Ashford University Essay

Pornography is very addictive and can destroy someone’s marriage and life. This addiction can, and in many cases, lead to someone committing very serious sexual crimes. People who look at porn often look for more perversity in different areas. The resources from which I found my information on is the Ashford Library and a couple credible internet sites. There are several reasons why people turn to porn. Some reasons are for seeing their own fantasies acted out because they can’t act them out with their own partner / spouse, some people want to avoid intimacy within their own relationship for personal reasons, some just do it for personal pleasure. But for whatever reason, there is always a consequence that will follow. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), 56% of divorces occur because one spouse keeps returning to a pornographic website. These men / women feel as though they are being compared to these people in the pornographic films or pict ures. Whether it’s the man or the woman who is watching porn inside the marriage, in most cases, they are doing this against their spouses wishes. This leads to lack of intimacy, low self esteem, shame, and lack of trust. This also makes the spouse feel as if they are no longer found attractive. â€Å"Just ask your spouse how confident they feel being naked in front of you after you’ve looked at pornography and you’ll understand this one.† ( http://www.debttolife.com ). Many people say that they introduce porn into their marriage to spice their love life up but in the end all this does is slowly destroy the intimacy that was there. After watching pornography people’s views are completely changed. After being exposed to R-  rated material men no longer see their spouse as they once did. They look at them now more as an object rather than an individual that they love. Studies have shown (http://www.webmd.com ) that pornography can be just the same as an addiction. Some experts who have studied porn addiction have called the effects of porn on the brain toxic and also compared it to the deadly drug cocaine (WebMD, 2014). These addicts no longer just suffer from nights without sleep or unpaid credit card bills but they are also becoming more engaged in group sex and sexual contact with animals. Other effects that have surfaced from pornography include acting out what they have seen in porn material, sexual acts towards children both boys and girls, and rape using foreign materials / objects. (The Forerunner, 1991). Child pornography is a disgusting fact that we hear about every day. â€Å"Child pornography is the visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct includes acts such as intercourse, bestiality and masturbation as well as lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area.† (Pulido, 2013). Recently, there were 71 people, 70 men and 1 woman, who were arrested in child pornography charges. Among that 70 included a police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, an airline pilot, an architect, and a Boy Scout leader. Many of these people who were arrest had search the phrases â€Å"real child rape† and â€Å"family sex† into their computers search engines turning up extremely disturbing images (Hays, 2014). With so many people connected to the internet it has made this type of crime so easy. Perverts and pedophiles search the web everyday to find new victims. â€Å"The victims are getting younger, and the images more violent.†(Flack). When a picture of a child circles the internet going from one person to another, that child is being re-abused. No child should have to endear that type of suffering, never! A peer – to – peer, also known as P2P, file sharing network, that allows people to share music, videos, and pictures, was under investigation by authorizes and had 3,000 child pornography consumers with tens of thousands of child pornographic images  traded. â€Å"The investigation began after agents, using software available to law enforcement, were able to trace files of child pornography to an I.P. address on a computer used by Brian Fanelli, 54, who until January was the police chief of Mount Pleasant, N.Y† (Berger, 2014). Another, earlier, report back in 2009, out of all the arrest made on P2P users, 33 percent of those arrested had images of children three years old and younger and 42 percent had images of children showing some type of sexual explicit material. (Pulido, 2013). Virtue Ethics is â€Å"A person’s character is the totality of his character traits. Our character traits can be good, bad or somewhere in between. They can be admirable or not. The admirable character traits, the marks of perfection in character, are called virtues, their opposites are vices.†(Garrett, 2005)., I believe that this theory is a big part of someone who is willing to put everything at risk for something so degrading and disrespectful to themselves. A persons character says a lot about who that person is and what that person may be capable of doing. Not everyone has good virtue ethics and this is when one’s character and moral traits come in play. One’s character is shown through their ac tions and behavior, whether this is being good or bad. One’s moral values are shown through their honesty, their loyalty, and their respect for others. As we all know pornography is very popular but it can also cause serious problems. Many people look at the disturbing images not thinking about the consequences, they are only thinking about what is happening at that moment and at that moment that’s what they want to do. I look at this issue using the deontology theory. â€Å"Rather than looking at the consequences of an act, deontology looks at the reason for which an act is done, and the rule according to which one chooses to act.† (Mosser, 2013). I take that as someone doing something on impulse rather than thinking about the consequences that they will face when they act upon their decision. If someone knew that they was going to destroy their marriage by watching porn, if someone knew that by watching porn it would make them fall behind on their bills, or  if someone knew that by watching porn they would go out and commit sexual crimes, do you think they would have continued or even started looking at these image s, I think not! REFERENCES: Berger, J. (2014, May).71 Are Accused in a Child Pornography Case, Officials Say. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/nyregion/dozens-arrested-in-new-york-state-child-pornography-investigation.html?_r=0 Dr. Garrett. (2005, Nov.) Virtue Ethcs. Retrieved from http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/ethics/virtthry.htm Editorial Staff. (1991, Nov.). The Documented Effect of Porn. The Forerunner, X(VI). Retrieved from http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0388_Effects_of_Pornograp.html Flack, (Date, N/A)E. Bill Calls For Harsher Penalties For Possessing Child Porn. Retrieved from http://www.wave3.com/story/4639194/bill-calls-for-harsher-penalties-for-possessing-child-porn Hays, T. (2014, May). Cop, rabbi among 71 charged in child porn case. Telegraph – Herald Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1527156210?accountid=32521 Mosser, K. (2013). Ethics and social responsibility (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Pulido, Ph.D. ( Oct, 2013). Child Pornography: Basic Facts About A Horrific Crime. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-l-pulido-phd/child-pornography-basic-f_b_4094430.html