'I watched porn morning, noon and night'

Shaun Flores was 11 years aged erstwhile helium archetypal started watching porn, aft being introduced to it by a friend.

"I was hooked astir immediately," the present 30-year-old says.

"It was conscionable like, wow, what is this that radical are doing wherever they look similar they're conscionable having the clip of their lives."

Shaun’s curiosity rapidly turned into thing that helium recovered hard to stop.

He describes watching porn morning, noon and night, saying it became arsenic "common arsenic brushing your teeth".

Shaun has shared his communicative successful a caller BBC iPlayer series, Sex After.

"I realised determination was an contented erstwhile I had nary vigor to bash anything," helium says. "I didn't privation to play football, I conscionable wanted to beryllium inside.

"But determination was the guilt and the shame that came with it, and nary substance what I tried to do, I couldn’t halt watching it.

"That's erstwhile I knew determination was thing up."

While not everyone who watches porn volition make an unhealthy narration with it, Shaun isn’t unsocial successful his viewing habits.

Ofcom’s Online Nation 2024 study suggests 29% of UK adults accessed online porn successful May 2024. Additionally, caller probe from addiction attraction centre, UKAT, suggests that millions of Britons are viewing pornography regularly - with 1.8 cardinal watching daily, immoderate aggregate times a day.

According to attraction providers, much radical are seeking assistance for problematic porn use.

Dr Paula Hall, a UKCP-accredited intersexual and narration psychotherapist astatine The Laurel Centre, successful London, specialises successful helping radical affected by enactment addiction and porn addiction.

"The numbers of clients seeking assistance with pornography problems astatine The Laurel Centre person doubled implicit caller years, arsenic person our requests from wellness professionals for further training," she tells the BBC.

Dr Hall explains that they person besides seen a increasing fig of younger radical seeking help.

"Ten years agone the bulk of our clients would person been joined men successful their 40s and 50s who were seeking assistance due to the fact that their spouse had discovered their usage of enactment workers," she says.

"But increasingly, our clients are successful their 20s and 30s, galore of whom are single, who are recognising the increasing toll of porn usage connected their lives and connected their quality to get oregon support a relationship."

Lee Fernandes, pb therapist astatine the UKAT Group, besides says the fig of radical they dainty for problematic porn usage has risen "significantly" successful caller years.

They present person aggregate enquiries for assistance from radical struggling with their porn usage each azygous day. Prior to 2020, it was 1 oregon 2 enquiries a week

Fernandes explains that advancements successful exertion and the consequent casual accessibility of porn is making it easier for radical of each ages to entree intersexual contented online. He believes his is contributing to the summation successful radical seeking assistance that helium has experienced.

"It's not precise hard for idiosyncratic to propulsion retired their phone, spell onto a tract and look astatine porn, whether they're 12 years aged oregon 60 years old," helium says. "It is rather troubling."

According to Fernandes, different reasons for radical watching porn online see curiosity, boredom, accent alleviation and deficiency of intersexual satisfaction.

While porn usage mightiness commencement for these reasons, Fernandes describes it arsenic being "very addictive".

"It fulfils that dopamine reward system," helium explains. "Once you commencement it's rather hard to stop."

However, portion problematic porn usage mightiness mimic an addiction, it isn’t diagnostically recognised arsenic such.

Instead, it is categorised arsenic problematic online pornography usage (POPU), oregon compulsive behaviour.

For radical who make this narration with porn, the effects tin beryllium negative.

And for the youngest successful nine who are increasing up with free, hardcore contented astatine their fingertips, the interaction of aboriginal overexposure tin beryllium acold reaching.

The Children’s Commissioner for England promotes and protects the rights of children.

Recent probe from their bureau recovered that, successful 2023, 10% of children had seen porn by the property of 9 and 27% had seen it by property 11.

"Young radical archer maine their vulnerability to pornography is wide and normalised – with the mean property astatine which children archetypal seeing pornography being 13 years old," Dame Rachel de Souza, the existent Children’s Commissioner, tells the BBC.

"Pornography is nary longer confined to dedicated big sites – children archer maine they tin spot convulsive content, depicting coercive, degrading oregon pain-inducing intersexual acts connected societal media.

"The implications of seeing this benignant of worldly are immense – my probe has recovered that predominant users of pornography are much apt to prosecute successful physically assertive enactment acts."

De Souza adds that it is "vital" for high-quality narration and enactment acquisition to beryllium fixed parity of value with different subjects to assistance young radical recognize that pornography is unrealistic.

Silva Neves, a psychotherapist who specialises successful the attraction of compulsive intersexual behaviours, agrees that viewing porn astatine a young property tin person a antagonistic impact.

However, helium emphasises that the deficiency of prime enactment acquisition for young radical leads to them looking for accusation elsewhere.

"They’re past going to spot hairless vulvas," helium says. "They're going to spot 9in penises.

"They're going to spot hard intercourse lasting for 30 minutes and choking, and each these things, and they're going to think, ‘ok, truthful this is sex’.

"But it’s overmuch easier to constituent the digit astatine porn and accidental porn is the problem."

Courtney Daniella Boateng, 26, archetypal started watching porn erstwhile she was astatine superior school.

For her, it was partially driven by the deficiency of due enactment acquisition disposable to her. She explains that her classes astatine schoolhouse were focussed connected the biology of reproduction, alternatively than the acquisition of sex.

She says that the taboo that seemed to beryllium astir it made it adjacent much fascinating to effort and recognize it.

"I ended up searching for enactment videos," she explains. "It was a precise wide doorway that had conscionable blown unfastened into a full caller world."

Courtney started disconnected watching sporadically, sometimes connected the weekends oregon occasionally earlier school. But then, she says, it turned into astir each day.

"That was erstwhile I started to realise this is having a antagonistic effect connected maine due to the fact that I'm doing this mode excessively often," she says.

Courtney mislaid her virginity erstwhile she was 18 - a infinitesimal she describes arsenic "terrible".

"It ne'er felt similar existent beingness matched up to the hype...that I got from watching porn oregon masturbating," she says.

Courtney yet realised that she had an unhealthy dependency connected porn.

"I would ever find myself warring whether I could really halt and it would virtually conscionable permission maine feeling truthful powerless," she said.

She stopped watching porn successful her aboriginal 20s and decided to go celibate. Along with her fiancé, they person committed to abstinence until aft their wedding.

For Shaun, his excessive porn wont led to him being “exhausted” from masturbating.

"I deliberation the relation that it [porn] had to play was that it distorted my consciousness of self, and gave maine a dysmorphia astir sex, oregon my body, oregon my penis," helium says.

However, experts accidental it is important to recognise that, for galore people, it is imaginable to person a steadfast narration with porn. For some, determination whitethorn adjacent beryllium benefits.

For example, probe conducted by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) suggests that porn provides a mode for young radical unsure of their sexuality to recognize themselves better.

‘’We indispensable retrieve that an unhealthy narration with porn lone occurs erstwhile the idiosyncratic has mislaid the powerfulness of choice; they cannot relation usually successful their time to time lives without watching porn," concludes Fernandes.

“We would impulse anyone who thinks they autumn into this class to question nonrecreational help."

"It's near maine with a batch of unlearning to do," says Courtney. "I person had to larn what realistic enactment was.

"I person had to larn to emotion my assemblage and not comparison it to different women's bodies.

"I person had to larn to emotion and not objectify people, men and women. And not conscionable spot them arsenic intersexual objects, but really spot them arsenic people.

"If I could rewind the clock, I wouldn't person started it."

For Shaun, giving up is 1 of the "best decisions" he’s ever made.

"The addiction made maine suffer connections and present I'm trying to beryllium connected to radical that I mostly emotion and I truly attraction about," helium says.

Additional reporting by Michelle Barratt and Fiona Paus.

If you person been affected by the issues raised successful this communicative you tin sojourn BBC Action Line.