Just as 30-second commercials can influence whether or not we choose one popular soft drink over another, exposure to pornography shapes our attitudes, values (and often) our behavior. Replicated studies have demonstrated that exposure to significant amounts of increasingly graphic forms of pornography has a dramatic effect on how adult and child consumers view men, women, teens, children, sexual behavior, sexual relationships, and sex in general. When experimental subjects were exposed to as little as six weeks’ worth of non-violent pornography, they:
• Began to trivialize rape as a criminal offense, or no longer considered it a crime at all.
• Developed distorted perceptions about sexuality.
• Developed an appetite for more deviant, bizarre or violent types of pornography. (Normal sex no longer seemed to satisfy.)
• Devalued the importance of monogamy and lacked confidence in marriage as either a viable or lasting institution.
• Viewed non-monogamous relationships as normal and natural.
(The Drug of the New Millennium, Mark B. Kastleman)