For most teenagers, the internet is an important part of everyday life. It’s a medium through which young people access different activities for learning, playing, relaxing, and connecting to others. Teenagers may use the internet to speak with friends, play games, research information, and share their lives and interests.
However, the internet can also be harmful. Online forums and social media are often havens for hate speech and other kinds of discriminatory discourse. Young people can also develop problematic internet behaviours, compulsively engaging in activities on the internet despite negative consequences in their everyday lives.
Online gaming and online pornography consumption are both common among young people. And both activities can be harmful, whether they’re engaged in casually or develop into problematic behaviours. In this blog, we explore the consequences of online gaming and pornography use for young people’s mental health, and examine the link between the two.
What Are Internet Gaming Disorder and Problematic Pornography Use?
If a young person plays games online or watches pornography, it doesn’t mean that they have a mental health problem. But sometimes, internet gaming and pornography use can start to seriously harm a person’s everyday life. When these activities, and the thoughts and feelings that come alongside them, start to interfere with someone’s ability to maintain relationships, pursue their interests, and continue their normal routines, they may be diagnosed with internet gaming disorder or compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.
- Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) – Internet gaming disorder is classified by the DSM-V as a disorder that requires further research before it is included in the main manual.
- Problematic Pornography Use (PPU) – Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder, which includes problematic pornography use, is classified as a type of impulse control disorder by the International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11).
IGD and PPU both involve spending a lot of time on gaming or pornography over a prolonged period. These behaviours are accompanied by a preoccupation with the activity, so that thoughts about gaming or pornography start to dominate a person’s daily life. Engaging in these behaviours may also harm other aspects of their well-being, such as their education, work, relationships, or mental and physical health.
Young people with IGD or PPU may experience intense distress if they are unable to play games or access pornography.
Studies suggest that 1 to 5% of young people in Western countries, and 1 to 27.5% in Asian countries, may have an internet gaming disorder. Between 3.2 and 16.6% of adults may be at risk of problematic pornography use disorder.
What Are the Links Between Online Gaming and Pornography Use?
A 2015 study explored the links between online gaming and online pornography. They found that two aspects of online gaming were significantly linked to online pornography use. Specifically:
- Immersion in online gaming, such as losing track of time when playing, was associated with using online pornography
- Preoccupation with online gaming was associated with less use of online pornography
Young people who become absorbed in video games may have the same experience with online pornography, viewing a lot of content in one session. On the other hand, teenagers who are especially preoccupied with online gaming may watch less pornography, always choosing to play games instead.
Another study found that problematic online gaming was associated with problematic online pornography use, social networking, and other online behaviours.
Gaming, Pornography, Addiction, and Compulsive Behaviours
Internet gaming disorder and problematic pornography use are both linked to addiction and compulsive behaviours. Gaming and pornography interact with the brain’s reward system, a network of structures that encourages us to repeat certain activities. When a young person engages in online gaming or pornography, it releases the hormone dopamine, causing feelings of pleasure and making them want to engage in it again.
As a young person continues to play online games or watch pornography consistently over time, the urges to repeat the activity can become stronger and more difficult to resist. They may become so strong that a young person continues to engage in the activity despite serious, harmful consequences. This may be characterised as a compulsive behaviour or addiction.
What Makes Young People More Vulnerable to Developing Problematic Gaming and Pornography Behaviours?
It’s well documented that certain genetic and environmental factors make young people more vulnerable to developing substance addictions, including impulsivity, childhood trauma, and other mental health disorders like anxiety or depression.
Research suggests that many of these factors may also put young people at a greater risk of developing problematic gaming and pornography behaviours.
Negative Emotionality
Negative emotionality is the tendency to experience more negative emotions, such as anxiety, fear, or sadness, than other people. Likely rooted in a neurobiological over-response to perceived threats, negative emotionality is associated with a wide range of social and psychological concerns, including anxiety, depression, and addiction.
Research has found that general anxiety disorder and depression are associated with internet gaming disorder.
Stress
Stress may interact with other biological and environmental vulnerabilities in the development of compulsive behaviours. When a young person feels stressed, they may turn to activities like gaming or online pornography as a way to escape from it or other difficult emotions. This might be particularly likely among young people who are more impulsive.
Impulsivity and Introversion
Certain personality traits have been linked to compulsive behaviour disorders like IGD and PPU. For example, internet gaming disorder has been linked to introversion and impulsivity.
What Is the Impact of Online Pornography and Gaming on Teenagers’ Mental Health?
Adolescence is a time of rapid and important development. Teenagers undergo neurological, biological, emotional, cognitive, and social change. They develop their identity and beliefs, learn emotional and social skills, and experience changes in the structure and functions of their brains and bodies.
These developmental processes mean that teenagers are especially vulnerable to their environment and the experiences it creates. When these experiences are harmful, they not only affect their well-being at the time but may also disrupt their social and emotional development, impacting the way they think, feel, and behave in the future.
Online Pornography
Most online pornography conveys ideas and norms that are harmful to young people’s social and emotional development. Pornography often reinforces gender norms that give men and women specific roles and characteristics. It typically objectifies women, valuing them only by their sexual attraction and physical appearance.
Research suggests that watching online pornography during adolescence may shape teenagers’ interpersonal relationships, social development, and attachments to others. Studies have linked pornography use in adolescence to behavioural problems, social difficulties, and aggressive behaviours, including sexual abuse.
Online pornography use may also change the way young people relate to attachment figures, such as parents, close friends, or romantic partners.
Pornography and the Teenage Brain
Watching online pornography at any age comes with a risk of developing compulsive behaviours, especially among those with more environmental and genetic vulnerabilities. But certain features of the teenage brain mean that young people may be uniquely affected by watching pornography.
Research suggests that:
- The structures in adolescent brains are more easily changed than those of adults. This means that pornography consumption is more likely to have a long-lasting impact on the way their brains work.
- Testosterone and cortisone, two sex hormones, have a unique effect on brain development during the teenage years.
- The HPA-axis, a system in the brain involved in cortisol stress responses, is more pronounced during adolescence.
- The brain’s dopamine system, regulating pleasure, motivation, and reward, is overactive during adolescence.
Although research that directly observes the impact of pornography on the teenage brain is limited, experts have some ideas about why teenagers are so susceptible to online pornography.
When a young person watches pornography, it triggers the reward system in their brain. This releases the hormone dopamine, causing feelings of pleasure and making them want to repeat the activity. Over time, these urges can become stronger and stronger, eventually leading to compulsive behaviours.
Because the reward system in adolescents’ brains is overactive, this process may happen more quickly and intensely than with adults. This means that they may be more vulnerable to developing mental health disorders like problematic pornography use.
Online Gaming
Most of the research about the mental health impact of online gaming relates to internet gaming disorder. One study found that adolescents with internet gaming disorder are more likely to experience emotional distress at a later time. This suggests that IGD may have a harmful impact on adolescent mental health.
Other research shows that internet gaming disorder in adolescence is associated with a range of mental health symptoms, including antisocial behaviour, anger control problems, emotional distress, self-esteem problems, and hyperactivity or inattention. However, it’s not clear from the study whether these symptoms are a cause or a consequence of online gaming – or both.
Pornography, Online Gaming, and Beliefs about Women
Pornography and online gaming not only affect adolescents’ mental health, but also their value systems. These value systems, in turn, impact their thoughts and behaviours, ultimately affecting their mental well-being and the well-being of others.
In particular, experts have linked online pornography to specific – and harmful – attitudes and beliefs about women.
Online pornography usually reinforces specific gender norms that confine men and women to certain roles and characteristics. It also often objectifies women, reducing their value to their physical appearance and sexual attraction. These messages can contribute to sexist and misogynistic attitudes and beliefs among adolescents.
One study found that viewing sexually explicit content makes it more likely that young people perceive women as sex objects. These perceptions may contribute to harmful behaviours among teenage boys, such as sexist comments, harassment, and gender-based violence. Among girls, these ideas may lead to self-objectification, impacting the way they understand themselves and making them more vulnerable to mental health conditions like eating disorders.
Online gaming has also been linked to misogynistic cultures, especially within in-game chats and text communications. Various sources have described how online gamers are exposed to a stream of sexist attitudes, misogynistic slurs, and threats against women players. In a 2022 survey, 85% of respondents reported encountering problematic or toxic behaviours in gaming spaces.
Accessing Support for Internet Gaming Disorder and Problematic Pornography Use
When young people’s internet use develops into a mental health disorder, they require additional support to recover. Treatment for internet gaming disorder and problematic pornography use typically centres around psychological interventions such as cognitive-behavioural therapy, a talking therapy that helps individuals identify and change harmful thought patterns and behaviours. Some treatment programs specifically designed for adolescents take a broader approach, combining topics like psychoeducation, lifestyle changes, interpersonal skills, and family interventions.
Mental health disorders related to problematic internet use have been defined relatively recently, meaning that there is still limited research on specific treatment options. However, given the similarities between compulsive internet behaviours and other forms of addiction, treatment approaches can draw upon the decades of exceptional research into substance addiction.
The Wave Clinic: Exceptional Mental Health Support for Young People
The Wave Clinic offers specialist mental health support for young people and families. Our programs take a whole-person approach to mental health care, addressing the relationships, social structures, and past experiences that shape our feelings and behaviours. We provide residential programs, outpatient support, parenting intensives, and family interventions, addressing eating disorders, compulsive sexual behaviours, and other mental health concerns.
If you’re interested in our programs, get in touch with us today.
