Are Porn Algorithms Creating A Generation Of Pedophiles?

Pornography ruins lives.

In fact, what started as casual porn use has, for many, turned into something darker, dangerous, and criminal. The Guardian recently told the story of “Andy,” who served time for viewing and sharing child sexual abuse material. Their piece, written by reporter Harriet Grant, talks about the slippery slope of porn categories that lead to the sexualization of children. Schoolgirl outfits, incest storylines, and scenes built around “barely legal” characters. 

For Andy, the algorithm was to blame. He said, “I was using porn as a coping mechanism for all sorts of things – stress, loss, general life problems. When you masturbate to porn, you get an intense dopamine hit. Then those first videos start to become boring. Your brain starts to say, that’s not good enough. Soon you are watching rape fantasies – there are loads of categories like this on mainstream sites. Then it’s teenagers. The algorithms keep showing you more extreme stuff.”

“They push the boundaries as much as they can, with content around young women dressed in school uniforms, for example; incest themes; old men paired with young women,” he added. Andy may be telling the truth, but a man who shared and viewed CSAM should be on the sex offenders list for the rest of his life.

Dr. Dina McMillan, a social psychologist and Stanford University graduate, believes the individual should take responsibility. "But he’s not wrong about the 'sexual guidance system' in pornography - algorithms that urge the use of increasingly disturbing content. Once they gain a client’s addiction to the really hard stuff, they become their drug dealer."

Still, the algorithm is a huge problem. U.K.’s Detective Chief Inspector Tony Garner says teenagers are now stumbling on damaging material online. “We are seeing people who are turning 18 and have had 10 years’ exposure to hardcore porn.” Garner’s team knocks on doors three or four times a week, and increasingly, it’s teenagers answering. These are kids who’ve been watching hardcore porn since they were eight years old. Some are arrested for watching child abuse material. Some have shared it. Most of them didn’t even realize how far gone they were until it was too late.

Marcus Johnstone of PCD represents sex offenders – some of whom are minors themselves. “A lot of my clients now are parents who have called me because their child has been arrested. This is generation porn,” he said. “They may have been looking for videos of teens their own age. Or they may have been talking to predatory adults online who shared material with them.”

Johnstone mentions the case of a teen who searched for other teens, “but these are category A images, which is a serious crime with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The law is turning these young people into criminals at an alarming rate. I have seen young people banned from being in the same house as their younger siblings.”

There’s no legal wiggle room when the algorithm spits out illegal content. Intent gets buried beneath consequence, and suddenly, you’ve got a 15-year-old banned from being alone with their younger sibling. It sounds absurd, but it’s happening. We’re watching an entire generation grow up sexually groomed by the internet. Porn is already incredibly accessible. However, the algorithm is smart and built to keep viewers hooked.  The content gets more extreme, the viewer more numb, the brain more addicted.

David Sheath, who’s spent decades working with offenders, believes that young people are watching explicit material that is out of the norm. Some are violent and incestual. “Before the smartphone, most people’s first experience of sex was with a living person and that included resistance, pushback, romance,” he said. “Now young people are growing up with unfettered access to porn, and porn norms are not about consent. They are about ‘strangle the b*tch,’ ‘have sex with your stepmum.’”

Jenny Greensmith works closely with men like Andy through her role at Safer Lives. The organization is a Leeds-based national agency that supports men at every stage of the criminal justice process. Their goal is to help men recognize harmful behaviours, take accountability, and work toward lasting change. 

With years of experience as a probation officer focused on sexual offending, she's spent more hours than she can count talking with offenders – hearing how they think, what led them there, and what they struggle to admit even to themselves. “What I’m concerned about is oversimplifying this problem,” she explained. “We don’t want to remove personal responsibility or suggest porn is always a gateway to harmful behaviour. But we want men to seek help; it won’t help if we regard them as perverts. I meet a lot of men who are not able to recognise their feelings, let alone manage them. The internet is an easy way to switch off from emotions.”

Closing Thoughts

We need to fiercely safeguard children online and create real systems of support for men struggling with compulsive porn use before it escalates. Above all, we need to continue advocating for the safety of kids. That means stronger age verification laws, holding platforms accountable for the content they serve, and cracking down on algorithmic pushes toward increasingly extreme material.

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