#Cong14 was just great and I am very grateful to Eoin Kennedy for making it happen, and to everyone who attended for being their brilliant selves! My only complaint is that I didn’t get to be in EVERY huddle – they were so good, so stimulating.  Speaking of stimulating, here is an update on what came out of the conversations about porn and some actions:

General Thoughts Contributed In The Huddles

Sorry I didn’t note who said what, I can’t attribute the thought to the person here.

• We all need to talk about sex more.  But if we are to bring this serious issue about porn addiction to the fore, we need to engage Parents and Teens.
  • Young people passing the positive message to each other
• Porn is a taboo subject in our culture, just like suicide was. But suicide is becoming more acceptable. Looks to how this has happened and follow the same route.
• Porn delivers a dopamine hit to the brain.  Look at how to make it anti-dopamine.

Obstacles

• The massive scale of the porn industry, and how we tend to believe things we see in video.
  • The fact that people are making $200,000 a month out of this and they will want to protect that income.
  • The fact that many third level students are funding their education through private camera sessions.
• The sexualisation of society, desensitisation of the issue and depersonalisation of the self which normalises behaviour that parents couldn’t imagine. (Those impressive words are not mine – were from Bernie Goldbach/Marie Boran/Dermot Casey)
• Snapchat’s new monetisation tool, Snapcash – how it could potentially create a whole generation of amateur porn stars

A great question:

Does porn for young males screw them up in the same way as fashion does for young females?

Actions:

• Engage with leading academics and respected people in the area and get them on board.
• Possibly have a symposium of youth and parenting groups to seek ideas on how to tackle?
• Approach PhD candidates who are interested in sexualisation but who are looking for a subject.
• Seek funding for a website with resources for parents and young people that they can use.  Look at how positive options site delivers their message.  Include a forum for people with porn addiction to be heard and get support.  Look at how bullying forums work.
• Understand how Google and Microsoft could play a role, in that they already assist Gardai with child porn
• Talk to Brigid Teevan – sex educator.  Interviewed here.

I’m going to put some of the key stats, thoughts, and general stuck in my brain points onto a slidedeck and will share with interested people to get the conversation started. That’s tomorrow’s job (Monday)

In the meantime, have a read of this – a good article that says it like it is: http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/how-online-sex-can-lead-to-in-real-life-sexual-dysfunction-wcz/  (thanks to Bernie @topgold for sharing).