Facing Reality: Failure to tackle the harms of pornography is undermining equality and putting new generations of young people at risk.

  • Stark new Irish research finds that the consumption of mainstream pornography is fuelling high levels of violence against and degradation of women and girls. 
  • Report finds that pornography that features the strangling of women during sex, verbally degrading them and spitting in their faces, among countless other acts of callousness and cruelty is now mainstream and freely available to everyone, including children, with a few clicks online. 
  • Researchers have found that much mainstream pornography depicts high levels of sexual and physical aggression against women which actively distorts and breaks the boundary between ‘sex’ and ‘sexual violence’.
  • The report also finds that the consumption of sexually violent content impacts negatively on the healthy sexual development and behaviour of adults and young people leading to sexual violence, unhealthy relationships, hostile misogyny, and compounds gender inequality.
  • Women’s Aid calls for urgent actions to counter the multiple harms created and caused by pornography through frank public discussion, education, child protection measures and targeting the business model of the multi-billion-euro porn industry.

Thursday 17th October 2024, Dublin:  Today a new research report into the role of mainstream pornography in the perpetration of violence against women and girls, is launched. The report, ‘Facing Reality: Addressing the Role of Pornography in the Pandemic of Violence against Women and Girls’ by The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy (SERP) Institute was commissioned by national domestic violence organisation, Women’s Aid, and funded by Community Foundation Ireland. It was commissioned to build on previous research published by Women’s Aid that showed a very high level of public concern in Ireland about the harms of pornography to gender equality, healthy sexuality, and children.  This groundbreaking new work includes a comprehensive review of existing literature on pornography, with a particular focus on the nature of pornography, its consumption, its impacts, and the consequences of consumption for gender equality, sexuality, and gender-based violence. The researchers also consulted with key domestic and international experts to draw on their professional experience and insights on this issue.

This study starkly reveals that much of what features in mainstream pornography in fact constitutes sexual violence. Pornography that features the strangling of women during sex, verbally degrading them and spitting in their faces, among countless other acts of callousness and cruelty is now mainstream and available to everyone, including children, with a few clicks online. The report finds that this sexually violent content is shaping the sexual behaviour of many pornography consumers, both adults and children in Ireland, where pornography actively distorts or even breaks the boundary between sex and sexual violence. At the same time, the authors say it is vital to understand that pornography is also a multibillion-euro global industry with incredible reach and influence, which must be busted.

Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid, says:

“This study now clearly confirms that that the vast majority of pornography does nothing to promote healthy sexuality, equality and intimacy but is instead creating a conducive context for violence and degradation, particularly of women and girls. This is directly relevant to our work, as women contacting Women’s Aid for support have identified their partner’s use of pornography as a component of the sexual coercion and abuse, they are enduring. We are also deeply concerned about the increasing phenomenon of image-based sexual abuse, whereby pornography has created a ‘vicious cycle’, as the proliferation of pornography and resulting ‘porn culture’ has created the context where boys and young men feel entitled to ask or demand, and girls and young women feel they are expected to share nudes or to film intimate videos as a ‘normal’ part of romantic relationships. Such images may then be shared without consent by their partners/ex-partners or held against them as forms of blackmail and coercion. By sharing these images, intimate partners are in practice creating more pornography for further consumption, as well as to harass, threaten and shame young women.”

Ms Benson adds:

“Pornography also has a hugely negative impact on young people and society more generally. It shapes the sexual expectations of children and young people in ways that normalise harmful, coercive, dangerous, and abusive behaviours. It reinforces misogynistic and disrespectful stereotypes and undermines any educational work on consent, on safe, healthy, and respectful relationships and towards gender equality.”

Meanwhile, the report’s authors maintain that this study demonstrates the pressing need to have a frank conversation about pornography consumption and its wider impacts on Irish society, including the reframing of the concept of ‘consent.’

Ruth Breslin, the Director of The SERP Institute and co-author of the report alongside Dr. Monica O’Connor, explains:

“Our findings lead us to conclude that a wider and deeper conversation is needed on the issue of sexual consent in the context of a pornography saturated culture. Educating young people about consent has made great strides in Ireland in recent years thanks to several dedicated programmes. However, this progress is being undermined by the fact that boys’ sexual expectations of girls are being moulded by pornography, while at the same time girls’ have been groomed by pornography to submit to acts that they do not want and do not enjoy. In shaping boys’ sexual scripts, pornography has taught boys that women and therefore girls have limitless sexual appetites, a high tolerance for pain, sometimes say ‘no’ when they mean ‘yes,’ and enjoy ‘aggressive sex’ which includes physical violence, sexual assault, and verbal abuse.”

Ms Breslin continues:

“It may be necessary to expand or even ‘re-wire’ our framework for sexual consent to include mutuality, to allow for more nuance, and to incorporate a greater understanding of young people’s diverse personal preferences. Put in very simple terms, boys and young men need to be taught to move away from pornographic sexual scripts, learn what, in general terms, girls and young women do and not enjoy in intimate encounters, but also be encouraged and indeed given the ‘permission’ to care enough to ask and find out. An approach such as this will undoubtedly be of great benefit to both young men and young women in their quest for positive sexual relationships both now and into the future.”

Ms Breslin states:

“SERP’s research on pornography is not derived from a position that favours the censorship of erotic material, but rather from the perspective that there is an urgent need to comprehend and address pornography for what it truly is – the sexual violence, torture and degradation of real women and girls on film. Contributors to this study posited that to be genuinely ‘sex-positive’ is to be ‘porn-critical’ – if our goal as a society is to promote positive, healthy, mutually pleasurable sexual relationships then we must reject the violent, ‘pornified’ version of ‘sex’ that the trade has effectively forced upon us.”

The report includes a detailed review of studies on men’s attitudes and behaviours, which found a significant correlation between the consumption of violent pornography and attitudes supporting violence against women and misogyny. In addition, the report states that Migrant women and women of colour are overrepresented in the sex trade the world over, and pornography is no exception. Multiple studies demonstrate the extent to which mainstream pornographic content promotes racist attitudes and stereotypes.

Denise Charlton, CEO of Community Foundation Ireland, says:

“This study is a disturbing read, but it is an essential one and it gives us important clarity. The commercial sex trade including pornography and prostitution, is a multibillion-euro business that promotes the dehumanisation of women and girls both directly and indirectly. It hooks young people, particularly boys and men, and exposes them to increasingly extreme and often violent sex that contributes to how they behave. There are increasing reports of children perpetrating criminal sexual behaviour which is something we must respond to urgently. By ignoring or avoiding the issue of pornography we let our young people down by passing on a legacy of gender-based violence to a new generation. Now is the time to take meaningful action to prevent this.”

Sarah Benson concludes:

“There can no longer be any doubt. Pornography is real, harmful and is a key contributor to gender-based violence and inequality in Irish society. While the impact on survivors can be long-lasting, multifaceted, and completely devastating, there is no accountability for the commercial platforms which allow, and even encourage, this to happen. We welcome the insights and measures recommended in this report. We require a coalition for action, and we will continue to work together with colleagues from among civil society, statutory and with public bodies, and concerned individuals to take the next step to deliver on these recommendations and to strategically tackle this very harmful and hugely profitable and powerful industry.”

Notes to editors/producers:

  • Launch details: 10.40am photocall with event starting at 11am at the Oak House, Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2 until 12.30pm. Download programme here
  • Download the full report vailable here.
  • Download the Executive Summary here
  • About Women’s Aid: Women’s Aid is a national, feminist organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse including coercive control, in Ireland since 1974. We do this by advocating, influencing, training, and campaigning for effective responses to reduce the scale and impacts of domestic abuse on women and children in Ireland and providing high quality, specialised, integrated, support services. www.womensaid.ie
  • About The SERP Institute: The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute is Ireland’s only independent research body dedicated to the study of commercial sexual exploitation. Our research influences academic discourse and creates useful knowledge for law and policy makers, practitioners, survivors, and activists. See www.serp.ie.
  • About Community Foundation Ireland: Community Foundation Ireland and its donors are on a shared mission of equality for all in thriving communities. Together with 5,000 voluntary, community and charitable partners we are a philanthropic hub for Ireland which is a source of knowledge, expertise and information to ensure effective and strategic giving. www.communityfoundation.ie
  • Women’s Aid’s previous research on attitudes to pornography, ‘It’s time to talk about porn’ from November 2022 found that:
    • The majority of Irish people believe that pornography is too accessible to children, and that it is contributing to gender inequality and to coercion and sexual violence against women and girls. 
    • Despite a majority consensus in the study there is a very notable and statistically significant difference between male and female attitudes and levels of concern about pornography.
    • 75% of people agree that pornography makes children and young people vulnerable to requests to share intimate images and videos.
    • The vast majority (81%) of 18-25 year olds believe that pornography is increasing young men’s interest in seeking rough or violent sex.
    • 81% of all respondents want age-appropriate sexuality and relationships education in all schools which includes a focus on the negative consequences of exposure to pornography.
    • 71% believe that the Government and Tech Companies can and must do more to protect children and young people from exposure to pornography and to do far more, faster, to support victims/survivors of image-based sexual abuse.
    • Download full report here.