Madras High Court: Gen Z Grappling With Porn Addiction, Must Be Counselled Out Of It

The Madras High Court in the case S Harish v Inspector of Police and Another observed wherein the court was dealing with the case which involves the child pornography.
The court stated that there is a growing addiction among teenagers to watch porn photos/videos, given their easily availability on electronic gadgets.
The bench headed by Justice Anand Venkatesh in the case observed that children in Generation Z are grappling with this issue and suggested that the society should, instead of damning them, come forward and be mature enough to advise and educate them out of this addiction.
The court observed that the Generation Z Children are grappling with this serious problem and instead of damning and punishing them, the society must be mature enough to properly advice and educate them and try to counsel them to get rid of that addiction and the education must start from the school level since exposure to adult material starts at that stage itself.
Adding to it, the court stated that like other addictions, porn could be understood through the principle of ‘operant conditioning’ where an act was reinforced or rewarded making a person want to do it again.
It has been noted by the said court that porn could be easily reinforcing as it rewarded the very basic instinctual drive-sex.
The court observed that lots other thing can be reinforcing, and thus influence our behavior, but porn can be especially reinforcing because the reward taps into a very basic instinctual drive – sex and thus, it being very easy to become addicted to porn – it is accessing a fundamental (and very enjoyable) natural drive. It is also much easier to obtain than going out and finding a “mate” to fulfill this drive.
It has also been noted by the said court that a recent study concerning porn statistics in teens and as per the data, 9 out of 10 boys were exposed to pornography before the age of 18 and 6 out of 10 girls were exposed to pornography before 18 years of age.
Further, the court stated that on average, a male’s first exposure to pornography was at the age of 12 years and teenage boys, between 12 and 17 years of age were at the highest risk of developing a porn addiction. It has also been noted by the said court that 71% of teens had done something to hide their online acts from their parents.
The court observed that viewing pornography could have a negative impact on the psychological and physical well being of individuals.
In the present case, the court was hearing the quash petition filed by a man accused of having child pornography.
Therefore, During the course of the hearing, the man admitted that he had a habit of watching pornography and was trying to get rid of that habit.
The court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case observed and has advised the man to attend counselling of he was still having the addiction and hoped that the man gets rid of the addiction for a happy and healthy future.
Accordingly, the court dismissed the plea.
The counsel, Advocate Mr. J. N. Naresh Kumar appeared for the Petitioner.
The counsel, Mr. A. Damodaran Additional Public Prosecutor represented the respondent.