Porn on the internet is hard to avoid.

For minors, this can be especially concerning.

Boys as young as 11 years old have been exposed and subsequently became addicted to porn.

Now as young men, some of them are finding help to overcome their addictions through online

forums and communities.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Tuesday, March 31st, 26.

Joining me now to discuss the rise in porn addiction and how it's affected a whole generation

of young men is USA Today Youth Mental Health Reporter Rachel Hale. Rachel, it's good to speak with

you again. Thanks for having me on. Rachel, let's begin by digging into how you found out

about the problem of porn addiction among boys and young men?

This is a topic that I've wanted to cover for a while since starting this beat,

but it was a question of figuring out the right angle and kind of the right way in.

And something positive that I found as I was keeping tabs on different ideas is that on Reddit,

I saw a number of forums where people were speaking about their recovery processes, the highs

and lows of it. And what struck me is really interesting is just how many members were part

of these groups and how many of these groups there are, specifically on Reddit, some of which have upwards

of a million followers. And that is what struck me as making it a really relevant and timely

piece, is kind of seeing the ways that people are seeking out help for this problem.

Of course, porn on the internet is nothing new. So what's made it more accessible to Gen Z? Is it

the use of smartphones? Yeah, that's definitely a piece of it. And I'm glad you said Gen Z because I did

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