I was frustrated when Psych2Go (a YouTube channel) decided that porn rots your brain. Remember that our moral guardians also claimed that Rock & Roll and Dungeons & Dragons rot your brain, or hand your soul over to Satan. No moral panic should ever be trusted or acknowledged.

So when it comes to consuming porn, there are three negative effects I can imagine:

1. If you are using porn as a substitute for sex education, then it may leave you with some misconceptions about how adult humans relate. Not all women are looking to get pounded by Priapus for an hour. Cindy Gallop raised a concern in 2012 that too many young men were obsessed with jizzing in women’s faces, and noted this wasn’t fun for her, and not fun for any of the other women she asked, hence her Make Love Not Porn crusade to elevate the standards of porn to reflect closer to what is typical human behavior.

For the rest of us, the starting treatment is better sex ed. Planned Parenthood take comprehensive sex ed seriously, and they make materials that (I believe) they offer for free.

2. If you are used to non-amateur porn (and even then) you may be exposed to more than a little bit of super-normal stimulus. In nature super-normal stimulus are elements that go hard in triggering fixed action patterns. Doritos Nacho Cheese powder is an example of a super-normal stimulus as is Jessica Rabbit’s (impossible) hip-to-waist ratio.

So if you’re used to playboy centerfolds, to mainstream Hollywood porn stars, to anime (which plays on cute SNS), to cultivated AI porn, to porn art, etc. Your brain might decide that actual real women are wanting in their qualities. This is managed with awareness that hotties in porn are not representative of what human beings are like IRL, and those that actually have careers being a commercial sexpot have to devote their entire lives to staying fit.

3. As per any other pleasurable thing, porn can become addictive. This is a larger-picture issue in that our society demands we live lives so stressed that we must self-medicate, whether through porn, booze, gambling, career advancement, video games, or whatever. Dealing with addiction is a bigger issue, and I’ve taken the path of replacing harmful addictions with slightly less harmful addictions.

One final disclaimer, porn doesn’t actually rot your brain. (say the way that Alzheimer’s does), but these are ways that it can have negative effects on your life, or your kids’. Here in the States, our society hates sex, and does not have half a clue how to deal with their teens suddenly interested in sexual activity, and as such we more act to contain them rather than let them explore what is supposed to be a normal facet of adulthood. So if you have teen kids or teen friends or are a teen, it’s going to be up to you to figure it all out. Again, Planned Parenthood might be able to help.

Also, most doctors think from late adolescence / early adulthood onward, we should be sexually active, and that may even be healthier than abstinence or celibacy. Just make sure everyone is opt-in consenting.