One of the most high-risk habits lurking on the rise is consuming pornography. Biologically wired adolescent brains are triggered emotionally, socially, and physiologically.
There is a correlation between exposure to pornographic content and issues that are not just limited to lack of concentration, lack of motivation and self-confidence, anxiety and depression, erectile dysfunction, and negative perceptions about self in terms of physical appearance and sexual functioning. Domestic violence may also be an effect of pornographic exposure. Adolescent minds are easy to mold, and as elders, we must help them navigate the enormous amount of content on the internet to find the right thing to consume.
Why is pornography sometimes the cause of domestic violence?
At first sight, pornography and domestic violence may not seem to be interlinked. However, most research suggests that domestic violence results from conditioned aggression. Various subconscious factors and interrelated variables highly influence human behavior[1].
Exposure to pornography is more often than not associated with perpetuating sexual aggression. The majority of pornographic content features forms of verbal or physical act of aggression that is pleasurable for both the victim and perpetrator. It leads to small actions that could result in domestic violence and aggression towards women.
What are the roles pornography plays in domestic violence?
1. Pornography tends to desensitize men towards women.
2. They start seeing women as sex objects and learn to perceive sex, or pleasure, as a one-way transaction or engagement.
3. As a result, men forget to feel empathy toward women.
4. Pornography is also known to normalize sexual aggression, which puts women at risk of suffering from unconsented attacks when engaged in a sexual act.
What are the consequences when pornography is the cause of domestic violence?
One of the significant outcomes of viewing pornographic material is ‘sexual scripting.’ It means that it acts as a template imitated by the viewers. Adolescents emulate and learn from the pornographic material available around them. They fail to understand that ‘porn-like sex’ is not the same as ‘real sex’.
What is the impact on mental health when pornography is the cause of domestic violence?
Pornography sends out wrong signals to adolescents, who misconstrue the meanings of the actions.
In scenes with aggressive and repressive sex, pornography shows women asking for and enjoying it. It trains adolescent minds to read and misinterpret sexual behavior.
Pornography also indicates that women find pleasure only in specific acts, which may not be accurate in real scenarios. Thus, girls tend to become the primary victims of furious incidents, where boys think the girls enjoy the repression and the aggression from the boy’s end.
How to avoid this domestic violence related to pornography?
Social control plays a significant role in curbing pornography and domestic violence issues. 1. Due to social conditioning, most men believe that they can establish their masculinity when they achieve a sense of supremacy over women. It applies to sexual dominance as well.
Similarly, most women think they must be submissive to men due to the same conditioning. From what is taught at home and in schools, the social authority can significantly impact.
Parents, teachers, and society must keep tabs on adolescents. At times in situations where domestic violence is in progress, others do not come forward to intervene, stop, or prevent it.
How prevalent domestic violence is in a particular space depends on the members who make up that community.
Pornography and domestic violence are massive social disturbances. However, curbing them is difficult entirely. We can always try to implement responsible measures to curb such cases by monitoring the kind of content that triggers to expose adolescents.
We could ensure that we update our technology to censor certain types of aggressive pornographic content for teenagers. We can also ask school authorities to help implement sex education in schools for adolescents. It will help them know their bodies better, teaching them the difference between abuse and affection.
We could stress better law enforcement to help prevent domestic violence. If the law allows for more rigorous punishment for domestic violence, it will help instill fear around the consequences of committing such acts.
As responsible adults, we can help adolescents with sex education knowledge at home. It will help them learn more about their bodies and the difference between being aggressive and indulging in acts of violence. This kind of education can also help instill the correct moral values from a young age, deterring them from falling into the vortex of abusive pornography and, eventually, domestic violence. Sex education given right from the early years helps adolescents understand the idea of content around sex.
Parents and teachers must be good role models. Children and adolescents often pick up on what they hear and see.
Even if adults witness an act of domestic violence around them, they must intervene and try to stop it. If that is not possible, they must call the local law enforcement personnel to take charge of the situation. It will save the victim from grave danger and deter the perpetrator from committing such acts again.
If adolescents come to witness such an act of violence in front of them, we must train them to call for help immediately. Being afraid in a situation like this is obvious, but we must instruct them beforehand to keep courage in this situation.
Conclusion
In today’s era of technology and media that come with unrestricted access, it is easy for adolescents to go astray with the kind of content they can access. It is essential to expose them to the correct type of content so that they don’t become victims of pornographic abuse or perpetrators of domestic violence.
Social authority plays a vital role in shaping a person’s adolescence. Social intervention is also equally crucial if such instances occur, such as domestic violence. The interference of society is sometimes enough to deter the perpetrator’s actions of domestic violence. Parents and teachers must be more involved in the lives of adolescents rather than simply controlling or parenting them. Their surrounding environment can impact their minds, so they must be exposed to the right kind of content.
At United We Care, our mental health professionals take special care to guide these adolescents through any kind of brutal encounter with life and help them sail smoothly into adulthood.
A. Cunningham, P. G. Jaffe, L. Baker, and S. Malla, “Theory-derived explanations of male violence against female partners: Literature update and related…,” ResearchGate, 1998. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238580284_Theory-derived_explanations_of_male_violence_against_female_partners_Literature_update_and_related_implications_for_treatment_and_evaluation (accessed Jul. 23, 2022).
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