Read UFI's Latest Book: 'Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography'

Since the arrival of the Internet, cell phones and the DVD and video industries, pornography has become the most pervasive and immediate threat to marriages and families, adults and children. Addiction and divorce are the most recognizable social costs of pornography, but the costs run much deeper. United Families International’s “Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography” examines what is perhaps the most insidious threat to individuals and families around the globe today.

History and research reveal the many harms of pornography:

• Pornography seeks out people from all walks of life, then poisons and corrupts them. The allure of substantial profits seduces corporations, hotel chains, cable television companies and Internet entrepreneurs – without concern for the well-being of families.
• Pornography has the propensity to deaden husbands’ attraction for their wives. The result is often heartache, alienation and divorce.
• Pornography is a perpetrator of family breakdown.
• Pornography demeans its participants. It is a form of prostitution, and porn subjects are frequently the victims of molestation, rape, coercion and blackmail.
• Pornography corrupts children and robs them of their innocence. Children have been raped and murdered by the producers of pornography.
• Organized crime is heavily involved in pornography, and crime rates are much higher in the neighborhoods where pornography is available.
• Pornography takes billions of dollars out of economies that could be much better spent on the needs of families.
• Pornography is not a benign phenomenon; it leaves a clearly discernible trail of victims.
  The scenes of sex crimes and the homes of those committing sex crimes are frequently littered with pornography. Pornography creates callous attitudes toward rape and causes users to develop distorted perceptions about sexuality.
• Pornography acts as a harmful “drug.” Physiologically, viewing pornography commonly triggers internal, endogenous drug production. An image in a person’s head acts as an electrical signal for no more than a few seconds can leave a trace that will last for years.
• Pornography distorts a healthy understanding of human sexuality.
• Pornography is pervasive, and no one is beyond its reach. One does not have to look for pornography; it will find you.
• Driven by greed and a disregard for families and consumers, businesses continually seek to expand pornography’s reach by creating new markets.
• Pornography contributes to the rising tide of sex trafficking.

The preponderance of social science research demonstrates how pornography harms men, women, children, families and marriages and poisons homes, work places, governments, communities and corrupts the mass media culture.

Read UFI's "Guide to Family Issues: The Harms of Pornography" online.