back to article Study reveals high price of porn addiction

Habitual viewers of smut often mess up their lives, according to preliminary analysis of a new study conducted by University of Sydney academics, who believe the problem is caused in part by the ubiquitous availability of online video nasties that viewers can watch anywhere, with many devices. Dr Gomathi Sitharthan from the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    looking for a good time ? call ...

    "85% of those surveyed were male". So how do I get in contact with the other 15% ?

    Paris for the obvious reason.

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: looking for a good time ? call ...

      Try dating women in real-life.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Flame

        Re: looking for a good time ? call ...

        3D pig disgusting!

        Seriously, it is unfair to present readers with such stories as they are encased in their offices with servers aflame at a Friday afternoon.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: looking for a good time ? call ...

        "Try dating women in real-life."

        Like that is going to succeed.

    2. JimM

      Re: looking for a good time ? call ...

      I wonder how many of the other 15% are really women?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: looking for a good time ? call ...

        Everybody knows girls don't know how to use the internets. All girls online are really guys...

        /joking

  2. btone
    Coat

    dot point 2:

    •30 percent acknowledged that their work performance suffered due to excessive viewing;

    dot point 5:

    •30 percent acknowledged that their work performance suffered due to excessive viewing;

    aHA!!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Beat me to it.

      Beat me to it.

  3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction.

    That's hardly the fault of the porn.

    It's like saying that women earn less than men and black men are more likely to be arrested - and that's their fault for being female or black

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction.

      No, it would be like saying a percentage of habitual dope smokers have been in trouble with the law or lost their job as a result of their addiction.

      Not the fault of the dope per se, but it's the element without which the result would not have happened.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction.

        Dope isn't addictive (unless you abuse the word addiction, as in "porn addiction"). We'd get a lot further with these debates if the distinction between habit and addiction was maintained.

        The difference with dope is that it's illegal, so you can get in trouble with the law just by using it. Porn is not generally illegal, hence the connection to troubles with the law is necessarily more indirect.

        Although, watching porn at work or smoking dope at work are equally likely to get you fired. I wouldn't know; being self-employed I can do both.

  4. Edwin

    Cause and effect?

    The idea that smut addiction is learned is an interesting one, but I wonder how many of the 'consequences' being attributed here are really due to excessive smut watching, or if excessive porn surfing is possibly another symptom...

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Cause and effect?

      Absolutely. As a snap judgement from little information, I'd say the root cause is probably poor impulse control, which is never good for personal or professional life development.

      GJC

    2. Tom 13

      Re: Cause and effect?

      It's a chicken and egg problem. We know from biological studies that the endorphins released during sex are some of the most powerful and addictive that the human body encounters (just because they are natural doesn't make them safe). If that cycle is couple with an OCB personality, the results follow logically. Maybe the OCB would express itself differently if it hadn't encountered the sex endorphin cycle, but the sex endorphin cycle would certainly define that instantiation of the issue. Maybe it can be got at and resolved through other psychological methods, but I don't see that removing the sex component helps resolve the issue for the OCB patient.

    3. John Bailey
      Meh

      Re: Cause and effect?

      Excessive anything is bad. Why be surprised that excessive porn users have problems, when we are not surprised excessive drinkers get drunk more often, and are prone to alcoholism, or excessive eaters are quite likely to be obese.

      People use ?.

      Some people over use ?.

      Ban/control ?.

      1. Misoriented
        Megaphone

        Re: Cause and effect?

        Once again, they're confusing correlation with causality. Dr Sitharthan says.”We are finding that people do understand that their excessive porn viewing is impacting on their lives and they want to change," so she clearly believes that porn causes bad things. But isn't it just as possible that people that have other problems, such as depression, unhappy relationships, or trouble at work, will turn to something like porn, drugs, alcohol, sports, reality TV, etc., to make themselves feel better?

        Is it the porn causing the destructive behaviors, or the other way around? Maybe instead of judging porn users, these doctors should consider porn usage a possible indicator of a real problem and leave the moral judgements out of it.

  5. Suricou Raven

    Still missing the vital statistic.

    Numbers are nice, but everyone already knew there were some people taking porn-viewing to excess. That's true of anything - if you looked a bit, you should be able to find a few hundred people who ruined their lives by excessive television, gaming or religion. This study only looked at the extreme cases. What we really need is some idea of how many people who view porn fall into that category, as opposed to just enjoying it a couple of times a week and otherwise getting on with their lives.

    I know a great many people who like porn, and yet somehow none of them have been fired or ran into legal trouble because of it.

  6. Steve Ives

    Statistics...

    not read the original study, but nothing in here to suggest causation or a correllation. i.e. watching porn causing a crap life or crap life makes them watch porn?

    Also - 20% would rather watch porn than be at it with a woman - so 80% would rather have the real thing but presumably aren't getting it?

    Also - a lifestyle involving 'extreme' or 'excessive' porn causes trouble? Is that like saying the majority of people into armed robbery said that it ruined their lives, leading to legal trouble, job loss and social exclusion?

    Inquiring minds...

    Steve

  7. Martin 47

    Addiction to something can cause problems in other areas of your life, eh?

    In other ground breaking news a bear is seen taking a shit in the woods and it is believed the Pope may be catholic.

    and this article is in the science section?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All together now

    The internet is for porn

    The internet is for porn,

    All these guys unzip their flies

    For porn, porn, porn!

    Seriously, what other use does it have?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Other Uses

      Other uses ... well, right now, we're using it to talk about porn!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Other Uses

        But how many are doing it one handed?

  9. Cagey

    From the article:

    "surveyed 800 habitual online smut viewers and found “excessive users had severe social and relationship problems and had often lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction."

    This is questionable science. In the first place how were the subjects selected? I find it hard to believe that a truly representative sample population could be obtained since I wouldn't expect that many smut viewers without problems would volunteer to be studied.

    Second the conclusion apparently being drawn is that excessive viewing of smut results in severe social, relationship, and employment problems. It is just as likely that having such severe problems resulted in the excessive smut viewing as a distraction from reality.

    This kind of bogus science shouldn't be taken as gospel. Sometimes scientists have personal axes to grind just like laymen.

    ===KGH

    1. VinceH
      Joke

      Sometimes scientists have personal axes to grind

      I think you might have just invented a new euphemism.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sometimes scientists have personal axes to grind

        So where are the graphs?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Sometimes scientists have personal axes to grind

          it'll just be a bell(end) type curve.... i'll get my coat....

    2. The First Dave
      Headmaster

      “excessive users had severe social and relationship problems"

      That sounds a little circular - how did they define excessive in the first place, if not by a definition such as this?

  10. mrmond
    Go

    Need help

    "88 percent of respondents said they are willing to seek professional help to treat smut addicition, but would prefer to do it online"

    ....so that they can watch more porn.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Need help

      "88 percent of respondents said they are willing to seek professional help to treat smut addicition, but would prefer to do it online;"

      Well obviously they prefer to do it online, that was exactly the problem, wasn't it?

      1. GumboKing
        Gimp

        Re: Need help

        After reading that bullet point, I could just hear the 88% looking like the icon and saying "Yes Mistress".

  11. Joeman
    Paris Hilton

    A wise man once said...

    If you deleted all of the porn from the internet, there would only be one page left, and it would be called "Bring back the porn"...

    (Cant rememebr who said that!)

  12. Simon_Sharwood_Reg_APAC_Editor (Written by Reg staff)

    Lots of good points here about methodology and sampling. That's why I made sure to point out these are *preliminary* results.

    I'm not sure I can bring myself to do an *ahem* deeper interview.

    1. Joeman
      Pint

      you should take a selection of 'pornaholics', on a night out to a strip bar with hookers for the after party and document the results... wonder if they would 'man up' or wimp out?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Joeman

        How is going to a prostitute "manning up"? I personally use porn, but I also have a girlfriend, I would consider going to a prostitute a personal failing.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Coat

          Re: @Joeman

          "I would consider going to a prostitute a personal failing."

          What if you're a pimp?

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I know of two people who lost their jobs because they were downloading huge amounts of porn via an Internet connection at work. It turned out that one of them had lost his previous job for the same reason. In both cases, they were downloading so much that their systems featured in the top 10 Internet users - next to email, web and ftp servers. Both were employed in technical roles, so would have been aware of the concepts of firewalls and service monitoring.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      two people who lost their jobs

      Techies who couldn't hide suspect activities from their employers? So they were fired for being morons then?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: two people who lost their jobs

        "...they were fired for being morons then?"

        Well, that's what I thought. I had even tried to warn the second one by moving a few of his pictures to his desktop and deleting the rest of his porn collection on his work-issued desktop but to no avail - I guess the porn addiction overrides all common sense.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not learned behaviour - evolved.

    Hasn't all of mankind's advancement been based around sharing pictures of naked ladies more easily and throwing bigger rocks further? (cave paintings etc.)

  16. Stuart Elliott
    FAIL

    Ok, hands up... who clicked the link hoping for a bigger version of the thumbnail ?

    o/

    1. Bonce

      Both my hands are currently occupied, but yes.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Then how are you typing?

        1. John Bailey

          You just had to ask..

          Pass the mind bleach please.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Danger of small numbers

    The problem with studies like this, is just how tiny a number they represent - not only that, how are the subjects chosen in the first place?

    Surely the act of signing up for a study would, in many cases, imply the subject is possibly in some sort of financial trouble, or is troubled within themselves?

    Do they apply via adverts in papers? Are they just the type of people who are frequently used in different scientific studies for cash? Are they people that have already been in trouble for viewing smut?

    The figure of 800 habitual viewers is given - how did they get chosen? - offered free smut for contributing? (smirk)

    See where I'm going with this - unless you can do a totally random selection and guarantee those contributing are telling the truth and also get a *significant* volume of data, the results are tainted from the start.

    This can be said of the vast majority of studies of a subjective nature.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Danger of small numbers

      “Surely the act of signing up for a study would, in many cases, imply the subject is possibly in some sort of financial trouble, or is troubled within themselves?”

      Nope, no such thing of all. There are many ways that people are recruited for these types of academic research and they don’t get paid.

      From what I’ve read, the results – or rather the preliminary results, which are being discussed here – were obtained from an online survey. This is a very common method.

      “See where I'm going with this - unless you can do a totally random selection and guarantee those contributing are telling the truth and also get a *significant* volume of data, the results are tainted from the start.”

      Not really, this news article has been culled from a press release from a university about the preliminary findings from a research project. We’re just getting the juicy bits, which will ensure media coverage.

      There will be a published paper in due course, which will state how the participants were chosen and the method of obtaining the information – it’s also very common for the writers to comment about the margin of error and about factors that may affect the actual findings. It’s when you’ve read that, that you’re in a position to really scrutinise the project.

      1. Don Jefe

        Re: Danger of small numbers

        It would suck to be a subject in your lab then. Participants in most studies are compensated either through direct payments or course credit for uni students.

        Also, no real study uses online respondants/participants. You just can't do science like that. I hope that's not what you're doing.

  18. blofse

    I wonder if we are going to see more and more studies like this over the next year or so, with a miss-mash of information (to confuse), which then results in a government official quoting these reports as a way to argue about blocking web sites or white listing porn?

    That is the government way after all!

    But I hope not! I like porn! It keeps me from going ape-like mental when I see women (being single and all)....

    1. Euchrid

      @ blofse

      In this particular case, the study is being done by a university in Australia... a country noted for its rigid online censorship. If that was the motive, it's rather shutting the stable door...

      1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

        Re: @ blofse

        If there is rigid online censorship in Australia I have yet to come up against it. The reality is that there have been persistent failed attempts at online censorship. Failed, because no one supports them except a few unrepresentative lobby groups which unfortunately have the main political parties running scared.

  19. Great Bu

    3 hours a day ?

    3 hours a day is just poor time management - with proper application of efficiency and time-management skills I have learned on my employer sponsored courses I have it down to 3 minutes, including keyboard wipe-down and cache clearance.......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 3 hours a day ?

      >3 hours a day is just poor time management

      Ah the innocence of youth. When you get to an advanced age the three hours consists of 2 hours 57 minutes warm up followed by 3 minutes of wipe-down, etc...

    2. John G Imrie

      Re: 3 hours a day ?

      That's just 2 grumble flicks a day. And 30 mins at the other end is just 3 bouts with the 10 minute freeview on Channel X

  20. Peter Clarke 1
    Alert

    Compulsive Behaviour

    Would the numbers be much different if the survey was for compulsive Facebook/Twitter/Casino use?

  21. Beelzeebub
    Pint

    WTF

    We should all be down the pub now, not watching porn.

    I suspect that chap that went off to the loo furtively fondling his iThingy can't leave it alone even in drinking time.

  22. EvilGav 1

    It's a fairly wide band of use, 30 minutes to 3 hours and what constitutes use? Is the 20 minutes to download the grumble flick included?

    As others have said (and the author admitted), it is an extremely poor survey, based on a skewed initial view - you can change what the addiction is to anything and get the same results, i.e. a number of addicted people do it to the detriment of their job and life; a number would seek help; the number of addicts is skewed towards oen sex or the other and so on.

    Focussing on smut is pointless, studying addiction and addictive behaviours in general might be a better idea. For example, why are some people more prone to being addicted than others?

  23. mark 63 Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    surveyed 800

    thats 800 pretty Fucked up people they found as a sample

    88% ready to seek professional help?

    hardly a sensible 'whithin limits' smut viewer among them!

  24. Rodrigo Rollan
    Thumb Down

    Statitistics are inconclusive, 90 percent of us know that

    How do you define "Extreme porn viewing"? "Smut addiction" is exactly what ? How do yo exactly go from watching porn to having legal or interpersonal problems ? I am quite partial to the idea that it might be a symptom but definitively not the cause of their problems. And also , please provide d definition for relationship or interpersonal problems, since one mans meal is another mans poison (replace man with woman for same results).

  25. lotus49
    WTF?

    Lame

    The fact that a fifth preferred porn to real sex surprised me. They clearly aren't very good at it.

    My father once opined to me that he would rather do it than watch pictures of other people doing it. That sentiment runs in the family.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lame

      I suppose they would have to have tried both or they are just guessing.

  26. AndrueC Silver badge
    Joke

    They're just jerking around.

  27. Derk
    Paris Hilton

    Really?

    The survey says:

    85% of men like to wank and enjoy it

    15% of men deny it.

    As the saying goes, there are wanders, and liars.

    Paris.....because she has helped so many.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    StaTITistics !!! 8-)

  29. Graham Marsden
    Stop

    Post Hoc != Propter Hoc

    "Habitual viewers of smut often mess up their lives".

    ORLY?

    Or perhaps people who have messed up lives become habitual viewers of smut. Or alcoholics. Or drug abusers. Or resort to crime. Or...

    The same goes for “excessive users had severe social and relationship problems and had often lost their jobs or been in trouble with the law as a result of their addiction” the conclusion seems to be that it's the porn that caused the problem, rather than the problem being the result of other factors and which is then manifested in this "addiction".

    BTW "addiction" is a nicely pejorative term, but whilst drug addicts may mug grannies for their pensions to feed their habits, I don't think I've ever heard of someone doing the same so they can buy another porn mag or download a movie...

    Meanwhile, *who* were these "800 habitual online smut viewers"? How were they selected? And if there were "800 habitual online smut viewers" how does that compare with the number of those who also view online smut but do not do it "habitually" (whatever that means, how frequently do you have to do it before it becomes "habitual")?

    I found a link to the original survey, but, alas, the survey was no longer available which is a shame, because I'd have loved to see what the questions were and how impartially they had been phrased.

    Some other questions:

    "30 percent acknowledged that their work performance suffered due to excessive viewing" and how many "habitual" smokers acknowledge that their work suffers due to them gasping for a cigarette?

    "20 percent of respondents said they preferred the excitement of watching porn to being sexually intimate with their partner" and what about those geeks out there (of which there are more than a few) who haven't got a partner because aren't good in social situations and, as such, find other ways to relieve sexual tension?

    "Around 14 percent had formed a relationship with other online users" which is surely a good thing (but good things don't come from "addictions" do they?)

    "18 percent were preoccupied with fantasising when they were not online" and it's only "habitual smut watchers" that have this problem. After all, it's not the same as thinking about the big match you watched yesterday evening or worrying about your financial problems when you should be working or...

    And finally ""Watching porn is a learned behaviour and we believe it can be unlearned” says Dr Sitharthan. Why does this sound so disturbingly like the assertion from the last century that "Homosexualiy is a learned behaviour and we believe it can be unlearned”, resulting in attempts to "cure" gays by administering electric shocks for aversion therapy or, even, giving them lobotomies?

    I think these researchers had a conclusion and then did their research to prove it.

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      You made some good points.

      Not everyone wants porn, but if you choose to access it then at least you should expect to enjoy it - or something's gone wrong. Aren't most porn users enjoying it?

      1. Don Jefe

        Re: You made some good points.

        That bird I saw in the last grumble flick I saw didn't seem to be enjoying it. From any of the guys she was "acting" with.

  30. Michael Kean

    Why is the Reddit Alien...

    ... used as the icon for this article? It's not mentioned anywhere in the article. Is El Reg implying the majority of Reddit users have a proclivity to images that Picasa would find in a custom search for pink?

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Realities of life

    Whodda think porn users were missing out on real life?

  32. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
    Gimp

    I have recently come to a conclusion

    I only got connected to the internet a year or two ago.

    Since then, I have made it my job to check out every dirty little slut that wants to display herself publicly for all and sunder.

    I thought: this is an infinite well.

    I thought: how deep does this shit run?

    I realised about a week or two ago - I have viewed ALL THE FREE PORN ON THE WEB.

    Sorry, sticky CAPS lock - occupational hazard. ;-)

    The worst was seeing an ex-girlfriend in an extreme S&M flick made by her award winning for FILM boyfriend. I got over it eventually, but the shock was hard when not expecting it.

    It's all shit. You don't need it. Any man that pays for it is a wanker. eh eh...

    There is no substitute for closeness and intimacy between two human beings, be they of the same sex or different sex - don't matter.

    I'll shut up now.

    1. Don Jefe
      Unhappy

      Re: I have recently come to a conclusion

      That stuff sucks, but no need to be bitter about it man. They've been writing songs about it for at least 30+ years. The lesson is to learn what your current chick wants & give it to her. I dressed up like an astronaut once.

      BTW you have only seen the edge of the universe of porn online. My advice would be stop digging. It only gets more awful,

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