Tuesday 31 December 2013

Answers About How Pornography Harms Child Development

By Saleem Rana


The Executive Director of Oxbow Academy, Sean Brooks talked to Lon Woodbury and Liz McGhee on the topic of how pornography harms child development on the L.A. Talk Show. Parent Choices for Struggling Teenagers is a weekly radio show sponsored by Father Flanagan's Boys Town. The host of the show, Lon Woodbury is an Independent Educational Expert in Idaho. His Co-Host Liz McGhee is the admissions supervisor for Sandhill Child Development Center in New Mexico. Sean talked about just how pornography has gotten much worse over the past thirty years and he said that adolescents are now being targeted as customers.

Sean Brooks

Sean Brooks is the Executive Director and Co-Owner of Oxbow Academy in Utah. This is a Residential Treatment Center (RTC) for adolescent teen males struggling with sex-related behavior concerns. He got a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Brigham Young University and started his professional growth in residential therapy in 1992. He has served as a program supervisor for 3 centers, 2 of which specialized in managing teen kids with sex-related issues.

Understanding Just How Pornography Hurts Child Development

The discussion began with an attempt to define pornography. Since it is a complex topic, Sean defined pornography as any media with explicit human sexuality focused on arousing the viewer. Lon added that it appealed to the base, crude, and primitive instincts of the viewer.

Liz asked how pornography had altered over the past 30 years. Sean described 3 fundamental changes. Initially, there were numerous barriers to getting accessibility to adult material for youth in the past; today an Internet connection made it easy to access all kinds of porn, regardless of how bizarre. Second, the variety of pornography was broader and there was no restriction to the amount offered. Third, there was more violence linked with pornography.

Pornography was very harmful for young children and young adults, Sean explained, because it was a dependency that morphed into a complete addiction. He explained that the human mind has 5 pleasure centers and while drug abuse enhanced three out of five of these centers, pornography stimulated them all. By boosting dopamine, a highly enjoyable endorphin, teenager's found pornography to provide an excellent tension-relieving and life-coping solution. Nonetheless, by avoiding all real-life issues, they failed to acquire emotional maturity and did not develop social skills. In addition, pornographic images altered values and interfered with meaningful relationships between couples.

Sean closed with invaluable tips for parents on the sorts of treatment readily available for this disorder. Although the pornography industry thrived on effective stealth procedures-- like privacy, shame, and anxiety-- father and mothers could still take practical steps to keep their children secure from porn's pernicious influence.




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