A critical element of the often-tragic stories that result from the exposure of youth to pornography is the psychological and physical damage it causes. While most adults would agree that pornography is especially harmful to children, many of these same adults sanction the teaching of explicit sex education in the schools, as well as the inclusion of pornographic books in school libraries.

An organization called Protect Young Eyes published a list in 2021 of five ways pornography attacks the developing brains of children and ultimately twists their views of sex, relationships, and other people. The article is titled 5 Ways Pornography Harms Children and Teens and describes in some detail its physical impacts on the developing brains of the young.

At the time of publication, 5 Ways asserted that "90 percent of children ages 8-16 have seen online pornography." Since one of the last regions of the brain to fully develop is the prefrontal cortex, which the article describes as "the 'brakes' of the brain," young people can easily sustain neurological damage from exposure to pornography due to their inability to fully control how they react to what they see. The prefrontal cortex is typically developed by age 25.

Following is a synopsis of the five ways pornography impacts children and teens according to Protect Young Eyes:

• Pornography harms a child's precious brain. It actually changes neural pathways.
• Pornography harms a child's view of sex. How it appears on the screen (or shown in books and magazines) is not how it is in real life.
• Pornography harms a child's view of people. Porn diminishes the ability to see a real person.
• Pornography harms a child's quality of life. Because it is a super-normal stimulus, kids can't stop watching, which causes loss of sleep and time.
• Pornography causes children to harm other children. When young kids see pornography, they practice pornography on other children.

The article explains that the brains of young people are "hypersensitive to reward stimuli. Meaning behaviors can become habitual VERY quickly. Neurons in the different regions of the brain comprising the reward system communicate using dopamine ... It enhances reward-related memories and creates emotional associations with rewards ... It's not the reward itself, but the expectation of a reward that most powerfully influences emotional reactions and memories."

While young children most often encounter pornography by accident through the idle electronic devices of adults, such as a computer screen with images carelessly left in view, the results of exposure can quickly become disastrous. In these cases, it is the responsibility of parents and other adults in the child's life to protect them from such digital dangers.

Many observers place the blame for problems children and teens experience with pornography squarely on the failure of parents to monitor internet access, and surely parents and adult caregivers have grave responsibility in this arena. One psychologist Education Reporter spoke with, who preferred not to be named, charged that unmonitored and unregulated use of electronic devices and screens were almost entirely at fault for the explosion of youthful addiction to porn, and most professionals would likely agree with his assessment.

But the blame must also rest with schools, particularly when parents object to explicit sex education, transgender indoctrination, and pornographic library books, yet the schools refuse to listen, or when they deliberately hide these activities. Although some public officials believe schools should displace parents when it comes to education, this is a fallacy, and these officials must be held accountable at election time.

The 5 Ways article does not limit its content to the dangers posed by pornography, but provides ways parents can safeguard their children through the use of digital protections, and offers additional advice parents may or may not wish to take.

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