Shaun Flores became hooked on porn when he was 11 years old, after viewing it for the first time at a friend’s house. It quickly became a problem for him, with Shaun describing how he watched it morning, noon and night, saying it became as “common as brushing your teeth”. Now 30 years old, he explained in a new BBC iPlayer series called Sex After that he realised he had an issue when he found that he had no energy to do anything else. He said he felt guilty and ashamed, but he was unable to stop.
Shaun is not alone. Increasing numbers of people are watching porn, and while not everyone who views it develops an addiction, millions in the UK alone routinely watch it, with 1.8 million watching daily, and one in three adults regularly accessing porn content online. Treatment providers have reported an increase in the number of people seeking help for porn addiction. Dr Paula Hall at The Laurel Centre in London, explained that the centre’s number of clients seeking help with porn issues has doubled over recent years, with an increasing number in their 20s and 30s who are single and recognising the growing toll of porn use on their relationships.
Lee Fernandes, a leading therapist at the UKAT Group, said the number of people his organisation treats for problematic porn use has risen significantly. He said they receive multiple enquiries for help from people struggling with their porn use every single day. Fernandes explains that easy accessibility to sexual content online means people of all ages can easily access porn, leading to significantly more people seeking help.
The Children’s Commissioner for England promotes and protects the rights of children. They recently carried out research which found that, in 2023, 10% of children had seen porn before the age of nine and 27% by the time they were 11. In response to the research Dame Rachel de Souza, the current Children’s Commissioner, said “Pornography is no longer confined to dedicated adult sites – children tell me they can see violent content, depicting coercive, degrading or pain-inducing sexual acts on social media. The implications of seeing this kind of material are vast – my research has found that frequent users of pornography are more likely to engage in physically aggressive sex acts.” De Souza added it is vital for high-quality relationship and sex education to be given parity of importance with other subjects to help young people understand that pornography is unrealistic
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