I recently read George Orwell’s “1984” for the first time. Among the many ways he envisions political oppression by “Big Brother,” one surprised me: The widespread distribution of state-produced pornography to distract the poor masses.
When the protagonist Winston Smith asks his partner Julia what the explicit books are like, she replies, “Ghastly rubbish. They’re boring, really.”
Never mind the need for Big Brother. Today, Western society produces and consumes a staggering amount of pornography. Consider that one of the top pornography websites logs over 100 million visits per day, according to its own reporting.
Statistics vary, but surveys show that over half of all U.S. men and 20% of women report viewing porn at least monthly.
Porn is a really big business too, although precise figures are hard to verify because most porn companies are private. One company that discloses its finances, OnlyFans, reported in 2024 that users spent just over $7 billion on the platform with company profit margins of nearly 50%, higher than many of the world’s most successful technology companies.
So, is porn just innocent entertainment? Protected free speech? An empowering side hustle for women on sites like OnlyFans?
A close look at the evidence reveals a host of harms associated with porn, beyond the obvious concerns of child pornography and the trafficking and entrapment of women.
For instance, the medical community recognizes the dangers associated with pornography addiction, or “problematic porn use” (PPU). The scientific evidence demonstrates strong associations between PPU and a wide range of harms, including depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, lower relationship satisfaction, unsafe sex practices and substance use.
Furthermore, PPU shows all the hallmarks of substance addiction even though “pornography addiction” is not a formal diagnosis. Compulsive porn consumers report the need for increased frequency of use and higher doses (i.e., more extreme images) to achieve the same effect.
Skeptical of the medical community? Consider these celebrity perspectives on pornography:
Singer Billie Eilish says she first encountered porn at age 11 and reflects, “I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.”
Former NFL player and actor Terry Crews said: “Pornography . . . really, really messed up my life. People become . . . things to be used rather than people to be loved.”
Doubt Hollywood? Listen to the voices of the remote past:
Thousands of years ago, the Ten Commandments instructed us to not commit adultery, and who can doubt that wisdom? Jesus called his followers to an even higher standard. “You have heard that it was said ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28 NIV)
Ouch.
As an addiction medicine physician, I am encouraged to see billions of dollars spent on efforts to help opioid users recover. But as a father and husband (and man subject to common temptations), I am dismayed to see a multibillion-dollar pornography industry investing heavily to expand its reach and increase its profits. Where is the money to help pornography addicts recover? Or better, where is the cultural willpower to reduce the harm of pornography?
The irony in “1984” is that pornography is produced by The Ministry of Truth. But porn of course is a lie, with impossibly perfect bodies that are always available, creating unrealistic expectations for what real relationships are like. Even more worrisome, porn normalizes force and violence in sexual encounters.
The developing brains of teenagers are especially vulnerable to these distortions. Given that the average age of first exposure is 13, I applaud Ohio House Bill 84 (“The Innocence Act”) that seeks to protect minors from encountering obscene material. (Ohio’s current law, ORC 1349.10, has a loophole allowing almost all porn sites to circumvent it.)
To date, about two dozen other states have enacted such laws, and the Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of such laws in Free Speech Coalition, Inc v. Paxton.
We just celebrated 250 years of independence, and because of our incredible freedoms, we in America experience little of the political tyranny Orwell satirizes in his dystopian novel. Instead, our liberty allows us to choose our own oppression. For many, the freedom to consume porn paradoxically leads to enslavement.
Like we do with alcohol, tobacco and guns, let’s limit access to porn for our most vulnerable Ohioans. Join me in calling on the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee to advance House Bill 84 into the Senate for a vote.
And let’s normalize the conversation around pornography and its harms. As my friends in A.A. say, “You’re only as sick as your secrets.”
To learn more, go to https://fightthenewdrug.org
Dr. Kolb is an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at NEOMED and the author of the Beacon Journal’s monthly Beyond the White Coat series. He lives in Kent and can be reached at drjasonkolb@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Harms of porn are numerous. Why can kids in Ohio watch it? | Opinion
Reporting by Dr. Jason Kolb, Special to the Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Dr. Jason Kolb, Special to the Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
