Pamela Paul

“I’m going to say something really strong. I’ve been walking around my practice saying, ‘We have an epidemic on our hands.’ The growth of pornography and its impact on young people is really, really dangerous. And the most dangerous part is that we don’t even realize what’s happening.

“I’m going to say something really strong. I’ve been walking around my practice saying, ‘We have an epidemic on our hands.’ The growth of pornography and its impact on young people is really, really dangerous. And the most dangerous part is that we don’t even realize what’s happening.

According to Coché, the effects of such ever-present pornography on kids who are still developing sexually—or who haven’t even reached puberty—have yet to be fully understood.

“Pornography is so often tied into video game culture and insinuates itself even into nonpornographic areas of the Web. It’s very hard for a twelve-year-old boy to avoid.” As a result, boys are learning to sexually cue to a computer rather than to human beings.

For teenagers, pornography is just another online activity; there is little barrier to entry and almost no sense of taboo. Instead, pornography has become a natural rite and acceptable pastime.

One teenage boy in Boston explained recently to the New York Times, “Who needs the hassle of dating when I’ve got online porn?”

For teenagers, pornography is just another online activity; there is little barrier to entry and almost no sense of taboo. Instead, pornography has become a natural rite and acceptable pastime. One teenage boy in Boston explained recently to the New York Times, “Who needs the hassle of dating when I’ve got online porn?”

Pornography is integrated into teenage pop culture; video game culture, for example, exalts the pornographic.

With no one telling them it’s wrong or inappropriate, it’s no wonder kids have become audacious in their consumption of pornography.

By the time boys get to college, pornography is more than accepted—it’s exalted.