Those of you with Twitter accounts must have read about “Peterporn”.  Infotainment programs have constantly revisited the case, and even our own President offered his commentary.  

Some people may be wondering why this scandal has become such a big deal. The fact these videos are accessible to millions has raised concern about the effects pornography may have on society, and especially on children.  

Pornography can have negative consequences. It may encourage rape, pre-marital sex, adultary, prostitution, belittlement of women and the general breakdown of public moral standards. These negative effects have caused many people (including government officials) to consider imposing stern restrictions on all pornographic material.

Interestingly, even though people believe that pornography should be censored for the good of the public, many of the same people have no problem viewing porn themselves. Why did millions of people watch these videos despite denouncing the adverse effects of pornography?

Communication expert W. Phillips Davison calls this phenomenon “the third-person effect” (TPE). TPE has two components, a perception component (also called third-person perception), and a behavioral component.

The first component suggests that people tend to think that some people are influenced more by the media than they are themselves. This perception may impact some people’s attitudes and behavioral responses.  

Studies on TPE have been documented in a variety of contexts, including school violence, entertainment programs, racism, advertising and pornography.

A recent study on TPE examined the influence of pornography on young adults. The data shows that the majority of young adults believe some individuals are more vulnerable to the negative influences of pornography. The study showed that people that share similar opinions are also more likely to support censorship.

Given this video incident, people (Indonesian people in particular) tend to consider themselves less vulnerable to the negative influences of pornographic videos — because they don’t have a problem watching them.

As a result of this sex scandal, the Indonesian government thinks that online pornography should be banned, and has asked local internet service providers (ISPs) to protect society by blocking pornographic websites. Mr. Davison would classify this reaction under the behavioral component of TPE.

So here is a question for all of those who think that pornographic websites should be banned: do you really believe that these sites should be banned, or are you just victims of TPE?

The writer graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Indonesia.

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