PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF PORNOGRAPHY EXPOSURE AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN PAHANG

Abstract

Pornography is a medium for sexual pleasure obtained from sources like pictures, videos, audios and written materials. Pornography can cause addiction to the users by stimulating the reward system that will cause significant changes of the brain similarly seen in drug addiction. Pornographic addiction has become a serious concern in the community worldwide which involves multiple age groups from children, teenagers until the adults. This concern is becoming serious as the sources of the pornographic materials are easily available via internet. Pornography addiction was shown to give psychological impacts to the users. This study was conducted to investigate any psychological impact on extend of pornography usage among university students and their differences between the genders. The psychological impacts that were investigated were anxiety and depression.  A total of 114 undergraduate students from IIUM Kuantan Campus participated in this online survey. The result showed that significantly more men involved with pornography compared to women. The common age at first exposure to pornography was between 13 to 17 years old in both genders. The anxiety symptoms among those involved with pornography were similar in both genders but showing a higher percentage than those who did not involved with pornography. The percentage of women classified to have moderate to severe depression was slightly higher than men among those watching pornography and the percentages in both genders was higher compared to those who did not involve with pornography.