The Screens Are Killing Your Children

I was recently made aware of an 8-year-old with an addiction to pornography. I will repeat that: an 8-year-old with an addiction to pornography. In fact, I will repeat it again because I worry that we have become so desensitized that this statement will not elicit the shock and horror that it should. Recently, I was told of an 8-year-old, a small child who hasn’t even hit puberty, who is addicted to watching hardcore pornography—you know, the really vile kind that cries out to heaven.

I heard the news and I was sick. I almost cried. In fact, writing about it makes it hard for my eyes to stay dry. That poor child. His poor soul. The trials that he will face as he ages will be remarkable. He is 8, and he is already an addict. He is already spending so much time on a phone—yes, his parents have given him a smartphone at age 8—that he has developed an addiction.

When I was growing up and heard of people having addictions, I would think of the poor souls I might see downtown who had become dependent on drugs. Or, I might think of a character I had seen in a movie or a TV show who couldn’t stop wasting money at the blackjack table or the slots. In any event, addicts, in my mind, were supposed to be adults because people who became addicted to things became addicted to sinful things that children would never be in a position to do.

Nevertheless, we now live in a time wherein children, maybe even younger than 8, are addicted to the most vile images and videos, and the addiction comes through the phone.

Understanding Addiction Related to Media

Now, I don’t know how long it takes to develop an addiction in the clinical sense, but I imagine it doesn’t happen overnight. Ultimately, an addiction is like a compulsive bad habit that is formed over time after repeated participation in an activity that elicits a pleasurable response. Now, pleasure in itself is good, hence the word pleasure, which is derived from “to please.” Being pleased is a good thing because it means something like being satisfied or content. After a good meal, we might be pleased because we are satisfied; or after a hard day’s work, we might be very pleased with the satisfactory work we have done.

However, there are pleasures that, we might say, cheat.

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Lew Rockwell

LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.