Recovering porn addict urges conversation among families to protect against explicit AI content
Recovering porn addict urges conversation among families to protect against explicit AI content
Publish Date: 2026-03-02 11:41:00
Source Domain: www.ksat.com
SAN ANTONIO – A recovering pornography addict, who now speaks to men battling the addiction, is sharing his journey to sobriety to encourage staying on the right path when dealing with exploitative material in the age of artificial intelligence.
According to safefamilies.org, most people struggling with pornography addiction later in life were first exposed when they were 10-13 years of age, and the addiction set in quickly.
Those aged 12-17 years old are the largest group of internet pornography viewers in America, the organization said. An alarming statistic that could have started with a simple click of curiosity.
The man said that sharing his story is even more important now that he has a teen daughter navigating today’s internet. KSAT is not identifying the man due to privacy concerns.
“I was hooked with that stuff, but it was an escape from everything,” he said. “It takes me away from my wife and my daughter and myself because it puts me in a shame spiral.”
He said he grew up in a sexualized, male-dominated household.
“At my dad’s business, he had a drawer full of Playboys,” he said. “There were no rules. I could stay up late and do whatever. It started with watching movies late. I didn’t know what I was doing, but no one was telling me what to do or not do or showed me anything about that. I grew up with a bunch of uncles and a dad who always talked masculine about women and checking them out.”
That seed, coupled with watching porn, made it hard for him to have a relationship with anyone.
“I sexualized women so much, making them into things and not into people,” he said. “I was always thinking about bad things. I just couldn’t get close to them.”
He admitted that his addiction got worse as technology advanced.
“Once it started getting into phones, the sky was (the) limit,” he said. “It was a crappy limit, but anything was on the phone. I could watch videos of all kinds for hours at a time. When I am sick like that,…
