The number of pornography addicts seeking help at a centre in the Republic of Ireland has rocketed over the last two years.
The Cork Sexual Health Centre, which seeks to address “problematic sexualised behaviour” including porn addiction, has seen a 360 per cent rise in attendees and now has a seven-month waiting list.
The centre reported that pornography is a factor for about eight in ten attendees, and it is common for men to admit to first being exposed to it as young as eight years old.
‘Tsunami’
Donal Clifford, a psychotherapist at the centre, explained: “The groups are getting younger”, adding that porn “affects how they are in relationships, what their view of intimacy is”.
He warned: “The tsunami of pornography infiltrating our children’s lives has arrived, but we’re not going to recognise the consequences for the next couple of years.”
A 2022 survey by the Men’s Development Network found that over 70 per cent of men under 45 years old in Ireland access pornography at least once a week.
‘Missed opportunity’
In December, new research found that pornographic content featuring popular children’s characters is widely available online.
A report published by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) revealed that 50 per cent of porn websites visited by UK children aged six to twelve specialised in sexually explicit cartoons.
In 2017, the UK Parliament passed a law to force porn sites to verify the age of their users but those provisions were never implemented.
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