Dr Russell Pratt says porn has changed our behaviour

WARNING: Adult content

WHETHER we realise it or not, our erotic viewing habits have influenced us in more ways than we would care to admit.

Forensic psychologist Dr Russell Pratt says pornography has affected how we behave: from the way people groom their pubic hair to the kind of sexual activity we accept in the bedroom.

He went so far as to say that children who had been exposed to porn under the age of 12 were more likely to have higher numbers of sexual partners by the time they reached adulthood.

Dr Pratt spoke to news.com.au ahead of the screening of Australians on Porn, a special live TV event on ABC2 that examined Australia’s porn proclivities and how they affect our lives.

About two thirds of Australian men and one fifth of Aussie women have watched porn. And, thanks to the rise of the internet, our country is ranked seventh in the world for our X-rated habits, according to Porn Hub.

“The absence of pubic body hair on anyone under the age of 30 or even 40, that’s driven by the porn industry,” Dr Pratt told news.com.au.

“No pubic hair was a phenomena that you would only see in porn and that has extended to pretty much the general population.

“Some of the research is indicating that porn really does drive adult sexual practice and in much of adolescence.

“The prevenance of anal sex is very clearly driven by the porn industry. It really is a staple of any porn script. It really is difficult to find a porn movie without it.”

Forensic psychologist Dr Russell Pratt says porn has changed our behaviour.Source:News Limited

Dr Pratt said besides affecting adult behaviour, exposing a child to porn also had damaging effects.

He explained there was evidence that suggested children who had been exposed to pornography under the age of 12 were more likely to have higher numbers of sexual partners by the time they reached adulthood.

Viewing porn at that age before the onset of puberty was also likely to have an affect on their brains.

Research has found that when people watched porn, the chemical dopamine was released along with a protein called DeltaFosB.

Every time this was released it accumulated and when it reached a certain point it causes a genetic switch in the brain.

“There are changes to brain chemistry,” he told news.com.au. “Porn has the potential to be addictive in the same way that some people become addicted to alcohol or drugs.

“What we see in addicts … is even when they’re not watching porn anymore the changes to the brain continue.

“Telling someone to stop is not really helpful. They will always have triggers. They will always be addicts. So for some abstinence may be the only way.”

Dr Pratt has researched the psychological and neurological effects of watching porn and has published numerous articles on the effects of porn for the Australian Psychological Society.

He explained pornographic movies had changed dramatically over the past four decades, and as a result people’s perceptions of sex had changed too.

He said the rise of the internet and the emergence of technology had also made pornographic movies more accessible.

“The idea of what is hardcore porn is an interesting place to start,” he said. “That has really changed over the last three to four decades.

“Hardcore porn used to just depict intercourse and effectively genitalia. Softcore porn was really just heterosexual porn for males, that would depict semi-clad women.

“Today, it’s really difficult to define. Hardcore porn is basically really full-on sexual activity that involves anal sex, oral sex, ejaculation over face and body, multiple men and quite brutal sexual practices.

“If you asked someone say in their 50s who would have viewed porn in the ’70s, they may have a different view of what hardcore porn is (to someone from today).”

Australians On Porn, hosted by Tom Tilley of Triple J current affairs program Hack, will bring together people from all sides of the debate, from porn stars, sex therapists, anti-porn activists and those who have found themselves unable to stop watching.

These groups of people will discuss the issues surrounding pornography, such as availability, porn addiction, is it destroying relationships, does it affect our brains and whether it has affected our behaviour.

Australians on Porn aired Monday, 9.30pm, on ABC2.