The Great Porn Experiment, American Edition

”Of all activities on the internet, porn has the most potential to become addictive” say Dutch neuroscientists [Meerkerk et al, 2006].

In this lesson pupils will learn about the wide-ranging effects of internet pornography on the brain using a popular TEDx talk The Great Porn Experiment by former science teacher Gary Wilson. It has had over 15 million views. We provide an update on the facts since those given in the 2012 talk. There is a quick quiz to test pupils’ recall, a ‘pair and share’ exercise and a longer period of discussion to allow fuller examination of the very important health issues raised. No pornography is shown in this diversity friendly lesson.

The original TEDx talk was given in Glasgow in 2012 and followed a 4 minute TED talk called The Demise of Guys by renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University.

Resources: 12-slide PowerPoint (.pptx) with 1 embedded video with sound and a 10-page Teacher’s Guide (.pdf) with hotlinks to relevant research and further resources.