Could your children already be addicted to porn?

Did you know that 30 percent of the internet is pornography?

80 percent of that 30 percent is the kind of pornography that no one wants you to know they’re watching. It’s porn that is all about humiliation, degradation, violence, slapping, spanking, choking, gagging and verbal assaults. The average age of a child exposed to such pornography for the first time is age 11. Some are exposed even younger. Eastern Idaho children are not immune. Some counselors call children addicted to pornography a public health crisis.

“The youngest I’ve seen come in is 10 years old. He already had a serious addiction problem,” said Kirsten Griggs, a local licensed counselor. She has seen a growing number of young patients addicted to porn.

“When they accidentally stumble upon it on the internet, the image is arousing and startling and it releases dopamine in the brain. That’s what draws them back to look again,” she said. “It pulls them in. They want to push away, they’re confused about it, but it’s arousing and interesting.”

Even a child as young as 10 finds it hard to turn away. Pornography is everywhere. If your child has a cellphone, an iPad or a computer, your child has easy access. Every child could be just three clicks away from a porn site.

“It’s a problem everywhere,” said Dr. Janet Allen of Creekside Counseling. “Pornography is accessible, it’s free, it’s anonymous. You don’t have to go to the adult bookstore to find it.”

“It’s also highly addictive. The surprise, shock, violence, sexual arousal all combine to create a toxic and addictive stew. A lot of counselors now believe porn and addiction are the number one health concern for the digital age.”

According to the experts, viewing pornography creates a new neuropathway in the brain.

“All human beings are sexual creatures. We’re hard-wired that way,” said Daniel Allen, another counselor at Creekside. “From the day we are born until the day we die, we are sexual creatures. Any person with eyeballs and a human brain is going to respond to that imagery via a change in their brain chemistry. The brain chemical we’re talking about is dopamine.”

Is it the parents’ fault if a child gets addicted to porn because they didn’t monitor the electronics in the house?

“I wouldn’t say it’s the parents’ fault, but I would say the parents can be the solution,” said Griggs. “The parents can be the preventer.”

“We have to educate parents,” said Janet Allen. “Parents have to pull their heads out of the sand and educate themselves on what’s really out there. We have to have some uncomfortable conversations. We have to be confronted with uncomfortable data.”

The counselors suggest no electronics of any kind in a child’s bedroom.

“It has to be used in a public area,” says Joan Allen.

Parents need to understand firewalls and filter systems and how apps work. Check the history on your child’s electronic devices. Most important of all, do not shame your child when he or she comes to you and says he stumbled onto a surprising picture on his computer.

“This is a new conversation we need to have,” Griggs said. “Tell your child sometimes there are good things on the internet and sometimes there are bad things. Some are healthy, some are not. We don’t always get to choose what pops up. But if something like this comes up, you can come talk to me and you won’t get in trouble.”

Though the counselors say you can never cure an addiction, you can treat it.

“What we know about brain chemistry is once a neuropathway has been formed it takes about 90 days of abstaining from a behavior or substance for that neuropathway to atrophy,” Daniel Allen said. “We can get new neuro pathways. So from the very beginning, we’re trying to get someone to abstain for a period of 90 days so they can create new neuro networks.”

There are 68 million online porn requests a day and we have to make sure our children aren’t making one of them.