Rachel Hale

It's a way to cope with other issues going on in people's lives and at a point that porn can become something that is a really deep part of someone's mental health struggles.

I think that though there's vast debate in the field on how compulsive porn use should be classified, it's clear that these young men are struggling and that medical professionals are united on trying to figure out the best way to help those young men deal with it.

We also know that from some of the reports that we linked in this article, including a 2022 one from Common Sense Media, 71% of teenagers report intentionally viewing porn in the last week.

And the average respondent in that survey said they first viewed porn at age 12.

Those are strikingly high numbers and a strikingly low one in terms of the age where some teenagers first viewed porn.

What really struck me in this is I'll mention two things.

One of them is how long people have struggled with this.

I spoke with some people who were introduced to porn at, you know, 11 or 12 years old and are now struggling with it as 25 year olds, 35 year olds, you know, addictions that span forever.

15 or 25 years to grapple with that for so much of your life.

Some of these young men told me that they don't know who they are without porn because it was introduced to them at such young age.

They don't know who they are in a relationship without porn or who they are as a student or friend without having those urges constantly in their mind.

So

That really struck me as something that was compelling.

And also how large of a barrier this is in people's day to day lives.

I had people tell me that they would spend upwards of six hours a day watching porn and that it would start to cut into their daily school or workflow.

And that, you know, one of these men I interviewed told me he started leaving college.

classroom as early as sixth grade, two or three times a day to go to the bathroom to watch porn.

And so just how big of a detriment this problem can be to people's day-to-day life really struck me just because it's something that is usually so hidden.

I would want parents to know that there is no shame in teenagers having sexual urges.

We know that that's healthy.