Pornography—Does it Hurt Anyone?

1 What is the difference between LUST and LOVE?

(write answers on large board in 2 categories)

Get the students to give various answers and then get them to consider the dictionary definitions:

• Lust: very strong sexual desire

• Love: an intense feeling of deep affection or a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone.

2 Is there a difference between LUST and ATTRACTION?

(between finding someone attractive, and lusting over someone)?  

Get the students to give various answers and then get them to consider the dictionary definitions. Get them to differentiate between attraction, love and lust. Love and attraction are about caring for the other person while lust is selfish, since it focuses on what you desire:

• Attraction: the action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something.

This is a nuanced question, so have this simply as an open-ended group discussion, no writing.

SHARE:

“One of the most significant influences that gets us confused about attraction, love, and lust in our world today is how the media regularly presents people in sexual ways, combined with the widespread use and influence of pornography. Sexual imagery and porn is something many of us have been exposed to, and most of us have an awareness that sexual images of people are all around us (television, internet, movies, advertisement, celebrities).”

3 What is pornography?

Get your students to discuss what pornography is. Is it just seeing someone naked? Or seeing people having intercourse? Get the students to realize that pornography involves images or words that are used to awaken sexual arousal. Porn is designed to entice us to lust.

The dictionary defines it this way: “Pornography is defined as printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.”

4 How much porn is available to the public? Why is it so easily found?

Get the students to brainstorm ways sexual images are made widely available, including internet, TV and even romance books. Get them to think about all the ways these resources reach people. Brainstorm with the students why porn is so readily available. Read some of the stats regarding the prevalence of pornography today. You can prepare a slide for each of the stats you use (a sample is provided):

Source: These statistics on pornography come from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).

Consumer stats from NCOSE that are hard to believe:

1. 64% of young people, ages 13–24, actively seek out pornography weekly or more often.

2. Teenage girls are significantly more likely to actively seek out porn than women 25 years old and above.

3. A study of 14 to 19-year-olds found that females who consumed pornographic videos were at a significantly greater likelihood of being victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault.

4. A Swedish study of 18-year-old males found that frequent consumers of pornography were significantly more likely to have sold and bought sex than other boys of the same age.

5. A 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies from seven countries found that internationally the consumption of pornography was significantly associated with increases in verbal and physical aggression, among males and females alike.

6. A recent UK survey found that 44% of males aged 11–16 who consumed pornography reported that online pornography gave them ideas about the type of sex they wanted to try.

7. Porn sites receive more regular traffic than Netflix, Amazon, & Twitter combined each month. (HuffPost)

8. 35% of all internet downloads are porn related. (WebRoot)

9. 34% of internet users have been exposed to unwanted porn via ads, pop-ups, etc. (WebRoot)

10. The “teen” porn category has topped porn site searches for the last six years (Pornhub Analytics).

11. At least 30% of all data transferred across the Internet is porn related. (HuffPost)

12. The most common female role stated in porn titles is that of women in their 20’s portraying teenagers. (Jon Millward.) (In 2013, Millward conducted the largest personal research study on the Porn Industry in the U.S. He interviewed 10,000 porn performers about various aspects of the business.)

13. Recorded child sexual exploitation (known as “child porn”) is one of the fastest-growing online businesses. (IWF)

14. 624,000+ child porn traders have been discovered online in the U.S.

15. Between 2005 and 2009, child porn was hosted on servers located in all 50 states. (Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection)

16. Porn is a global business worth an estimated $97 billion
    annually, about $12 billion of that coming from the U.S.  (NBC News)  

17. In 2018 alone, more than 5,517,000,000 hours of porn were consumed on the world’s largest porn site. (Ponhub Analytics)

18. Eleven pornography sites are among the world’s top 300 most popular Internet sites. The most popular such site, at number 18, outranks the likes of eBay, MSN, and Netflix. (SimilarWeb)

19. “Lesbian” was the most-searched-for porn term on the world’s largest free porn site in 2018. (Pornhub Analytics)

20. The world’s largest free porn site also received over 33,500,000,000 site visits during 2018 alone. (Pornhub Analytics)

You can read more here:

http://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/NCOSE_Pornography-PublicHealth_ResearchSummary_8-2_17_FINAL-with-logo.pdf

https://fightthenewdrug.org/10-porn-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind/

5 What legitimate desires/needs might people be seeking when looking at pornography?

Love, intimacy, excitement, beauty, creativity, physical exertion, acceptance, identity, worth, escape from pain, dealing with stress, etc.  Focus the discussion on previous statements on love and lust. Discuss the needs people are trying to meet. 

Consider the following animation. In what ways does it illustrate how people use pornography?

VIDEO: Print your guy
In this animation, a woman tries to buy her perfect man. She had a legitimate need for companionship but was trying to meet it in the wrong way. She learns that the robots she orders aren’t perfect at all. They were all an ideal form of what she wanted but once she saw them in person, they were no longer perfect. She also realized that only a real person could meet her needs. In the same way, discuss with the students how pornography is about trying to meet a legitimate need in the wrong way. Remind them that porn cannot show you a real person. It only reveals part of that person, like their body, but can never provide a real relationship. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mbUzEPr4iM

6 What is the problem with “objectifying” other people?”

When people use pornography, they turn people into objects. The part of the brain that is activated by porn is the part of the brain that deals with objects, not people. Remember, we talked about how sexual integrity means both acting on our beliefs and treating people as a whole person, both body and soul. When we treat people like objects, we are actually dehumanizing them and treating them as a non-person.

7 What are some other negative effects of porn?

A) Effects on the user:

VIDEO: The Science of Pornography Addiction
The following video explains many of the effects of pornography addiction. You can tell the students that this was not produced by Christians and shows how even non-Christians understand the negative results of porn use. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ya67aLaaCc

SHARE:

Some other negative effects 

According to sociologist Jill Manning, research indicates pornography consumption is associated with the following six effects:

1. Increased marital distress, and risk of separation and divorce 

2. Decreased marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction 

3. Infidelity 

4. Increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal or unsafe practices 

5. Devaluation of monogamy, marriage and child rearing 

6. An increasing number of people struggling with compulsive and addictive sexual behavior 

B) Effects on the participant:

Video: Porn Fuels Demand for Sex Trafficking—Truth about Porn
This video shows secular experts, including one woman was forced into doing pornography, talking about how pornography fuels sex trafficking. Discuss with the students how pornography affects the people who appear in the images that are consumed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiRgwJebdC8

C) Effects on our relationship with God:

As a group, read Matthew 5:27-30

Jesus spoke clearly about the way in which we look at, think about, and relate to people sexually.

8 What do you think Jesus meant when he spoke of “adultery of the heart” (ESV describes this as looking at someone with “lustful intent”)?  

Get the students to discuss how lust is an uncontrolled desire. It is not merely finding someone else attractive but it is about turning that person into an object to own. This is why adultery begins with lust. Attractions can lead to lust. If this is true, then in order to prevent sin, we need to deal with our attractions in a healthy way. For example, if you find yourself attracted to someone you shouldn’t be, such as someone else’s wife, you must not put yourself in situations where you will be encouraged to think about her.

By labeling lust as adultery, Jesus was showing how much God hates the act as sin. Remind the students that adultery is forbidden by the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14) and was a capital offense under the Mosaic law in the old Testament.

9 What practical advice could we apply in our lives today from Jesus’ strong words in Matt. 5:29-30?

Do all that you can to prevent the temptation to sin. For example, block certain internet sites. Don’t watch movies with strong sexual content. Don’t place yourself in situations where you will be tempted to give into sin.

VIDEO: This last video is the testimony of a former porn star, who discusses how she was a youth pastor before being raped and turning to porn. She explains what it’s like to have men use her body as an object. Take this opportunity to talk with your students about how people like Jessica are not objects and how porn use still enslaves people like her. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk23mL15qpA