Even before the pandemic, having sex was one of the main reasons people went online. Depending on the country and study, 46 to 74 percent of all men and 16 to 41 percent of all women consume Internet pornography.
A lot of them end up on Pornhub. The portal recorded 42 billion visits in 2019 – on average, every person on earth visited the website more than five times. Those responsible called this a “juicy year”. 2020 should have become even juicier.
Lockdown led to the Pornhub boom
When lockdowns were imposed in many places in March of last year, the website was surfed around 20 percent more frequently than before Corona.
Pornhub does not want to disclose Swiss data for this period. But here, too, people probably clicked more often. In 2018, Switzerland was ranked 31st in a ranking of countries whose residents are most frequently on Pornhub. Significantly further ahead than the country is placed in population statistics. However, some users exaggerated their consumption during the pandemic.
“The social control is missing”
Renanto Poespodihardjo (59) is a senior psychologist at the Center for Dependency Diseases at the University Psychiatric Clinics in Basel and says: “The demand for treatment and advice has increased during the epidemic.” Before Corona, his patients often started consuming porn at a young age and increased it so much that it brought their private lives off the rails. Since then, patients have come to him – almost exclusively men who watched porn before the pandemic, but who had it under control. “But now that they no longer have to go to the office and there is no social control, that has changed.”
The addiction is very different. “Some consume porn for two or three hours a day, others six or seven.” What they have in common, however, is the problem that lingering on relevant websites leads to social isolation. Friendships and partners would be neglected. Anyone who comes into such a situation should ask themselves whether they might not have psychological problems.
Frustration, boredom, stress in the office
“Excessive porn consumption is one of the main drivers of sex addiction,” says Andreas Hill (59). He is a forensic psychiatrist at the Psychiatric University Clinic Zurich, resident psychiatrist and psychotherapist and private lecturer at the Institute for Sex Research and Forensic Psychiatry at the University Clinic in Hamburg (D). Almost only men would come to him for sex addiction. “There are also some women in treatment, but mostly because they often change partners and are unhappy about it.”
For the men who seek help, be it that they watch porn to make up for something. Frustration, depressed mood, boredom, stress in the office. “Some watch at work, others call in sick because they have been consuming porn all night,” says Hill. Webcam sex is also very popular.
Some want that Seen Make it a reality
In some cases, the negative consequences are even more serious. “There are some men who want to try out the sexual behavior they see in pornographic films in reality. This can also include sexual behavior that is abusive and possibly punishable, ”says Hill. People who have other risk factors for sexual violence are particularly susceptible. Those who are anti-social or impulsive, for example. You would then have difficulty distinguishing between films and reality and would no longer consider the needs of your partner.
But he also relativizes: If porn had a massive influence on sexual violence in society as a whole, one would also expect a significant increase in sexual violent crimes. However, this has not been observed in the last few decades. Despite an increase in child pornography offenses in Germany and Switzerland, there has been no increase in hands-on sexual offenses against children over the past 20 years.
No increase in child pornography offenses
Renanto Poespodihardjo says that society can no longer be imagined without internet pornography. It is therefore important that one finally begins to deal with it: “The clarification of the past, which only deals with sexual activity, is no longer sufficient.” Today many would have their first sexual experiences in the digital world. One therefore has to deal more with one’s own intimacy.
He wants a society in which “one can speak openly and, above all, impartially about all aspects of sexuality – Internet pornography is one of them.”
Finding people who want to talk about their sex addiction is difficult. Too great the shame. The topic is too stigmatized. Florian Winter (53) is an exception. He has published a comic about his problem. It’s not his real name, he doesn’t want to read it in the newspaper either.
First came the fantasies. He already had erections at the age of nine, says Winter in the “FAZ”. Attributed to hormone injections that he received because of a misaligned testicle.
As a boy, the trained copywriter stole his grandfather’s “Playboy” booklet. Barely of legal age there was pornography from the sex shop. When DVDs were no longer enough, the brothel remained. “For me that was always a total disaster,” he told the “FAZ”. And: “Sex was more important to me than other people.” His guilt grew, and so did his shame. He kept his grief to himself, getting deeper and deeper into the downward vortex.
“Finding gaps for pornography determined my everyday life. The question was always in my head: When will I have time to look at these pictures again? ”He tells“ Watson ”.
Meanwhile, Florian Winter is open about his addiction and has told his girlfriend (“the most difficult conversation of my life”) and older daughter (“she took it cool”) about it. He also often went to therapists, but he describes self-help groups as “his salvation”. So now the comic. However, this is not a conclusion for winter, but just a further step in coping with addiction. Another are rules that he has established. Looking at women, yes, but only for three seconds. Porn is taboo. Sex with a partner is okay, but only if it’s out of pure lust and not out of addiction.
His last relapse was years ago, says Winter. Nevertheless, he is still on the way to recovery.