Literature Review
Today, the pornography industry is a multibillion-dollar, global industry, and it has been normalized in many aspects of popular culture (McNair 2013; Philaretou et al.: 150; Sarikakis and Shaukat 2008; Smith 2010). Pornography use and exposure is increasingly becoming common and widespread, particularly with the rapid growth and spread of the Internet, smartphones, and social media (Freeman-Longo 2000; Hald and Malamuth 2008; McKee 2010). In many countries around the world, pornography is widely available, easily accessible and consumed by large segments of the general population (Braun-Courville and Rojas 2009; Horvath et al. 2013; Lawrence and Herold 1988; Rosser et al. 2012).
A broad body of literature and empirical research has explored the possible effects of viewing pornography. For example, viewing pornography has been associated with sexist attitudes and perceptions of women as sex objects (MacKinnon 1984, 1989; Peter and Valkenburg 2007; Peter and Valkenburg 2009; Tylka and Van Diest 2015). In a recent experimental study of male undergraduates, Skorska, Hodson and Hoffart (2018) found that exposure to “degrading” pornography generated strongly hostile sexist beliefs and objectification toward women.
As well, pornography exposure, regardless of genre, has been associated with attitudes and beliefs supportive of sexual aggression and violence toward women (Bowen 1987; Flood 2010; Kingston, Malamuth, Fedoroff, and Marshall 2009: 220; Wright and Tokunaga 2016). Garcia (1984) found that the more men were exposed to pornography, the more negative their attitudes were toward women and the more positive their attitudes were towards acts of sexual aggression, while in a longitudinal study of adolescents regarding sexual harassment as a manifestation of sexual aggression, Brown and L’Engle (2009) found that 76% of adolescent male respondents acknowledged having committed some form of sexual harassment and having used pornography. Similarly, Mesch’s (2009) study of Israeli youths found a statistically significant relationship between pornography consumption and aggressiveness in school, with higher degrees of consumption related to higher levels of aggressiveness.
Greater levels of pornography consumption have also been associated with other significant issues, including: addiction, which may interfere with some areas of functioning (Duffy, Dawson, and Nair 2016; Wetterneck, Burgess, Short, Smith, and Cervantes 2012); mental health disorders, including anxiety (Levin, Lillis, and Hayes 2012; Morrison, Harriman, Morrison, Bearden, and Ellis 2004); lower genital esteem (Morrison, Ellis, Morrison, Bearden, and Harriman 2007); dissatisfaction with body image (Tylka 2015); and depression (Schneider 2000; Svedin, Akerman, and Priebe 2011; Ybarra and Mitchell 2005).
Much work has explored pornography’s impact on sexual activity and behavior. Krauss and Russell (2008) found that early exposure to pornography greatly increases the chance of earlier onset of sexual contact. Similarly, Peter and Valkenburg’s study (2006) found that the majority of participants had their first sexual encounter within a year of first exposure to Internet pornography and that exposure to pornography is related to more recreational attitudes about sex. In a systematic review of studies involving adult consumers, Harkness, Mullan and Blaszczynski (2015) found links between pornography consumption and unsafe sexual practices and higher numbers of partners. Other studies have documented how exposure to pornography is associated with a range of risky sexual activities or behaviors (Braithwaite, Aaron, Dowdle, Spjut, and Fincham 2015; Braun-Courville and Rojas 2009).
Pornography’s effect on relationships and marriage has also been explored. For example, Bridges, Bergner, and Hesson-Mcinnis (2003) found that women experience a negative view of themselves, their partner and their relationship once they learn of their partner’s pornography use, while pornography has been linked to lower marital quality, marital dissatisfaction, divorce, negative beliefs about monogamy and other challenges or stresses on the family system (Bergner and Bridges 2002; Rasmussen 2016; Reid, Carpenter, Draper, and Manning 2010; Perry and Schleifer 2018; Schneider 2003; Wright 2011; Wright, Tokunaga, and Bae 2014).
In addition to the substantial body of research exploring negative effects of pornography, there is a significant amount of literature that has explored other impacts and effects of pornography. Some have argued pornography may be sexually empowering for women and is a celebration of the human body (Baron 1990). Furthermore, it has been argued that pornography, at least in some instances, may be regarded as an example of women’s agency that has allowed women to learn from each other, given women a voice in the sexual liberation movement, and contributed to the de-medicalization of female sexuality, which has positively affected women, particularly in the US (Orlowski 2012).
Studies have also found that pornography may be an important source of information that individuals can learn sexual health, practices and behaviors from (Albury 2014; HaggstromNordin, Tyden, Hanson, and Larsson 2009; Hunter, Figueredo, and Malamuth 2010; Lavoie, Robitaille, and Herbert 2000; McCormack and Wignall 2017; Rothman, Kaczmarsky, Burke, Jansen, and Baughman 2015; Svedin et al. 2011). Pornography use may also offer an avenue for exploration of one’s sexuality or support sexual identity formation, including for marginalized sexual communities (Arrington-Sanders, Harper, Morgan, Ogunbajo, Trent, and Fortenberry 2015; Flood and Hamilton 2003: 24; Philaretou et al. 2005).
Africa Although numerous studies have explored exposure to and effects of pornography within many countries around the world, studies exploring pornography in developing countries, particularly in Africa, are extremely sparse (Cheney et al. 2007: 81; Day 2014; Peter and Valkenburg 2016). This dearth of research is slightly surprising, given that access to the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICT), which can provide relatively cheap, easy, and anonymous access to pornography (Cooper, Delmonico, and Burg 2000; Cooper, Scherer, Boies, and Gordon 1999; Flood 2007), have grown considerably in Africa and the developing world in recent years (Broadband Commission 2019; GSMA 2019; Zamfir 2016: 18). 2 To date, the few studies conducted in Africa have explored a number of topics, mainly focused on both male and female adolescents, and used a variety of methods.
In a mixed-method study of young people’s exposure to pornography in Ethiopia and Uganda, participants said they turned to pornography because they lacked adequate sex education. Findings also indicated that violent and misogynist hardcore pornography was widespread in urban and rural project areas in both countries. Notably, both male and female study participants in both countries roundly considered pornography to be a greater influence on their sexual attitudes and identity development than either sex education or local culture (Cheney et al. 2017). Similarly, in a study examining factors affecting young peoples’ sexual and reproductive health in Sierra Leone, respondents identified pornography as an influential factor, detailing its newfound accessibility driven by improved access to ICT in the country. Respondents also outlined several ways in which pornography impacts young peoples’ decisions about sexual health (Day 2014).
As well, in a cross-sectional study of premarital sexual practices and its predictors among youths in Ethiopia, researchers found that over half of the participants viewed pornographic movies or magazines. Moreover, watching pornographic movies, among other factors, was significantly associated with premarital sexual practices (Bogale and Semester 2014). Additionally, in a separate cross-sectional study focusing on female secondary school students in Eastern Ethiopia, Bekele, Van Aken, and Dubas (2011) found that sexual victimization was related to pornography use. Specifically, a statistically strong association was found between female students’ frequent use of pornographic films and their sexual violence victimization. This association was also significant for the various subscales of the overall sexual violence victimization index (i.e., becoming the victim of a sexual offense, sexual assault, sexual coercion, and sexual aggression).
Finally, in a qualitative study exploring the relationship between risk situations and the high HIV prevalence among youth in Kisumu, Kenya, Njue, Voeten and Remes (2011) found that many young people were exposed to pornography in video halls, which seemed to increase their risky sexual behaviors and encourage liberal sexual attitudes.
Overall, while many studies have explored the topic of pornography within various contexts around the world, only a small number of studies have investigated the topic in relation to Africa. The present study is the first conducted on the topic in Eritrea, a low-income, developing country located within the Horn of Africa.
2 An important factor in the recent growth in Internet penetration across Africa has been the proliferation of undersea cables reaching African shores over the past few years.