Six teenagers seek help for porn addiction every week: Nimhans

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) sees at least five to six youngsters between the ages of 15 years and 20 years addicted to pornography in a week.

According to a study conducted by the institute published in ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry last year, teenagers from the age of 13 are addicted to pornography.

“Teenagers are exposed to the digital media. It is easy to access pornographic content through smart phones, laptops and desktops,” said Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, who conducted a study along with Dr Shyam Hanumanapura Rajanna and Dr Thamil Selvan Palanichamy.

The study, which involved around 200 random subjects, found around 16% adolescents addicted to mobile phones and 18% addicted to the internet.

Dr Shobha Krishna, consultant psychiatrist, Apollo Hospital said, “Hormonal changes happen during teenage. They will also have peer influence which exposes them to pornographic content.”She said that the youngest of the cases that she has seen is a 12-year-old.

Dr Naveen Jayaram, consultant psychiatrist, Sakra World Hospital, said that parents or teachers usually turn to medical help when there is a behavioral change in them like mood swings, low or fluctuating performance in academics, depression etc.

He said, “Children may lock them up in the room, especially with access to internet. To some extent, it is normal, but if it hampers their day-to-day activities like social interaction and academic performance, then it should be brought to the doctors' attention.”

Dr Sharma said addiction can be identified through certain criteria, such as, continuous desire to access it.

According to the study, teenagers get addicted for various reasons. Some of them include loss of control in relation to porn, not coping to manage distress and habit formation. Such people will also undergo physical or psychological guilt after watching porn and get agitated if they fail to get access.

According to doctors, parents must keep a check on teenagers when giving them access to internet and mobile phones.

“Parents should have a friendly relationship with children so that they can speak about such matters openly,” said Dr Shobha.

She also said the communication between parents and children should be enhanced with offline activities.

 CASE STUDY

A 1st year engineering student approached the doctor after failing in exams. It was unusual as he was good at studies. When his mother happened to use the desktop, she came across notifications from pornographic sites popping up on the screen. After she checked the internet data pack, she noticed that her son was using the internet for more than five hours a day. Although he was initially reluctant to admit it, he later admitted to have visited pornographic sites frequently.