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Let’s be honest, no one wants to talk about porn. But we have to. We must. Because of our digital devils that honestly can at times feel like predators in our pockets, it’s so prevalent and pervasive–even unlike the Playboy of yesterday because it is ever-present and can be manipulated to a person’s specific sexual taste. Some medical and psychological professionals are calling porn addiction the number one public health crisis of this generation. And it is an addiction.
There’s evidence to suggest that porn works on the brain in the same way that cocaine does. It changes the neurobiology of the brain. As with all addictions, the porn addict has to seek out more and more of the stimulus in order to get the same results. Eventually, the neuropathways get rewired so that the reward system of the brain gets link to porn and not sex. Our bodies were not designed to have the kind of sustained dopamine levels that constant stimuli produce.
Although the medical community is still not sure what the long-lasting damage will be, they do know that erectile dysfunction is at an unprecedented high in men under the age of 40 and that it’s been directly linked to the overwhelming availability of porn.
Today, on the Podcast, we have a special guest with us, author Kristen A. Jenson. She’s here joining us to help give us some tools to have hard conversations with our kids in order to protect them from porn.
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Kristen is the author of the Good Pictures Bad Pictures series of read-aloud books including the best-selling Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today’s Young Kids and Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr.: A Simple Plan to Protect Young Minds. She’s the founder of ProtectYoungMinds.org, a website dedicated to helping parents empower their kids to resist and reject pornography.
To learn more about Kristen A. Jenson:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Philippians 4:8