Jim is 31 and a recovering porn “addict” who says porn has stopped him functioning “normally”.
He’s been telling Newsbeat about the devastating effect it’s had on him after he began searching for more explicit material online. “The internet gives you this private space that nobody knows about,” he says. “You can try things with a complete absence of consequence.”
For many porn is part of a happy sex life but for those like Jim (not his real name) it can become an obsession that ruins relationships, friendships and jobs.
“When I was a teenager I’d never have had the confidence to go up to a newsagent and buy a copy of, say, FHM.
“In those days, finding erotic images was still a time consuming process.”
Violent thoughts
Jim says seeing women treated in aggressive ways on screen changed how he treated them in real life.
“I built up a huge amount of resentment and anger towards girls.
“There was something inside me that was like, ‘these women should be with me’. There’s a lot of negative, angry, violent thinking.
“I’m receiving these messages through pornography, that women are essentially objects – that they’re yours to own.
“If you go back 15 years it used to be you’re either sexually experienced or you’re not, and now you’ve got people like me who have never had sex, but have seen every single sex act under the sun.
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