Pornography viewing is common among men, with various studies offering statistics on its prevalence. One study concluded that 80% of American men viewed pornography at some point in their lives (Miller et al., 2020). The same study also found that 44% of men viewed pornography every week.
High pornography viewing rates were also consistent across cultures, with studies showing rates between 62-90% in Arab, North American, European, Asian, and Oceania countries. In one Australian study, it was also found that almost 5% of men consider themselves addicted to pornography viewing. This means that the vast majority of men in that study did not view their pornography viewing as addictive.
Before embarking on a discussion of whether porn viewing can be considered an addiction, we should establish a definition of the terms related to sexual health and porn addiction. This will establish a shared understanding of the topics under consideration. This shared understanding makes it possible to evaluate relevant evidence and draw reasonable and valid conclusions regarding healthy sexual expression.
Definitions of pornography vary widely, with some differentiating between softcore and hardcore varieties. What falls into each category often depends on the cultural and religious background of the viewer. For this article, we will establish a simple yet clear definition that is commonly used in academic literature. Pornography is “written, visual, or spoken material that shows or describes sexual acts of the genitals and is intended to be arousing to the viewer” (Jha & Banerjee, 2022).
This definition is broader than what most men mean when referring to their viewing of pornography. Typical references to pornography are usually limited to photos and videos. And it is thought of as being accessed from dedicated websites such as PornHub and OnlyFans or social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit. The expanded definition, which includes written material, opens up useful avenues for comparison that will be explored later in this series of articles.
The term “addiction” is harder to define than pornography, as there are multiple perspectives in the scientific community on what constitutes addiction. There are also sometimes conflicting explanations on how they develop. In addition, the scientific use of the term also differs from general conversational use. For example, addiction is often used colloquially to mean something done frequently (e.g., watching television).
It may also refer to the inability to abstain from consuming something (e.g., chocolate) or engaging in a particular behaviour (e.g., scrolling social media). However, from a medical perspective, addiction may specifically refer to the development of a dependence on a substance (e.g., alcohol) caused by physiological modifications associated with its ingestion.
The dual use of the term can lead to a conflation of the underlying causes (Saitz et al., 2021), which might be behavioural, physiological, or neither. Combining the definitions above, the term “pornography addiction” might refer to the behaviour of frequently viewing, reading, or listening to sexually arousing material. Or it might refer to the inability to abstain from consuming sexually arousing material. Or it may refer to the development of a dependence on sexually explicit material. Therefore, it’s important to be precise when discussing pornography addiction since different people can use the term to mean different things.
As previously mentioned, the term addiction is frequently applied to many different things. Individuals may describe themselves as addicted to their favourite food, their spouse as addicted to a new hobby, or their child as addicted to a catchy song. In the scientific community, however, establishing a mental health condition is a rigorous process. This process starts with attempting to disprove the diagnosis even before finding supporting evidence (Williams et al., 2022). This helps to prevent a situation in which a condition is assumed to exist without first considering alternative explanations.
There are two major diagnostic classification systems used in mental health fields: the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and ICD (International Classification of Diseases). Pornography addiction is not currently a recognized diagnosis in the most recent versions of those systems: the DSM-5-TR, and the ICD-11, both of which were updated in 2022.
However, the inclusion of gambling and internet gaming as disorders in the DSM-5, and compulsive sexual behavior disorder in the ICD-11 may indicate a shift towards the broadening of the diagnostic criteria in response to cultural and technological changes (De Alarcón et al., 2019).
Expanding the label of addiction to pornography would be in line with its popular usage. For example, some women consider their male partner’s pornography viewing as emblematic of an addiction. The idea of an “addiction” is preferable to the alternative explanation: that their partner is selfish and deliberately engages in behaviour that they disapprove of (Binnie & Reavey, 2020).
Additionally, using the label of addiction could be a way for men to explain why they engage in a behaviour that they might want to stop. Even though it is a useful shorthand for explaining unwanted pornography viewing, the application of the diagnostic label of addiction faces some opposition within the mental health field.
To avoid indiscriminately applying the term “addiction” to pornography viewing, some researchers use terms such as “problematic pornography use” (PPU; Bradley et al., 2016). This is defined as the use of pornography that leads to significant personal, interpersonal, or social consequences for the user. Alternatively, some researchers use the term “self-perceived
pornography addiction” (Bradley et al., 2016), which recognises that the individual’s perception of being addicted is an important factor.
This article has established that pornography describes not just visual material but also audio and written material. It has also explored the various ways in which the word “addiction” is used both in popular culture and in professional settings. Finally, it clarified that pornography addiction is not currently recognised as an official diagnosis in the mental health field. The next article in this series will explore the link between the perception of addiction and negative outcomes related to pornography viewing, highlighting porn recovery and relationships.
