Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 77 per cent of cit­i­zens who earn be­tween $60,000 and $120,000 an­nu­al­ly are ad­dict­ed to watch­ing pornog­ra­phy. In fact, as in­come in­creased so did the ten­den­cy for peo­ple to in­dulge in view­ing porno­graph­ic ma­te­r­i­al. This was among the find­ings in a re­search project com­mis­sioned by the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment through Dr Derek Chadee, se­nior lec­tur­er in the De­part­ment of Be­hav­iour­al Sci­ences and man­ag­er of the ANSA McAL Psy­cho­log­i­cal Re­search Cen­tre. The most ac­ces­si­ble out­lets to pornog­ra­phy are the In­ter­net and DVDs, the study showed. It was al­so re­vealed that a high­er per­cent­age of males over fe­males view porno­graph­ic ma­te­r­i­al, with fe­males hav­ing a more neg­a­tive at­ti­tude to­wards pornog­ra­phy. The ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple polled in­di­cat­ed that the ex­plic­it de­pic­tion of sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty via var­i­ous ma­te­ri­als con­tributed to a break­down in fam­i­ly struc­ture, sex­u­al ad­dic­tion.

Chadee, in un­der­tak­ing the study, ar­gued that at­ti­tudes on pornog­ra­phy pro­vide an in­di­ca­tion of the ex­tent to which sex is ob­jec­ti­fied ver­sus its in­ti­ma­cy qual­i­ty. Pornog­ra­phy, Chadee ex­plained, fa­cil­i­tates in bring­ing to the fore­front the con­tem­po­rary norms and val­ues placed on a tra­di­tion­al­ly tabooed sub­ject, whether it is seen as a de­mor­al­is­ing tool against so­ci­ety or aids as an out­let to ex­press one's self and sex­u­al­i­ty and the ex­tent to which the so­ci­ety is ac­cept­ing pornog­ra­phy. In con­duct­ing his sur­vey, Chadee in­ter­viewed 1,988 re­spon­dents in Trinidad and 319 re­spon­dents in To­ba­go. By eth­nic­i­ty, 39 per cent were of East In­di­an; 33 per cent African ori­gin; 27 per cent Mixed and 1 per cent were of oth­er eth­nic ori­gins such as Chi­nese, Syr­i­an and Cau­casian.

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 64 per cent of the re­spon­dents in­di­cat­ed they look at porno­graph­ic ma­te­r­i­al. Pri­ma­ry ed­u­ca­tion lev­el peo­ple were the least like­ly to in­di­cate "yes" to view­ing porno­graph­ic ma­te­r­i­al. In as­sess­ing ed­u­ca­tion­al lev­els, a vari­a­tion in re­spons­es was ob­served with ter­tiary ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple iden­ti­fy­ing the in­ter­net as most ac­ces­si­ble where­as pri­ma­ry ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple in­di­cat­ed DVDs as most avail­able. Younger peo­ple were more like­ly than their el­ders to state the in­ter­net. Re­spon­dents' gen­er­al at­ti­tude to­wards pornog­ra­phy was as­sessed us­ing a five item scale. Peo­ple in mid­dle and late adult­hood were more like­ly to in­di­cate that the ex­plic­it de­pic­tion of sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty does de­grade women and men.

Rec­om­men­da­tions

• Par­ents should be in­formed of their chil­dren's sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to the ex­po­sure of pornog­ra­phy via the in­ter­net, DVDs, cell phones and ca­ble tele­vi­sion. "They should al­so be ed­u­cat­ed on how to use parental con­trol pro­ce­dures to mon­i­tor and pre­vent these oc­cur­rences." How­ev­er, such con­trols, Chadee said, may on­ly make pornog­ra­phy more at­trac­tive by virtue of its very in­ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty. "There­fore, pro­grammes de­signed to teach par­ents to com­mu­ni­cate with their chil­dren on sen­si­tive top­ics such as pornog­ra­phy and hav­ing "frank" dis­cus­sions should be in­tro­duced," Chadee sug­gest­ed.

• A study on pornog­ra­phy and be­hav­iour should be un­der­tak­en in T&T. When re­spon­dents were asked if they have ever watched pornog­ra­phy, 64 per cent in­di­cat­ed "yes" with 30 per cent stat­ing "no" while six per cent did not an­swer. The study showed that 79 per cent males in­di­cat­ed that they look at porn, with women trail­ing at 52 per cent. Eval­u­at­ing re­spons­es based on age, over 70 per cent of re­spon­dents be­tween the ages of 19 and 35 in­di­cat­ed "yes." Old­er peo­ple were less like­ly to watch porno­graph­ic ma­te­r­i­al. Ex­am­in­ing month­ly in­come, it was found that as in­come in­creased so did the ten­den­cy for peo­ple to in­dulge in view­ing porno­graph­ic ma­te­r­i­al. In par­tic­u­lar, 77 per cent in the salary brack­et $5,000-$9,999, 73 per cent who earned $10,000 plus, 67 per cent who worked for $2,000-$4,999 and 56 who earned $0-$1,999 said "yes". Asked whether ex­plic­it de­pic­tion or ex­hi­bi­tion of sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty in lit­er­a­ture, film and pho­tog­ra­phy de­grades women, the ma­jor­i­ty of per­sons "agreed". Pre­cise­ly 52 per cent stat­ed they "to­tal­ly agree", 30 per cent "agree", 6 per cent "nei­ther agree nor dis­agree", ten per cent "dis­agree" and two per cent "to­tal­ly dis­agree".

Asked whether the ex­plic­it de­pic­tion or ex­hi­bi­tion of sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty in lit­er­a­ture, film and pho­tog­ra­phy lead to sex­u­al ad­dic­tion? Re­gard­ing this ques­tion, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 76 per cent stat­ed they "agree". More pre­cise­ly, 42 per cent said they "agree", 33 per cent "to­tal­ly agree", 12 per cent "dis­agree", nine per cent "nei­ther agree nor dis­agree" and two per cent to­tal­ly dis­agree". Ques­tioned if ex­plic­it de­pic­tion or ex­hi­bi­tion of sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty in lit­er­a­ture, film and pho­tog­ra­phy breaks down fam­i­ly struc­ture.? Ap­prox­i­mate­ly two-fifths of re­spon­dents "agreed". Pre­cise­ly, 39 per cent agreed, 38 per cent agreed to­tal­ly, 11 per cent dis­agreed; ten per cent "nei­ther agreed nor dis­agreed" and three per cent "to­tal­ly dis­agreed." Asked if the ex­plic­it de­pic­tion or ex­hi­bi­tion of sex­u­al ac­tiv­i­ty in lit­er­a­ture, film and pho­tog­ra­phy is a harm­less ac­tiv­i­ty? At least 64 per cent of re­spon­dents "dis­agree". Pre­cise­ly, 45 per cent in­di­cat­ed they "dis­agree",19 per cent "to­tal­ly dis­agree"; 19 per cent "agree"; five per cent "to­tal­ly agree and 12 per cent "nei­ther agree nor dis­agree".