During this introductory talk, journalist and ex-Loaded magazine editor, Martin Daubney, explores whether pornography can be addictive, the effects of porn on the brain, and what rehabilitation can look like.

1. Martin Daubney
Porn On The Brain

2. From lad to dad: my journey
• Longest-ever serving Editor of loaded
• Accused of being pornographer
• Became staunch defender
• BUT began to question my role
@MartinDaubney

3. Is porn really ‘poisoning young minds?’
• David Cameron & Daily Mail v ISPs
• Channel 4 commission POTB, the aims:
@MartinDaubney
1 Are kids watching porn? Survey
2 What are they watching?
3 What, if anything, is it doing?
4 Can porn be addictive?

4. Is porn addictive?
• World-first brain study
• Cambridge University
• 19 healthy volunteers
• 19 heavy porn users… and me!
• Porn v known addictive substances
• World’s foremost experts
@MartinDaubney

5. Calum Wrist, 19: addicted to porn
• Brain “rewired”
• Blurred reality
• “Real sex isn’t as good as the porn”
@MartinDaubney

6. “I spent £50,000 on escort girls”
• Gazza, 23: a pornographer’s dream
• Spent £50,000 on escorts from age 18
• Suicidal, debt, violence: almost lured
into industry
• WoW - panel of teens who wanted
“something, anything…” about porn in
schools
• Met Lauren… The emergence of female
addicts
@MartinDaubney

7. Inside porn rehab
• Only journalist in world to ever access
• Hall Recovery Programme @ Warwick
• Exposure v trauma - a changing pattern of modern
addiction
• Ordinary lads who felt desolate: overwhelmed by
porn
• Losing jobs, flunking exams, erectile dysfunction,
real sex ‘doesn’t do it anymore’, debt, criminal
records
• Brains ‘changed’: trying to ‘unlearn’
• Liberty v Prohibition – where does addiction occur?
@MartinDaubney

8. What does this mean?
• Porn companies want to ‘addict’ kids
• Most kids are fine; some are not
• Prohibition? Liberty?
Responsible consumption
@MartinDaubney

9. So what do we do?
• We have to talk to kids about porn
• Technology can’t do job for us
• Fathers: a unique moral role
• Porn sex v real sex
• Open dialogue with parents
• Get message into schools
@MartinDaubney

10. Q & A
Thanks!

11. Harness persuasive technology for good