Any scientific logic on prohibiting porn (pornography)?

Question

I already know that pornography is haram and harmful. I just want someone to explain me its reason scientifically. Can anybody do that? What reactions looking at nude pictures do in a human body? I'm one hundred sure that there's a logical reason behind this. I need to know it.

Answer 1

I survey scientific meta reviews below. Pornography was associated with:

• more sexual partners,
• increased condom use,
• lower interpersonal relationship satisfaction,
• addiction,
• male adolescent sexual offenses,
• sexual aggression (both perpetration and victimization),
• more permissive sexual attitudes,
• stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs,
• reduced satisfaction with romantic partners, and
• sexual dysfunction.

Not all of the above can be deemed "bad", but most are. In fact, I was surprised how many undesirable associations pornography has.

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Sexual risk behavior

Harkness et al. (2015) gave a meta review on pornography in relation to sexual risk behavior. They found:

For both Internet pornography and general pornography, links with greater unsafe sex practices and number of sexual partners were identified.

They study three topics in particular:

• Unsafe sex and condom use.

  All seven studies found evidence of an association... between pornography use and safer sex practice.

• Number of sexual partners.

  The overall results suggested that there is a robust association between pornography use and a higher number of sexual partners.

• Casual sex behavior. There was some evidence to associate pornography consumption with more casual sexual partners, particularly in men. This was not strong, however:

  The findings were mixed and require further replication and clarification due to the greater sexual health risk of casual sex when compared to sex with regular partners.

Teen sex

Ferguson et al. (2017) gave a meta on pornography in relation to teen sex. They found:

Results indicated the presence only of very weak effects. ...

Relationship satisfaction

Wright et al. (2017) (pdf) gave a meta review on pornography in relation to the consumers' satisfaction with themselves (intrapersonal satisfaction) and others (interpersonal satisfaction). They found:

Pornography consumption was not related to the intrapersonal satisfaction outcomes that were studied. However, pornography consumption was associated with lower interpersonal satisfaction ... But analyses by sex indicted significant results for men only.

Addiction

Love et al. (2015) reviewed neuroscientific studies on Internet addiction and Internet gaming disorder. They found that:

Internet pornography addiction fits into the addiction framework and shares similar basic mechanisms with substance addiction

Male adolescent sexual offenses

Seto and Lalumiere (2010) (doi) gave a meta review on the risk factors for male adolescent sex offenders. Among their findings were:

[male] adolescent sex offenders reported more exposure [to pornography] ... Finally, adolescent sex offenders reported significantly more atypical sexual fantasies, behaviors, or interests, or were more often diagnosed with a paraphilia

Sexual aggression

Wright et al. (2015) gave a meta review on pornography in relation to sexual aggression. They found:

Consumption was associated with sexual aggression in the United States and internationally, among males and females, and in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Associations were stronger for verbal than physical sexual aggression, although both were significant.

Adolescents and pornography

Peter and Valkenburg (2016) gave a broad meta review about adolescents and pornography. They found:

Adolescents who used pornography more frequently were male, at a more advanced pubertal stage, sensation seekers, and had weak or troubled family relations. Pornography use was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs. It also seemed to be related to the occurrence of sexual intercourse, greater experience with casual sex behavior, and more sexual aggression, both in terms of perpetration and victimization.

Romantic relationships

Rasmussen (2016) gave a meta review in relation to pornography and romantic relationships. They found:

In particular, findings suggest that pornography can reduce satisfaction with partners and relationships through contrast effects, reduce commitment by increasing the appeal of relationship alternatives, and increase acceptance of infidelity. Evidence connecting pornography to rape or sexual aggression remains mixed, although these effects continue to have important implications for how romantic partners interact.

Sexual dysfunction

Park et al. (2016) gave a meta review in relation to pornography and sexual dysfunction. They found:

... evidence has mounted that Internet pornography may be a factor in the rapid surge in rates of sexual dysfunction

and go on to say

Clinical reports suggest that terminating Internet pornography use is sometimes sufficient to reverse negative effects ...

Answer 2

Some evidence may suggest that it is to avoid unnecessary arousal, there is some medical evidence that one can get addicted to arousal and it affects the brain in a negative way in the long term. (allahu alim)

So if this is bad:

The Messenger of Allaah (Peace & Blessings of Allaah be upon Him) said: "O Ali, do not follow a glance with another, for you will be forgiven for the first, but not for the second." (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 2701; see Saheeh al-Jaami’, 7953)

And this is bad:

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Whenever a non-mahram man and woman meet in seclusion, Shaytaan definitely is the third one joining them.” [Tirmidhi]

Imagine pornography, which is a plague upon the whole of society those who are engaged in watching/producing are often among some of the most depressed individuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_addiction

Also historically what often happened to society engaged in depravity were met by a very peculiar end. Such society had high living standards for their time and both started to engage in immorality thus forgetting/rejecting the blessing that Allah (swt) bestowed upon them.

Answer 3

Apart from the link which Atata provided (in comments) and others have provided in their answers, the main reason I reckon (scientifically) is that your brain size decreases due to the high amount of novelty involved in it.

You care less about relationships and you live in a fantasy world of pornography. You care less about Akhirah etc.