An NHS psychiatrist has warned that teenagers who watch pornography may struggle to recognise that it does not portray normal sexual behaviour.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Dr Max Pemberton said that he was “horrified” and “worried” by what teenagers are looking at online.
Top neurologist Baroness Susan Greenfield has previously warned that young people are vulnerable to the effects of watching pornography, because their brains are still developing.
Dangerous
Dr Pemberton said the reason for his concern is based upon the immaturity of a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which lies behind the forehead.
He wrote: “It’s crucial for impulse control, foreseeing and judging the consequences of our behaviour, controlling emotions and inhibiting inappropriate actions.”
He explained: “The evidence from brain scans is that the prefrontal cortex is still developing well into your 20s. This is why teenagers behave in impulsive ways.
“With an immature prefrontal cortex, they can understand behaviour is dangerous or wrong, but they lack the ability to process these thoughts properly and understand them in the way an adult does.”
Threat
Dr Pemberton said the “threat” with teenagers viewing pornography is that it, “presents extreme sexual behaviour as normal and the prefrontal cortex that would help them challenge this idea isn’t in full working order”.
He concluded: “Never mind the moral arguments about porn, there is a sound neurological reason to do everything we can to limit teenagers’ exposure to it.”
This assessment echoes that of neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield. In September 2012 she warned that “the young brain, because it is still developing, is vulnerable.”
Concern
Baroness Greenfield, a professor at Oxford University, said she was also concerned about young people’s attitudes towards each other.
She said she had heard youngsters say “only losers have real relationships” and added that it seemed more important for young people to be seen as a “commodity”.