This page: Streetlight:

• Pornography Can Lead to Abuse

• Why is the sexual exploitation of children increasing at such an alarming rate?
• What is driving the demand for sex with children, including babies and infants?
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• One answer: the exponential rise in pornography, especially child pornography. 
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• No research can be conducted that would prove direct causality between child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children.  After all, who is going to conduct a double-blind study of the effects of child pornography?
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• What can be demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt is that:
• Pornography can ➔ Child Pornography, which can ➔ Sexually Abusing Children
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• For example, looking at the “Porn Facts” section you will notice that over 80% of men arrested for child sex abuse were in possession of child pornography.  Almost 60% had pornographic images or videos of children under five years of age.  That’s no coincidence.  
• People don’t normally begin by looking at images or videos of babies being sexually abused.  They usually:
• Begin with “harmless” soft-core, adult pornography 
• Move to hard-core adult porn
• Graduate to child porn
• Then look for younger and younger children
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• The drive to act out what one sees—including sexual abuse—is not limited to adult males.  Children abusing other children by acting out what they have seen in hard-core pornography is becoming more and more common. 
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• Bottom line: Pornography fuels the demand side of sex abuse and sex trafficking.
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• Abuse Can Lead to Sex Trafficking
• Over 80% of teenage girls who were sex trafficked had already been sexually abused.  In many cases the abuse is a major factor in children running away from home—which makes them an easy target for traffickers:
• 80% of child sex trafficking victims were runaways
• A third of those lured into sex slavery are taken within 48 hours of leaving home
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• Child Pornography can ➔ Sexually Abusing Children, which can ➔ Child Sex Trafficking
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• Pornography Can Be Addictive
• Pornography releases powerful chemicals in the brain and body and can become addictive, more quickly addicting than many drugs such as heroin.  As with all addictions, in order to get the same pleasure, more and more images are required.  And in many cases, more and more deviance.
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• Pornography is especially addictive to brains that are not fully developed and can permanently “hard wire” the brain to think and feel about sexuality in ways that are extremely harmful.