Your Brain on Porn – What Parents and Carers Need to Know

Family Talk with Mary Sharpe, CEO of The Reward Foundation

Porn Has Changed – Radically

Mary warns that many parents assume porn today resembles “the magazines or DVDs they saw growing up.” In reality, “the internet has radically changed the access and availability of extreme material.” Each year, she says, “the amount and the strength of the stimulation increases.”

She describes porn bluntly as “junk food for the brain – industrial-strength stimulation in industrial quantities.”

Why the Adolescent Brain Is So Vulnerable

Adolescence is a critical period of brain development. “It’s a time of accelerated learning, driven by biology,” Mary explains. At puberty, dopamine and natural opioids surge, making teenagers more sensitive to pleasure, novelty and risk.

“Nerve cells that fire together wire together,” she says. Repeated behaviours become deeply ingrained, and porn trains the brain to seek stimulation rather than connection.

What the Science Shows

Mary points to more than sixty studies and large-scale reviews showing that pornography use changes the brain. MRI research demonstrates that the reward centres of heavy porn users activate in ways strikingly similar to drug addiction, including cocaine.

“Pornography is a supernormal stimulus,” she explains, “that hijacks the brain’s natural pathways for reward and learning.”

The hopeful news is that the brain can recover. “When most people quit, their brains settle down again,” she says. “They often become less aggressive and more compassionate.”

Warning Signs for Parents and Carers

Mary stresses that every brain reacts differently, but common red flags include staying up late watching porn, struggling to wake for school, falling grades and withdrawal from family life.

“If a 13-year-old is up till 2 a.m. on a screen and can’t get up for school, that’s a problem,” she says. Comparing themselves to chemically enhanced performers can also severely damage confidence and relationships.

Dopamine, Escalation and Addiction

Mary explains the dopamine “high-low” cycle: overstimulation produces a rush, followed by a crash. “You feel awful and numb. The only thing that lifts you again is more stimulation.”

To keep dopamine levels high, users often escalate – spending longer online, opening multiple tabs, seeking more extreme content and practising behaviours such as “edging.” The internet, she says, is “intentionally addictive by design.”

Sexual Harm and Real-World Consequences

Mary draws a direct link between violent porn and rising levels of sexual strangulation among young people. A 2024 government-backed review led by Baroness Gabby Bertin reported a “huge increase,” including among children.

Restricting blood flow to the brain, she warns, can cause strokes and is now the second most common cause of stroke in women under 42. In response, the UK Government is moving to ban porn featuring choking or suffocation.

What Parents and Carers Can Do

Mary’s advice is clear: educate yourself about the adolescent brain so you can educate your child. Talk early, talk often, without shame or blame.

Ask curious, open questions: Are your friends using porn? How does it make you feel? It’s about observation, not accusation.

She describes online porn as “the biggest unregulated social experiment in history,” warning that foster children may be especially vulnerable and need extra understanding and support.