According to the National Catholic Register (April 26, 2020), there is a serious increase in pornography use during this time of pandemic. “Global porn consumption rates have gone up significantly with most people confined to their homes”, the paper claims. It further states that “while the Church teaches that pornography is a grave offense that does grave injury to the dignity of its participants, experts are also cautioning that porn consumption could exacerbate mental health issues during the pandemic.” Because of this trend, organizations like Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council are calling on Americans to observe a “smut-free quarantine”. In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, these organizations are asking the Department of Justice to enforce obscenity laws against the pornography industry. The letter said, “mounting medical evidence finds extensive neurological and physical harm is caused by exposure to the lewd graphic obscenity openly available to anyone who can type a few words in a search bar – or scroll and click through Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok. Further, most adversely impacted are developing minds…porn use leads to compulsive sexual behavior which means the more you see the more you want to see, despite negative consequences.” One anti-smut leader has launched a 21-day detox from porn called “Strive21” which has more than 14,000 new participants. Jim O’Day, the executive director of Integrity Restored, a Catholic group, is attempting to help those caught in porn addiction and has said that “people tend to self-isolate and disconnect and not be in full relationship with people around them socially when they get addicted to porn. We need to help those who are struggling, especially now.” Noting that “we have a ton of other resources; we have blogs, we have ebooks that people can download (to help),” O’ Day said “more and more people are struggling with this and if we’re not in the midst of the struggle ourselves, we absolutely know and love someone who is.”
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