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Pornography, the US Senate was told on 18 October, is a drug more dangerous than crack cocaine. That, at least, was the opinion of some witnesses invited to testify on “the science behind pornography addiction”. It’s not a view shared by everyone.

Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the sexual trauma and psychopathology programme at the University of Pennsylvania, said unpublished research showed that “even non-sex-addicts will show brain reactions on PET scans while viewing pornography similar to cocaine addicts looking at images of people taking cocaine”. Jeffrey Satinover, a doctor whose website outlines therapies for homosexuals, described porn as a…

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