Pornography associated with youth violence

BACKGROUND: Violence is a very present situation in the various contexts of humanity, with Veracruz, Mexico being one of the most violent states in the country. There are studies that suggest that the consumption of pornography may be associated with an increased risk of violent behaviors due to physiological stimuli and legitimizing the behaviors observed in it. Objective: to determine the association between addiction to pornography and violence in young people from Veracruz, Mexico. METHODS: A cross-sectional, observational, prospective and analytical study was carried out between November and April 2023. Young people between the ages of 12 and 25, residents of Veracruz, Mexico were included; subjects with known psychiatric diagnoses were excluded. Data collection was carried out using Google Forms, applying the ‘Buss and Perry’ violence test (A.Cronbach 0.87) and the ‘EMAP’ pornography addiction test (A.Cronbach 0.95). SPSS v22 software was used for data analysis, X2 test with Odds Ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) and MannWhitney U test. RESULTS: 1399 subjects were included, with an age of 19.3±2.8 years, 514 participants indicated consuming pornography (all digitally). Pornography addiction was identified in 495(35.3%) subjects and 399(28.5%) with moderate or higher violence. Addiction to pornography was shown to be a factor associated (OR/CI95%) with moderate or higher levels of physical (1.4/1.-1.7), verbal (1.3/1.0-1.6) or general (1.3/1.0-1.7) violence.), anger (1.3/1.0-1.7), hostility (1.4/1.1-1.8), as well as severe physical violence (1.3/1.0-1.7), in the same way that pornography consumption was associated with moderate or superior levels of physical and verbal violence, anger, hostility and violence in general (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The use of pornography and addiction to it facilitate the presence of physical and verbal violence, anger, hostility and violence in general in moderate or greater intensity, as well as severe physical violence. KEY MESSAGES: • Access to pornography through digital media facilitates the presence of violent behavior in young people, so it is necessary to find ways to regulate access to pornography. • It is necessary to establish strategies to provide education to young people, in order to educate and help the interpretation that young people can give to this type of explicit material.