Doctors say in the last five years there has been an increase in the number of adults and school-aged children displaying severe social and relationship problems from excessive porn watching.
Nearly 800 people came forth to speak about their porn addiction for a comprehensive online study conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney, revealing that 43 percent of participants started their viewing habits from as early as 11 to 13 years old.
"We have seen an increase in cases in both young adults (school kids) and adults," said one of the study leaders, Dr Gomathi Sitharthan, who is also a senior lecturer in psychology at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
"We all know what porn is, but until now we haven't known much about its impact," she said.
Among those surveyed in the study, 47 percent admitted to watching porn for periods between 30 minutes and three hours each day, while more than half were married or had de-facto partners.
Along with the devastating social and relationships consequences of this behaviour, Dr Sitharthan noted that excessive viewers were also prone to losing their jobs and often came into trouble with the law.
The researchers define excessive viewing as the "inability to stop, despite knowledge of harmful consequences, including preoccupation with viewing when not in front of a PC, and neglecting other duties".
For young adults, the consequences of excessive viewing involved skipping school, grades going down, not engaging in social and sporting activities, secretive behaviour, locking bedroom doors and moodiness, and forming unrealistic expectations when interacting with the opposite sex.
"We have seen some young adults who seem to think its OK to approach a girl and expect she will have sex with them immediately, says Dr Sitharthan. "This is what happens in porn movies where there is limited 'meaningful dialogue' and all action starts as soon as people meet for the first time."
"Often this behaviour results in rebuke and they cannot understand what went wrong," she said.
In adults, the symptoms usually presented as relationship issues such as neglecting home duties and children, moodiness, anxiety and spending money but being unwilling to explain the expenditure.
Some 20 percent of participants had even become disinterested in having sex with their wife or partner (85 percent of participants were male), preferring to "get excited and masturbate when watching porn" instead.
The study also showed that all participants started out watching what they termed "simple porn", but over time some individuals' viewing habits escalated to involve more extreme and even illegal material. Some even took what they saw into the real world and started to practise the types of extreme sexual behaviour seen in the movies.
"We do know that some people 'cross the barrier' and engage in watching more and more extreme materials," said Dr Sitharthan. It's as if they are not excited by the materials they usually view and need to watch extreme stuff of some other nature to excite them.
"We also know of people who have then proceeded to engage in behaviours they saw and now want to act it out," she said.
Dr Sitharthan links the development of technologies allowing easy access to porn directly with the rise in people presenting with problems to do with excessive viewing.
"Technology is so advanced, we can view porn on our laptop, PC, phone, anywhere," said Dr Sitharthan.
"It is accessible, affordable and provides anonymity. Type in the word 'porn' in Google and see how many hits you get," she said.
Despite this, Dr Sitharthan says she still prefers not to use the label "porn addict".
"'Addicted' is not a word we would like to use," she said, adding: "Seventeen percent expressed great difficulties when they cannot view porn materials and got depressed, moody and/or nervous when they are off-line, but feel better once back online.
"There is a similarity with excessive alcohol consumption.
"People who are dependent on alcohol feel moody and nervy when they can't get a drink, but seem to settle down after they have consumed alcohol."
Ultimately Dr Sitharthan believes the behaviour should be seen as a "bad habit" and that people can "unlearn" bad habits.
This is the focus of the new online treatment program she and husband and co-lead researcher, Dr Raj Sitharthan, of the Department of Psychiatry, are currently preparing for those seeking help.
The University of Sydney announced the results of the study Impact of Internet Photography last week.
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