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How common is porn addiction? And how much porn is an addiction? Pornography has a long and interesting history, having changed and evolved across centuries. Porn today enjoys a lucrative mass market. Enabled by film technologies like virtual reality, it can now appeal to sexual fantasies in ways that seem almost as real as they are artificial. For many consumers, the dopamine rush can become addictive.
This article takes a closer look at how many people are addicted to porn and what porn addiction looks like, starting with a definition of pornography.
What Is Pornography?
The definition of pornography continues to be highly subjective. To some, pornography is simply pictures or videos of naked men and women doing nothing but posing. Most people, however, consider pornography to be pictures or videos of people performing implied or explicit sexual acts. Consequently, when porn addiction is generally referred to, the definition typically involves someone who spends an abnormal amount of their free time watching sexually explicit videos on the internet.
The History of Pornography
Historians consider the ancient Romans and Greeks as the “founders” of what we now call pornography. Frescos and sculptures illustrating scenes involving sexual acts, group sex, and fellatio were exhibited on public buildings in Athens and Rome for anyone to view. Ancient Peruvians painted sexually explicit images on pottery. Japanese aristocracy during the Edo Period commissioned artists to make pornographic woodblock prints for them to display in their homes.
The Rise of the Porn Industry
When did “artistic” porn obtain a more derogatory connotation as “dirty” porn? You might blame Thomas Edison for relocating pornography from the art world into the world of motion pictures. Early pornographic films were called “stag” films and depicted women doing strip-tease dances, bathing, or just posing nude. By the 1950s, underground pornographic films had actors and actresses performing real sex acts in front of the camera.
The pornographic film industry exploded in the 1970s. Rated X drive-in theaters emerged in both urban and rural areas of the U.S. Films such as Deep Throat and Debbie Does Dallas made millions of dollars at the box office. In 1971, Midnight Cowboy became the first and only rated X movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year.
Thirty years later, In the early days of the Internet, free newsgroups such as “alt.sex” or “alt.lesbian” sites provided users with access to a massive amount of pornographic images. Around 2007, the most popular porn website launched under the name “Pornhub.” Today, Pornhub has an estimated 50 million registered users and over a billion pornographic videos uploaded for immediate viewing.
Stats on Pornography
- Porn is available on 12% of all websites.
- If a person visited one porn site per day, it would take 84 years for them to view all the porn websites on the internet.
- Up to 42% of women and 80% of men in the United States watched pornography within the last year.
- A study shows that 58% of Americans have viewed pornographic materials at least once, and around 27% have watched it in the last month.
- 1 in 3 Americans seek out porn.
- Roughly 11% of people in the United States watch porn daily.
- 84% of Americans believe watching child pornography should be illegal.
- The porn industry in the United States generated $1.15 billion in 2023, which is the same as the revenue of the NCAA.
- PornHub, a popular porn site, reported more than 100 million visits per day in 2023.
- The same website reported 2.14 billion visits during a single month, which is more than the combined visits to Netflix, TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram.
- PornHub is the fourth most-visited site among U.S. visitors, surpassed only by Google, Facebook and YouTube.
What Are the Symptoms of a Porn Addiction?
Pornography addiction and sex addiction aren’t listed as mental health disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-5). The American Psychiatric Association doesn’t recognize porn addiction as a mental illness either. Consequently, no conclusive criteria for diagnosing a person with porn addiction exists.
Some psychiatrists aren’t convinced that porn addiction is an actual “addiction.” Instead, they view it as more of an obsession with pornographic materials. A few neurological studies suggest that porn addiction may be related to the compulsive aspect of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
For instance, people with OCD can’t stop thinking about specific things, such as whether they turned the stove off or if knick-knacks on a shelf are evenly spaced apart. These thoughts cause severe anxiety that compels them to act on these thoughts by checking and rechecking whatever’s worrying them. Psychiatrists speculate that individuals addicted to porn may find watching porn is a compulsion that gets rid of obsessive, anxiety-ridden thoughts.
How Much Porn Is An Addiction?
Signs of a problematic porn addiction often involve:
- Watching porn on your tablet or phone in social or public situations where anyone can hear and see what you’re viewing
- Watching porn to the point that it disrupts your professional and/or personal life (staying up all night because you couldn’t stop watching porn and being late for work, or neglecting your spouse or children due to watching porn)
- Thinking constantly about being able to watch porn uninterrupted after work, late at night when everyone is asleep, etc.
- Trying repeatedly to cut back on watching porn but failing to do so
- Falling behind on bills because of spending too much money renting porn videos on the internet, buying porn videos or subscribing to live internet porn cams
How Many People Are Addicted to Porn? Pornography Addiction Statistics in the United States
Because pornography addiction isn’t a mental illness that’s included in the DSM-5, it can only be investigated via self-reporting surveys sent to internet users. In one study, participants were asked to report whether they felt addicted to pornography. Approximately 3% of women reported that they somewhat agreed, agreed, or strongly agreed, while 7% of men reported the same. This study underscores the problem of admitting that an addiction exists and recognizing the need for help.
Porn Addiction Therapy
When porn addiction dramatically interferes with your work, family, and social life, you may be using pornography to forget about unresolved psychological issues. Relationship problems, self-image insecurities, or symptoms of major depressive disorder can lead to a porn addiction. However, watching porn to deal with mental health issues and escape the real world only works to reinforce unrealistic sexual expectations regarding yourself or your partner. Excessive porn consumption can leave you feeling guilty, ashamed, and irrationally resentful toward your spouse or significant other.
Seek Help for Pornography Addiction at FHE Health
If you’re struggling with porn addiction, don’t be afraid to seek help. Contact FHE Health to speak with nonjudgmental, compassionate counselors and begin your road to a healthier life.
