My House - Diocesan Anti-Pornography Initiative

How Pornography Hurts You

Some people say that there is nothing wrong with pornography. After all, they argue, it is just a little harmless adult fun. And nobody really gets hurt by it, right?

Wrong. Pornography hurts everybody.

• It hurts individuals who spend time and money they can’t afford in pursuit of thrills that never really satisfy the heart;
• It hurts marriages when spouses feel alienated from those they love the most;
• It hurts children when their parents can’t set a good moral example for them;
• It hurts the thousands of people, mostly women, involved in the sex industry, many of whom have been the victims of sexual exploitation and crime from a very young age
• It hurts society when it erodes our standards of decency and respect for other human beings.

Pornography hurts you.

• Spiritually because pornography perverts the God given desire for intimacy and union, and turns it into something that makes this intimacy and union impossible;
• Mentally because pornography teaches an exploitive view of sex that creates unrealistic expectations;
• Emotionally because pornography desensitizes and isolates you;
• Physically it can hurt you because it can lead to sexual addiction and other compulsive, destructive behaviors.

Images affect behavior; otherwise companies would not spend billions to advertise their brands. The brand of sex that pornography promotes is a behavioral attitude that is abusive and self destructive.