Interesting Debate: Would you prefer your young teen be sexually active or be addicted to porn? (diabetes, wife)
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I know that the addictiveness of pornography has been compared to the addictiveness of junk food before ("Do you forbid your teenager to eat chocolate?"), and it got me to the dangerous pasttime of thinking. And if I may just confuse all of you for a split second, I think I have a response to that sort of argument.
It isn't that pornography is more addictive, just that people are more likely to become addicted to it.
What I mean is that, especially in regard to young teenagers, it's easier for someone to get addicted because of a privacy factor. Most people who watch pornography (especially if they're going to masturbate to it, which I believe to be the majority of young teenage males who watch it) do so behind closed doors and it isn't exactly announced to one's parents that this is what they're going to be doing. Not the case with junk food. Even if a teenager eats most of his/her junk food in their room, parents can usually figure out about how much of it they're eating. And it's this factor that makes a true addiction to junk food or caffeine less likely than a pornography addiction, even when it comes to the most observant parents. If they have internet access in their room, you have no way of knowing how frequently they watch pornography. And it isn't exactly a symptom of not having a close relationship with your parents that you don't tell them about your pornography use! Even if it's something they fully and openly approve of you doing, it's just not a matter you discuss with mom and dad, yes?
So I think that even if we were to assume pornography addiction and junk food addiction were otherwise comparable (a debatable assumption to begin with), I'd still consider pornography more of a risk along these lines than junk food or caffeine for this reason.
And you can back that up with several peer reviewed studies on the subject can you? I have more contact with teens than most people as nature of volunteering, and groups i am in. And i have not seem the proliferation of porn addiction that seems to being thrown around in this thread. Also if a parents doesn't want their child watching porn they simply put a block on the computer, set up a cell phone monitoring service, and put the computer in a public place, along with the threat of loss if they look up sites they don't want.
And you can back that up with several peer reviewed studies on the subject can you?
I did not present this as a factual claim. I suggested it as part of a discussion, for those of us who know that pornography can be at least as addicting as junk food. But I do think it takes a special sort of disingenuity to deny that use of something in private (absent any real system of moderation) makes it easier for an addiction to develop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucidkitty
I have more contact with teens than most people as nature of volunteering, and groups i am in. And i have not seem the proliferation of porn addiction that seems to being thrown around in this thread.
Darn it, I left my anecdotal evidence in the car. Guess you win this one
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucidkitty
Also if a parents doesn't want their child watching porn they simply put a block on the computer, set up a cell phone monitoring service, and put the computer in a public place, along with the threat of loss if they look up sites they don't want.
I didn't comment on whether it'd be challenging to keep a kid from watching pornography, but on keeping them from getting addicted to it once viewing it has been approved (which would have to mean they have their own private internet access, unless you think a great many parents out there would want their sons masturbating in the living room?).
I did not present this as a factual claim. I suggested it as part of a discussion, for those of us who know that pornography can be at least as addicting as junk food. But I do think it takes a special sort of disingenuity to deny that use of something in private (absent any real system of moderation) makes it easier for an addiction to develop.
Talking to you is disheartening since sooner or later you through out a name calling or some other mean logical fallacy. But I will try.
Some of us don't believe in controlling our children. WE don't control their failure to become addicted to twinkies, THEY do. At age appropriate times.
I didn't comment on whether it'd be challenging to keep a kid from watching pornography, but on keeping them from getting addicted to it once viewing it has been approved (which would have to mean they have their own private internet access, unless you think a great many parents out there would want their sons masturbating in the living room?).
They will become Addicted to something then regardless. What would you rather they be addicted to? Porn or Drugs? Addiction is something you are born with, which is why it's very easy for most people to divorce themselves from things.
And you can back that up with several peer reviewed studies on the subject can you? I have more contact with teens than most people as nature of volunteering, and groups i am in. And i have not seem the proliferation of porn addiction that seems to being thrown around in this thread. Also if a parents doesn't want their child watching porn they simply put a block on the computer, set up a cell phone monitoring service, and put the computer in a public place, along with the threat of loss if they look up sites they don't want.
Would it be a stretch to say that most people don't watch porn when they are around people who volunteer. Nobody can "see" a porn addict.
Why would you say that? The vast majority of people are not addicted to anything.
I agree, but lets remember that high speed internet is a relatively new thing..so that could be changing..
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