Help the government see the damage of all pornography

The government has issued a call for evidence about the harms and accessibility of pornography.

Pornography use has many devastating effects.

• Pornography use and addiction harms relationships
• It incites lust, leading to sexual feelings and behaviours that do not honour God and are not good for us
• Addictions lead many Christians to struggle with their faith, believing they can never be forgiven or change
• Children and teenagers can be prematurely sexualised, leading to many of the same problems as well as inappropriate behaviour at school.

Online pornography in particular allows the most dangerous and degrading videos to be accessed by anyone in a matter of seconds.

Many Christians will have stories of how this has affected them or those they know.

Could you respond to the government’s call for evidence with your own experiences and testimony?

The call for evidence explicitly invites “members of the public” to respond.

It’s an opportunity to reset the public debate on pornography. The government has finally started to do something about the ease of under-18s accessing sexually explicit material. But pornography doesn’t just damage children – it damages viewers and performers of any age.

Sexually explicit material isn’t a ‘harmless bit of fun’. It isn’t free speech. The government needs to understand that the damage of pornography goes much further and wider than what is currently illegal.

You can make a difference by responding to the Call to Evidence here. Sharing your story will help the government see the bigger picture – pornography does society no good at all.

Please respond before the deadline on 7 March 2024 using our guide below.

How to respond

There are some initial pages and a privacy policy.

You will then be given four sections of questions. We recommend answering the following two sections:

Section 1: The Prevalence of Illegal Pornography Online, and the Impact of Legal Online Pornography 

Section 4: Education and Information Resources on Pornography

(if you have testimony of working within pornography and/or are involved in ministry to those who have been involved in pornography or sex trafficked we recommend you also respond to section 3 “The response to illegal pornographic content and exploitation and abuse in the pornography industry.”)

You can respond to any of the questions in these sections with your own experience or testimony (or that of others). If you are a counsellor or pastor, you can share your experiences of counselling those struggling with pornography.

We suggest answering Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 19, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38. You can, of course, answer the other questions too if you have relevant testimony or expert knowledge.

We have written more guidance for how you can respond to these questions below:

The Prevalence of Illegal Pornography Online, and the Impact of Legal Online Pornography

1. What evidence can you provide on the public’s attitudes towards pornography? This can include positive or negative attitudes from individuals of any age.

• We encourage you to write about your own attitude towards pornography and the attitude of other Christians, such as those in your church.
• Explain the Christian position on pornography as you understand it – that it incites lust, and as Jesus said: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
• You can cite any books, website or courses you may have seen on sexual purity that demonstrate the Christian position.

2. What evidence can you provide on how legal pornography positively affects the behaviours of viewers? This can include relationships, psychological impacts and/or sexual behaviours of viewers.

• You can say, from your own experience and/or the experience of others, that you do not believe there are any positive effects of pornography use.
• You may want to challenge, from your experience, claims that others might make about pornography’s supposed benefits: providing sex education, entertainment, rest or the idea that it can be helpful to married couples.

3. What evidence can you provide on how legal pornography adversely affects the behaviours of viewers? This can include relationships, psychological impacts and/or sexual behaviours of viewers.

• If you have your own experience or testimony of consuming pornography then we encourage you to write it here. If you are aware of other experiences or testimonies, then you can include them here.
• Include how pornography led to negative effects, such as addiction, shame and poor mental health.
• if you are now free from pornography use, you may include here the positive changes you saw in yourself since being free from pornography.
• If you or your spouse have consumed porn you may wish to talk about the negative impacts on your marriage and sexual intimacy (for example, breakdown of trust, inability for sexual intimacy, pressure to perform certain sexual acts seen in pornography, etc.).
• if you found pornography led to yourself watching increasingly extreme pornography or deviant sexual behaviours, you can include it here.
• if using pornography had a negative impact on your Christian faith, including your Bible reading, prayer, going to church and relating to others at church, share this here

4. Is there evidence to suggest a link between viewing specific types of legal pornography (such as violent legal pornography) and subsequent attitudes towards relationships, psychological impacts and/or sexual behaviours of viewers?

• We encourage you to write your own testimony here.
• We would recommend that you write that all pornography can lead to changes attitudes towards relationships, psychological impacts and/or sexual behaviours of views (i.e. it is not just extreme or violent pornography that has these effects.)

5. Is there evidence to suggest links between viewing specific types of pornography and viewers’ attitudes towards violence against women and girls?

• We encourage you to write your own testimony here.
• We would recommend that you write that all pornography can lead to negative attitudes towards violence against women and girls given the inherent dehumanising and objectivising nature of pornography.

19. What impact has pornography’s shift to online mediums had on viewers? This could include impacts on accessibility, attitudes, violence against women and girls etc. Please provide evidence to support this.

• If you have your own experience or testimony relating to online pornography then we encourage you to write it here. If you are aware of other experiences or testimonies then you can include them here.
• We recommend explicitly mentioning pornography’s shift to smartphones and how it has increased accessibility, particularly for young people.
• You can also share any stories you may have of how the immediate accessibility of online pornography has affected the ability of addicts to recover; it is clearly harder to break an addiction to pornography that is accessible for free in a matter of seconds than when a user needed to physically go to a shop and spend money to buy a magazine or video.

Education and Information Resources on Pornography

34. What education / information are you aware of being available for adults about:

34.1 the potential impact of viewing pornography? This can include some types of legal pornography which convey violent or misogynistic assumptions about sex and relationships.

• If you are aware of any you can mention it here; this can include Christian ministries and books.

34.1.1 In your view, how effective is this education / information?

• • Any education and information to be effective must highlight the inherent dangers in any and all pornography use.

• Any education and information to be effective must encourage a zero-tolerance approach to pornography.
• Education and information will always be limited in effectiveness because, in practice, pornography is so accessible and addictive. Pornography use is not driven so much by beliefs as by emotions, desires and addiction.

35. What education / information are you aware of being available for children about:

35.1 the impact of viewing pornography? This can include some types of legal pornography which conveys violent or misogynistic assumptions about sex and relationships.

• If you are aware of any you can mention it here; this can include Christian ministries and books.

35.1.1 In your view, how effective is this education / information?

• Any education and information to be effective must highlight the inherent dangers in any and all pornography use.
• Any education and information to be effective must encourage a zero-tolerance approach to pornography.
• Education and information will always be limited in effectiveness because, in practice, pornography is so accessible and addictive. Pornography use is not driven so much by beliefs as by emotions, desires and addiction.

36. What evidence can you provide on what motivates children, parents and carers to seek information about pornography and its harmful impacts?

• If you have your own experience or testimony then we encourage you to write it here. If you are aware of other experiences or testimonies then you can include them here.

37. In your view, how could parents / carers be better supported to educate their children about pornography? Please provide any evidence you have to support this.

• You can mention that whilst education can be helpful, in practice it can be difficult when pornography is so accessible and so addictive.
• You may wish to discuss here that pornography websites need to be much harder to access for young people.
• In particular, robust age-verification is needed on pornography websites.

38. In your view, what information or support would be helpful for adults who are concerned about their own consumption of pornography? Please provide any evidence you have to support this.

• You can mention that although education and information can be helpful, in practice it can be difficult when pornography is so accessible and so addictive.
• You may also mention that Christians suffering with an addiction may particularly struggle to seek help, particularly from sources that do not share Christian beliefs.
• People should be directed towards Christian ministries and churches which are willing to help those struggling with their own pornography use (for example, Naked Truth Project).
• You can mention your own testimony of battling pornography use (for example, pastoral care, accountability groups and software).

Please respond to the consultation by 7 March 2024.

If you need help to stop using porn, please read about how to recover from a porn addiction.

You can also listen to the talks from our conference Championing Sexual Purity in a Pornographic Age.