People today are too afraid to call out the porn industry over the damage it is doing to society, Shane Coleman has warned.

A new ESRI study has found that young men are far more likely to watch porn online than young women.

The study is based on answers given by 4,500 20-year-olds as part of the Growing Up in Ireland survey.

In all 64% of young men said they use online porn compared to just 13% of young women.

Men who use online porn reported poorer well-being than non-users, saying they felt less satisfied with their lives and reporting higher depressive symptoms and poorer self-image.

Meanwhile, young people who watch porn were found to be less likely to regularly use condoms.

Pornography

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Shane Coleman said people should be more outspoken about the damage porn is doing to society.

“I actually think part of the problem is people are afraid to call out porn,” he said.

“I think they fear that if they do, they'll be seen as prudes or illiberal or so on.

“I have no such concerns about that – you can call me a prude if you want.

“I despise the pornification of society; I actually hate what it's done.”

'Unrealistic, joyless and even comical'

He said he believes porn portrays sex in a “really unrealistic, joyless” and often even comical way.

“I hate the pressure it puts on young men,” he said. “I hate even more the pressure it puts on young women.

“I hate the way it's affected general society, the whole hairless thing, I won't go into any more detail than that, I think people know what I mean by that.

“We now know from this study that it leads to poorer well-being, people – young men and young women being less satisfied, having poorer self-image and more depressive symptoms.”

Jonathan Healy in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk

Fellow presenter Jonathan Healy said 64% of young men actually sounds a “bit on the low side”.

“What is concerning is that this has taken over a generation as to how they learn about relationships and intimacy and it's not good because the image that they're being presented with is a negative one,” he said.

“It goes to the core of how we deal with this as a society.”

Education

Jonathan said one of the key findings from the study is that pornography “really isn't dealt with in schools”.

“Now, that's possibly just a hangover from the fact that it was a taboo subject in schools for many, many years, but the Internet has changed that completely and it just shows you how important it is that parents have an open conversation about what is there,” he said.

“We're not going to get rid of pornography online.

“It's just not going to happen. There can be talks about, ‘We'll ban this and we'll ban that’ but this generation is going to have access to it and ensuring that they understand what they're seeing is vitally important.

“If parents don't do that, I don't know who is going to do that.”