Internet pornography and the cultivation of violence against women

Question 1

What is the economic value of the industry?

Answer 1

97 billion dollar industry, 12 billion coming from the US

Question 2

Porn sites received more website traffic in the US than

Answer 2

Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Pinterest and Linked-in combined

Question 3

How many centuries of porn has been consumed on pornhub in 2019

Answer 3

6650 centuries of porn

Question 4

What is MindGeek?

Answer 4

MindGeek is the parent company of PH, and also own advertising service entity ‘trafficjunky’ who had 4.6 billion daily ad impressions

Question 5

Why was pornhub banned?

Answer 5

Blocking service provision in some US states due to age restrictions

insta banned ph in sept 2022 due to child exploitation material

Question 6

What started this passion for porn?

Answer 6

Technological developments in the 80s?

1. Video graphics array (digital photographic images to be rendered on computers)
2. Hard drives (storage of personal files)
3. Computers were networked (distribute porn)

Question 7

The Triple A engine (Cooper 1988) that increased porn use

Answer 7

Accessibility (millions of sites available 24/7)
Affordability (competition keeps prices low or free)
Anonymity (people perceive their communications to be anonymous)

Question 8

What were the worldwide traffic changes like?

Answer 8

Big spike at the declaration of a pandemic.
Searches for Corona Virus on pornhub first appeared Jan 25th and continued to rise with a peak increase of 24.4% on March when they offered free Premium access in multiple countries.

Question 9

What happened when ph offered premium free?

Answer 9

Increase in porn use was observed (only 1 day after free premium access) with substantial increases in Italy (57%), France (38%) and Spain (61%)

Question 10

What did Wang (2020) find out about covid and lockdown

Answer 10

Increase in social isolation, loneliness and stress

Question 11

What did Mestre-Bach et al 2020 find out about people wht existing porn use

Answer 11

People with problematic porn use may also relapse to porn use - feeling powerless, hopeless and disconnected from support programs.

Question 12

How was widespread coronavirus correlated with porn searches?

Answer 12

Sharp increase in porn searches was seen in nations where corona was widespread (Zatoni 2020)

Question 13

What were the high use of porn associations found?

Answer 13

Sexual arousal and enhancement, links with coping, emotional avoidance and boredom.

Question 14

How many heterosexual porn encounters involve condom use - as found by Gormon 2010

Answer 14

only 2-3% of heterosexual porn accounters

Question 15

What is it a public health concern?

Answer 15

Sexual socialization of young people by influencing their understanding of what sexual behaviours are normative, acceptable and rewarding (when they are often depicting behaviours many adults do not see as enjoyable, and are often high risk)

Question 16

How does porn affect sexual development (Peter and Valkenburg)

Answer 16

Positive correlation between perceived realism of internet porn and degree of influence on an individual’s sexual development.

Question 17

How did porn consumption of heterosexual men affect desire to engage in… (Wright 2014)

Answer 17

Interest and frequency of consumption of IP was associated with men’s desire to engage in, of have engaged in behaviours such as hair pulling, slapping, choking and verbal use.

Question 18

How does consumption of IP influence the sexual objectification of women:

Answer 18

• instrumentalisation or division of a woman’s body, body parts or sexual functions from personhood (Fredrickson and Roberts)
• prioritising female genitalia in IP, often in exclusion of female actor’s face (Fritz and Paul 2017)
• ip depicts women as entities whose primary function is male sexual gratification
• men depicted as socially powerful and physically violent = reinforces assumptions about gendered sexual behaviour (fredrickson and Roberts)

Question 19

What is the link between IP and violence against women –> and outline the meta-analysis from Wright, Tokunga and Kraus 2015)

Answer 19

• IP normalises sex acts that most women do not enjoy (can be degrading, painful or violating)

Meta-analysis gathering data from 22 studies across 7 countries:
- consumption of IP associated with sexual aggression among both males and females (in both cross sectional and longitudinal studies)
- stronger for verbal than physical sexual aggression

Question 20

What are the theoretical underpinnings of media violence link?

Answer 20

Cognitive: Priming Theory (berkowtiz) - where violent media activates / primes other aggressive thoughts (greater willingness to use violence in interpersonal situations)

Social Learning theory: young children imitating any specific behaviours they see, including aggressive acts in media (Bandura)

Social learning and Behaviour: Connection between observation and behaviour acquired through 3 social cognitive structures
–> schemas about a hostile world
–> script for solving social problem that focus on aggression
–> normative beliefs that aggression is acceptable

Question 21

Outline the General Aggression Model (Bushman and Anderson)

Answer 21

• factors in immediate situation (being insulted) combine with individual factors (beliefs about using aggression to solve problems)
• combine to produce internal set of aggression related affect, cognition and arousal
• leads to appraisal and decision process of either taking thoughtful or impulsive action

Question 22

Short term increases in aggressive behaviour following repeated violent media exposure due to

Answer 22

priming
mimicking
arousal changes

Question 23

long term increases in aggressive behaviour following repeated violent media exposure due to

Answer 23

observational learning
desensitisation of emotional processes (i.e. the more violent porn people are watching, the more they have to ‘up the ante’ to get the same arousal)

Question 24

What is the gender schema theory?

Answer 24

How children acquire sex-defined characteristics
- through understanding of socially dominant definitions of male and female roles
- physical maturing and socio cultural context defines how to evaluate and handle these changes and prompts development of social and sexual selves to be congruent with socially prevailing gender roles

Question 25

Sexual script theory? (learning and behaviour)

Answer 25

3 components to understanding media effects on behaviour: acquisition of behavioural scripts, their activation and application

Acquisition effect: when an observer learns a new behavioural script not previously aware (IP offers opportunities to acquire new sexual scripts about female desire, aggression and malleability of consent)

Activation: of script when media exposure provides a cue for retrieval (activation can occur with stimuli other than the original media source of the script, such as arousal)

Question 26

Others say personality is the reason for the link between aggression and violent media

Answer 26

• social violence is falling but violent media is increasing (this is seen to make sense at face value but has flaws)
  –> nearly all research is about everyday aggression not severe acts of violence
  –> moderate aggression and violence are always multifactorial

Question 27

Vocal minority disagrees about hte GAM theory

Answer 27

suggest the GAM theory doesn’t adequately allow for individual differences of biology / personality - but detailed applications of GAM clearly factor in these !

they also suggest small effect sizes are are not meaningful
- but many smaller psychological effects are very important
- and media violence exposure alone is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause moderately aggressive or violent behaviour

Question 28

What are the favourite times to watch porn

Answer 28

• 4pm spike (students watching porn)
• 11pm

Question 29

Average hours of teens spent online and on IP

Answer 29

• teens spend average of 15 hours online (males more)
• most of free mainstream IP sites have no barriers to minors

Question 30

What are the prevalence rates of intentional and unintentional IP exposure to children

Answer 30

Intentional: US study found 7% of 10-17 year olds, and 59% of Taiwanese 10-12th grade students

Unintentional: 19% of 10-12 year olds in the US, to 60% among Australian girls and 84% among australian boys aged 16=17

Average first exposure was 11 year olds, with 100% of 15 year old males and 15% of females reporting they have been exposed to violent porn

Question 31

Prevalence in the UK

Answer 31

11-16 year olds - at least half had been exposed to IP, almost all by the age of 15
- and that 40% of 13-14s had said that IP had given them ideas about the type of sex to try out

Question 32

Our Watch (2018) survey of 2000 young Australians aged 15-20 found:

Answer 32

Median age for first seeing porn was 13 for boys, 16 for girls.
78% previously seen porn (boys more likely to have actively looked for it on first exposure compared to girls)
56% boys viewed porn at least once a week in past 12 months, 17% indicating daily viewing
15% girls reported weekly usage, 1% indicating daily viewing

Question 33

PHD: Theoretical Review q

Answer 33

Consumption of IP represents a risk factor in perpetration of aggression and violence against women as depictions of violence may contribute to real world aggression.
- IP as a ‘zone of cultural exception’ - perpetration of degradation against women are eroticizsed and celebrated, despite being considered antisocial irl
- objectification and dehumanization of women, with moral disengagement

Question 34

PHD: Early exposure

Answer 34

Most male (57.3%) and female (33.7%) recalled their first exposure to IP between 12-14 years old.

22.8% and 23.7% recalled exposure between 9-11 years

Bernstein: high ip viewing freq, positive affective responses, elevated impulsivity and endorsement of ip related beliefs associated with problematic ip viewing

Question 35

IP viewing motivations…

Answer 35

Linked to mood management or emotional avoidance were associated with problematic IP viewing.

sexual sensation seeking, adversarial sex beliefs, moral disengagement –> associated with adoption of sexual behaviours consistent with those in porn

Question 36

What are environment and person factors that might lead to being more susceptible to development of problematic ip viewing?

Answer 36

• • associations found between problematic ip viewing, stereotypical gendered attitudes, ip-congruent beliefs (endorsing sexual coercion)

and higher levels of sexual impulsivity, depression,etc

Question 37

Why do others htink it matters?

Answer 37

Early and more freq exposure to pron is associated with initiation of sex behaviours at younger ages. (Brown)

Young people report using IP as sexual education.
1/5 of daily porn users had depressive symptoms (correlation)
Increased self-objectification and body surveillance related to use of IP for both genders

Exposure of violence against women in media linked with: reduced sympathy for fem victims, increased rape myth acceptance, attitudes in support of sexual violence, stereotypical gender role attitudes, aggression toward women

Question 38

2021 National Community Attitudes towards violence against women:

Answer 38

25% of respondents strongly or somewhat agree that a man may not realise a woman does not want to have sex if he is very sexually aroused.

21% of respondents agreed that a woman who sends her partner a naked picture of herself is partly responsible if the partner then shares the image without her consent. (revenge porn)

Question 39

IP and young people - Australian Child Maltreatment Study

Answer 39

• Australian CSA prevalence was 28.5%
• prevalence of perps was mostly other known adolescents (10%), followed by parents (7.8%)

this abuse by other adolescence has increased
- sexualisation of adolescence
- increasing exposure to porn
- young women’s growing awareness of coercion = increased reporting

Question 40

How to address this issue?

Answer 40

• Education! Lovebites, consent labs, etc
• The Aus Curriculum Version 9 ensure students receive more explicit education on positive and respectful relationships and consent

BUT - currently no universally taught IP education programs in Australian schools
- when a porn literacy program finally made it to a school, it was very well received (peer led)
and government funding has been announced for this