Three years ago, Martin Daubney was editing a soft porn magazine. You’d be right to imagine he defended porn on the grounds of free speech and expression.

Now he is an outspoken critic of pornography. Online pornography, anyway, which is not only grotesquely hard-core, but also pathologically addictive.

As the presenter of a Channel 4 documentary called Porn On The Brain, airing next Monday at 10pm, I’d been invited to sit in on a forward-thinking class led by sex education consultant Jonny Hunt. To establish what these kids knew about sex — including pornography — he had asked the children to write an A-Z list of the sexual terms they knew, no matter how extreme.

Most of these children had just hit puberty and some were clearly still children: wide-eyed, nervous, with high-pitched voices. But when Jonny pinned their lists on the board, it turned out that the children’s extensive knowledge of porn terms was not only startling, it superseded that of every adult in the room – including the sex education consultant himself.

‘Nugget, what’s that?’ asked Jonny.

‘A nugget is a girl who has no arms or legs and has sex in a porno movie,’ chortled one young, pimply boy, to an outburst of embarrassed laughter from some, and outright revulsion from others.

You can read the rest at The Daily Mail.

I imagine Daubney’s documentary will be screened on the ABC later this year, or maybe SBS. That seems to be the pattern for British-made documentaries.

Meanwhile, Don Jon was released in American theatres this weekend. There’s no word yet on an Australian release date. A decision will be made based on the film’s US reception.

Having read the Wikipedia article (which contains spoilers), I know enough about Don Jon only to know that I don’t know enough to recommend it. I’m sure the American blogosphere will oblige with thoughtful reviews in the days ahead.

If you are addicted to pornography, it’s important, I think to seek multifaceted treatment, which incorporates the spiritual (especially the sacramental) and the psychological. It’s certainly not advisable to become a resigned recidivist, repeatedly committing and confessing the same things without any struggle or hope of conversion.

Sacramental confession and spiritual direction are critical, but speaking with a trained counsellor also helps. I can recommend these counsellors: