And the people who do have that compulsion to see porn have reason to be concerned.

More and more information is coming out about porn’s effect on the brain and, suffice to say, it’s not good. For one, it’s easy to become addicted to porn and its consumption can actually cause very harmful effects on the brain.

Fight The New Drug brings up the scary fact that our brains will actually change themselves through a process called “neuroplasticity.” It takes the pleasure we experience from seeing desirable things and opens up the connections for more of it later. That way when we experience the pleasure again, we’re open to more of it.

The downside of this is that it shifts the way we see that particular pleasure. It shifts what we see as “normal” about that pleasure, and the person experiencing it may begin seeking out new ways to pursue the high, some of which will become more and more perverted. Desensitization occurs, leading to more and more extreme kinds in order to be satisfied.

These effects bleed over into other parts of the person’s life. Stress elevation is extremely common in the porn addicted and if denied their addiction, the stress only increases. Depression and anxiety are known to elevate greatly after regular porn consumption, as well as low self-esteem. All of these effects multiply when the addiction is used to escape negative emotions.

Then there’s the sex trafficking issue.

The porn industry has a lot of predation in it, so much so that sites have had to be shut down and major porn sites have had to dramatically alter the way they do business in order to avoid accidentally playing host to forced sexual content or underage content. However, that will never be enough. It’s not hard to get illegal pornography on the internet. Twitter is rife with it and is doing little about it.

That’s not even to mention the regret of those who partake in it as Jeremy Hambly from The Quartering noted in a video.

Women develop real self-esteem issues and public consequences of displaying themselves in the buff and/or engaging in sexual activity. Should their porn accounts be unsuccessful they begin to question their self-worth leading to depression and anxiety. This, and their peers see that intimate side of them which lowers their worth in potential relationships.

To be clear, I’m not advocating for a ban on pornography here in the states. My inner libertarian won’t allow me to actively campaign for it. What someone else does with their own time and behind closed doors is their own business.

But what I am saying is that porn’s defenders need to be more honest about what it does to people. They like to speak about how it empowers women, and maybe for some it does, but somehow the numerous voices that express deep regret and sadness over their time in the industry seem to go ignored.

I don’t see a lot of people in the porn industry, nor its defenders, being honest about the mental effects that it has on those who engage in it. The crime within the business gets dealt with when forced, but then it’s hardly brought up again.

What I am advocating for is that we all be a lot more honest about what porn is, what it does, and the problems that it creates. We have no problem discussing the issues behind excessive drinking, gambling, tobacco use, drugs, and other vices, but when it comes to porn consumption, mainstream society seems to be mostly quiet.

At some point, a reckoning has to occur and the cost of porn has to be highlighted. The multi-billion dollar industry, with all its advocates, will have to answer for the issues they create just like every other vice industry did. The sooner the better too. Our society has enough issues.