Pornography Use and Public Health: Examining the Importance of Online Sexual Behavior in the Health Sciences

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) 2023-01, Vol.113 (1), p.22-26
• Main Authors: Grubbs, Joshua B, Floyd, Christopher G, Kraus, Shane W
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent development; Adolescents; Adults; Bibliometrics; Brain; Clinical competence; Crises; Diagnosis; Erotica; Health behavior; Health risks; Health sciences; Health services; Humans; Internet; Legislation; Mass media effects; Medical personnel; Mental health; Mental health care; Mental health services; Morbidity; Pornography; Pornography & obscenity; Psychotherapy; Public Health; Risk-Taking; Sexual Behavior; Social media; Social networks; Teenagers; Threats
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.307146

In 2020, AJPH published "Should public health professionals consider pornography a public health crisis?" by Nelson and Rothman.1 The impetus for this work was clear: in the relatively recent past, 17 states have drafted or passed resolutions calling widespread pornography use a public health crisis, with many US politicians taking the position that pornography use is a threat to public health. The reasons for this contention (i.e., that pornography use is a threat to public health) are varied, though proponents of such a position often contend that pornography is a threat to families, impedes brain development in adolescents, affects brain functioning in adults, is inherently addictive, and promotes a wide variety of illegal sexual activities.1Through their critical review, Nelson and Rothman's work clearly demonstrates that such a position is untenable. Most, if not all, of the contentions made by such legislation and resolutions are entirely unsupported by current research, and pornography use does not meet standard criteria associated with threats to public health (i.e., it is not an acute event requiring immediate response; it does not immediately or directly lead to death, morbidity, or adverse health consequences; it does not overwhelm the capacity of local health care systems).1 In short, such resolutions are wholly unsupported in both their factual claims and general arguments. Moreover, since 2020, no new states have drafted or passed such resolutions, which may be attributable to the rise of a true public health crisis in 2020.The impact of Nelson and Rothman's work is both obvious and subtle. Among obvious impacts, their work has been cited widely in a short period of time, generated intense public attention, inspired several op-eds and opinion pieces, and served as a starting point for thousands of conversations via social media (see https://apha.altmetric.com/ details/73766659/citations for a summary ofthe popular media impact of this work). Central to much of this attention has been their conclusion that pornography use is not a public health crisis.Yet, an equally important implication ofthe work is overlooked. Nelson and Rothman's work, while showing that pornography is not a public health crisis, demonstrates that pornography use is a topic to be studied by public health. Whereas some disciplines have largely refused to consider pornography use as a topic relevant for inquiry (e.g., American Psychologist, the flagship journal ofthe Americ