether porn or social media is worse, but I want to point out that if we are genuinely concerned about protecting the youth of America, we need to invest in creating systems that shield them from developing harmful addictions. Just as I once sat in a kindergarten class in Detroit, Michigan, young students can be benefitted through education and guidance on how to avoid addictive behaviors.
The values of a society are made clear not only by what it celebrates, but also by what it tolerates. I choose to believe that America still values protecting our youth.