An expert in the field of addiction to pornography says that pornography in America has reached the level of a public health crisis.

Dr. Sharon Cooper said that the impact that pornography has on the development of children who are routinely exposed to the sexual images.  The images that they see are hampering their ability to form healthy connections to sexuality and the proper role of men and women in relationships.

“It’s a very severe issue in our country,” Dr. Cooper told The Christian Post.

Dr. Cooper was speaking at a summit of the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation.  The event, sponsored by the anti-porn groups Morality in Media and Pornharms.com, was aimed at raising the awareness of the harm of pornography on youth.

Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College, spoke about performers who are considered “mainstream” in America like Miley Cyrus or Beyonce whose performances contain elements of adult entertainment.   She said the ease by which those performances are accepted by Christians helps create the highly sexualized culture that harms youth.

Dines also says the problem is now so large that it cannot be stopped on an individual basis.

“There’s nothing you can do on an individual level really. The idea of it being a public health issue is that you have to come together collectively as a group,” said Dines.

“This has become such a public health crisis that we have to bring together groups who normally would not come together to figure out what does a public health approach look like in dealing with the harms of pornography.”