What are the factors that contribute to the problem of pornography, including how pornographic and obscene materials affect men, women, and children.

Just like any addiction, an addiction to pornography has
the potential to splinter families and ruin lives.  Recently, the U.S. military
conducted a study on pornography because they had seen a rise in porn-related problems
in the past decade.  What researchers found is that when someone begins viewing porn on
a regular basis, the habit actually acts as a stimulant to specific parts of the brain. 
A porn addiction can be similar to drug dependencies because addicts not only feel the
need for more, they also build up a tolerance of sorts and begin getting into types of
pornography that they probably would have never once considered.  The military cited
several examples of marriages, careers, and lives ruined because officers and enlisted
men had become so addicted that they had begun viewing child pornography.  While this
does not mean that everyone who views pornography will choose that path, the study was
quite clear in identifying the strong lure of pornography upon its
addicts.

While women can, of course, be addicted to
pornography, they make up a very small minority of identified porn addicts.  Admittedly,
the argument exists that porn objectifies and degrades women, but there is also another
more individual effect of pornography upon women and children.  When someone is addicted
to pornography, he will often lie about and hide his habit from loved ones.  Wives and
partners feel betrayed by their husbands' problem, and it is difficult to regain trust
in a relationship when such an addiction exists.  Similarly, children can be neglected
when adults focus solely on their "drug."

Finally, and most
importantly, children around the world have been and are being used in the porn
industry. Not only is this reprehensible and life-altering for the children involved,
but it is also physically dangerous.  Child pornography has created a seedy underworld
in which kidnapping, neglect, and exploitation play a part.  Sadly, many of the child
pornography cases brought before the courts involve family members' exploiting their own
child relatives.