AI hurts population health status when it’s used to longitudinally hook people on porn
The rate of harms to the mental and physical health of individuals who frequently use pornography is accelerating, and AI is playing a key role in driving porn addiction as well as “escalation to more violent material.”
That’s according to researchers with the Reward Foundation, an educational charity in the U.K. that’s accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners to train healthcare professionals about the risks of excess use of pornography.
Current Addiction Reports published their report Sept. 9.
In the paper, Mary Sharpe, the CEO of the foundation and an instructor at Lucy Cavendish College of the University of Cambridge, and Dr. Darryl Mead, chair of the foundation’s board, describe two prime ways AI has contributed to pornography’s development into a serious public health concern.
First, all consumers are “vulnerable to the way the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms used on commercial websites manipulate consumers to escalate to viewing more intensely arousing forms of pornography,” the authors write. “The effectiveness of the algorithms in driving escalation is demonstrated by the way pornography users can recognize that their tastes change over time.”
Second, Sharpe and Mead assert, AI algorithms can drive consumers in either of two directions. One is toward violent material, the other toward content exploiting the young.
“People with problematic pornography use (PPU) have developed brain changes that increase cravings for more stimulating, perhaps high-risk material and a diminished capacity to inhibit their use of it,” they write.
The authors call for action around four “promising approaches” that don’t involve filing unlikely-to-win class-action lawsuits against the massive porn industry.
The approaches are age verification, education programs, public health campaigns and mandatory health warnings. In the paper, Sharpe and Mead suggest strategies and approaches for each.
“In most jurisdictions around the world, pornography is legal, or else sits in a grey zone where some aspects may be legal and others illegal,” they comment. “In many jurisdictions, the law and government policy simply have not kept pace with the technological and social changes that have accompanied the boom in internet-based pornography consumption. The pornography industry has lobbied hard to achieve and maintain this very light regulatory environment.”
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There is ample scope for government and policy makers to give more protection to citizens and hold technology companies, in particular pornography companies, accountable for the harms from their products. Problematic pornography use may not be a disorder that can be eliminated, but with good governance and widespread public education it does not need to become an epidemic.”
The paper is available in full for free.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.