Enda Kenny wants to have a conversation about the 'avalanche' of porn 'tainting and corrupting' young people in Ireland.
Today FM reported that The Taoiseach expressed a desire for a national conversation over the proliferation of online porn. Kenny bemoaned the fact that 'lads mags' like Nuts and Zoo, have been replaced by what he sees as the 'ubiquitous' and 'damaging' influence of online porn.
Though he may sound like a puritanical, out-of-touch politician, who wants to ruin your private time, he does have a point.
Pornography has gone from an underground phenomenon to an increasingly mainstream form of entertainment with 53% of young people between the ages of 11 - 16 watching porn online.
Smart phones and similar devices mean that young people have constant access to the internet and online pornography.
It's regressive to assume that access to porn is eroding the moral fabric of society, but this level of freely available instant gratification is sure to have some psychological effect on developing minds.
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In recent years, some studies have suggested that the the spread of online porn has lead to a measurable increase in sexual dysfunction and porn addiction among young men, claiming that the hyper-stimuli in porn desensitises them to regular, ‘off-line’ sexual activity.
(An important caveat to consider when examining these claims, is that until recently there has been little in the way of long term studies into erectile dysfunction in young men).
The reported average age for first exposure to internet porn is 11 years, and the ISPCC’s 2015 report has stated that in some cases children as young as six are being exposed to online porn.
There is a concern that young people may have difficulty discerning the fantasy scenarios, and staged sex acts in porn from reality.
Though the language Kenny uses sounds alarmist, a frank non-judgemental conversation over how porn is affecting young people is a reasonable suggestion.
