How to deal with pornography?
I would like to answer this question by making three statements that can help us deal with this situation in an educational way, taking into account human psychodynamics and what the Church teaches us.
Starting from the digital perspective, I believe that parents and educators are initially called to address the issue of pornography from the point of view of digital logic – as the issue of psychological and psycho-physical acceleration that we experience within the digital world. Starting from this viewpoint, we can ask ourselves some questions: what happens on a psychological level with a teenager who is exposed to the digital world in a continuous and intense way? What happens on a physical and emotional level with the consequent acceleration of the brain, with its cognitive and affective aspects, on anxiety, fear, insecurity and consequently with sexuality? What does this teenager, with full access to all the logic of the digital world with so many images and videos do to manage their feelings, emotions, desires, hormones and so on?
Today we are experiencing what is called hyper-sexualisation, a new reality in the digital world. Hyper-sexualisation manifests itself in the hyper-exposure of the body, performance, power and success that induce adolescents and young people to experience sexuality through stimuli. In digital logic, as we have said, stimuli govern imagination and actions. It is therefore important for parents and educators to talk to adolescents and young adults about how digital logic works in the context of social networks and the Internet. First, to understand these dynamics and deepen the human and Christian values of sexuality.
A second topic is the physical aspect that refers to the ideology that guides the digital world, the internet and social networks and the model of the human person that is proposed in this universe. Symbolism and signs that are used subliminally by advertising make people hungry consumers. There is a whole advertising scene that involves teenagers and young adults. They are consumption strategies with products that take their use to the point of being practically “deified” and where people live by consuming through continuous and intense messages. All this comes immediately into the digital world, creating a vicious circle through a desire for continuous and unstoppable consumption.
This dynamic of acceleration of feelings, emotions and imagination tends to make people indifferent to their world of critical awareness and reflection.
Are you saying, then, that digital logic stimulates people to enter a circle of constant sex consumption?
Moving away from one's feelings and experiencing dissatisfaction in the consumption of goods in an exaggerated and accelerated way directly affects sexuality, leading the person to transfer this same dynamic to sex. We are therefore talking about the response of sexuality to stimuli, the acceleration of the brain, desires, libido and the search for a (digital) environment that offers these products and a type of lifestyle that allows and enhances this constant consumption of sex.
In other words: there is a risk that people will seek sex without considering the whole aspect of human sexuality, which involves feelings, love, values, conscience, responsibility towards others and loyalty to the person.
Sometimes these stimuli are reinforced by the use of sounds that amplify desires and libido. At other times, the use of certain chemicals, psychotropics, drugs and alcohol leads young people to experience extreme situations of loss of meaning, radicalism affecting themselves and others, totally losing emotional control. All this becomes an attraction for them to look at pornography as a way to break free.
Of course, pornography existed even before digitisation and the Internet. We must also remember that the issue of pornography is also linked to educational issues, psychological disorders and cultural realities, these are complex issues that deserve further study.
Following the indications of the Church, it is fundamental to educate to a mature sexuality starting from the love given, building a life project in which sexuality is lived in its entirety as a responsible gift.
The Catholic Church, through the catechism and teachings on morality and sexuality, presents a sure anthropology and psychology of how to live sexuality and grow in an integral and mature way as a human person who loves and lives their sexuality in a healthy and responsible way. " Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.” (2332).
Are children aware that it is more important for parents (and educators) to spend time with them than to keep up with social media or respond to emails?
I believe that the responsibility of living in the digital world falls within the tasks of parents and children. We are all called to educate ourselves to live in a healthy, more human and fraternal way within the digital universe. It is therefore a matter of dialogue, of listening, and love. A teenager who lives in a family and feels love will have a very important emotional reference point to grow ethically in the digital world.
Although young people are skilled at navigating digitally, they still seek our friendship, our listening, our support as travel companions and educators. We must learn, with young people, to walk alongside them.
Have you ever experienced cyberbullying or know someone who has?
Yes, I have seen some cases of cyberbullying, especially among middle school students. This topic is related to what I said before about the intense and sometimes irrational reactions caused by stimuli increased by digital technology. Again, the individual is always responsible for their own actions. Often cyberbullying depends on the education of the individual, on problems of a psychological nature, but technology becomes a danger that threatens the other in the hands of the individual.
Let us always remember that one of the serious problems of the digital world is power. The power to seduce, manipulate, lie, provoke hatred and violence against others. That is why ethical education for life in the digital world is a matter of the utmost urgency in schools and in our families.
How could we, as educators, have more initiative and rely less on video games and TV programs to keep kids busy?
Considering that we live in a digital world and that television, internet and social networks are all connected, I don't think that limiting the use of media is educational. Preventing them from playing video games and finding another activity to keep them busy can produce minimal results. The point is not to limit or avoid, but to educate for creative, healthy, responsible and ethical use. Every family must think about how to create a healthy and balanced lifestyle with their children within the digital habitat.
