In what was one of the most awkward debates in parliamentary history, the Lords spent today arguing about the threat of pornography.
Watching porn makes parts of your brain shrink, a Conservative peer claimed during a ridiculous two-hour House of Lords debate about online pornography on Thursday.
![Watching porn makes parts of your brain shrink, a Conservative peer claimed during a ridiculous two-hour House of Lords debate about online pornography on Thursday.]()
Parliament.tv
Speaking at the Lords debate on porn's effect on society, Lord McColl of Dulwich, 82, claimed that "constant pornography consumption can reduce the size of parts of the brain that are related to reward".
McColl was referencing a study which he said examined 64 "healthy men" as they viewed sexually explicit videos. He claimed it proved beyond doubt that porn damages brain activity much like drug addiction does.
"There is increasing evidence to suggest that brain activity of those individuals who consume large volumes of pornography is similar to the brain activity of those with other addictions, notably with addiction to drugs," said McColl.
It was one of a number of eyebrow-raising contributions during the porn debate, including when the Bishop of Chester spoke about "squalid, dirty, sex".
vine.co / Via Jim Waterson
The bishop had called for the debate in the Lords, arguing that pornography has a detrimental affect on society. At the conclusion of his speech, he teased that he wanted to end in "a way which may surprise" his fellow lords – and proceeded to quote the author D.H. Lawrence.
"No other civilization, not even the Romans, has showed such a vast proportion of ignominy and degraded nudity and ugly, squalid, dirty, sex," he said.
Most speakers agreed that more needs to be done to tackle porn being accessed by children, with one lord claiming young people were caught in "a web of pornography". Others, such as Baroness Murphy, argued there was no evidence that porn has led to an increase in sexual violence among young people.
Baroness Howe thanked the Bishop of Chester for giving the Lords the opportunity to "stand back and look at pornography".
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