Pornography and Abuse: Understanding the Connection

It is estimated that 14 million people watch online pornography every year in the UK, according to the media regulator Ofcom. Despite growing regulations and restrictions, access to explicit material continues to be prominent feature across the internet, raising the question of the impact of this content on the domestic abuse landscape.

We are increasingly seeing how pornography can be used a tool to facilitate domestic and sexual abuse. From being forced to consume violent pornographic content to sexual objectification, survivors have reported multiple ways that pornography has been used as a form of coercive and controlling behaviour. Unfortunately, the development of AI and nudification software have only increased the resources available to perpetrators. Data from Revenge Porn Helpline 2025 report, indicated reports of deepfake abuse increased from 2024. They also highlighted the differing abuse drivers such as “the sharing of genuine images, including the seeking of approval from peers and a desire to create the “best” content”. The development of this technology has increasingly worked to remove the agency of women online, feeding into the harmful narrative that women are content to be consumed rather than autonomous individuals who have a right to digital safety.

However, pornography is not only a tool in the perpetrator’s wider web of abuse. It can also create a barrier to recognition. The US organisation, Fight the New Drug, estimates that 1 in 3 porn videos shows sexual violence or aggression. The prevalence of this content continually works to normalise abusive sexual practices, blurring our recognition of unequal power dynamics and hiding control behind the weak façade of ‘consent’. By depicting violent and aggressive sexual behaviours as ‘enjoyable’, this creates a dynamic whereby these practices are expected rather than reported.

This is particularly harmful when we consider children’s exposure to this content at an early age. In 2025, new research conducted by the Children’s Commissioner revealed that more than a quarter of children reporting seeing porn by the time they turn 11.

Refuge’s Children and Technology Project Lead, states:

“The introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023 has been a significant step in protecting children from exposure to pornographic content online. Pornography often portrays behaviours such as strangulation and suffocation as normal, consensual and legal, despite these being criminal offences and posing serious risks to young people.

Research presented at a recent conference organised by the Institution for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS), led by Professor Vanessa Munro (University of Warwick) and Professor Matt Tonkin (University of Leicester), found that UK adults aged 16 to 34 are more likely than not to have engaged in strangulation during sex. The study also identified pornography as the most common source of information about this behaviour, with sexual partners and pornography having the strongest influence on its adoption.

Beyond these behaviours, pornography frequently depicts misogynistic attitudes and aggressive sexual behaviour towards women, exposing children to harmful and unhealthy representations of relationships and sex”.

However, pornography not only facilitates harm at the individual level, but also at a systemic one. By reinforcing patriarchal power structures, we create a culture that allows coercive and controlling behaviour to flourish unchallenged. As expressed by Professor Clare McGlynn in her new book Exposed, she writes that this content “is patriarchal because these websites are so popular and frequented so often that they are inevitably shaping society’s attitudes, culture, laws and policies. It is not niche, or reserved for the dark web,... It is ubiquitous, and it’s sustaining age-old values.” As a result, we are increasingly seeing how patriarchal power structures are being reflected and reinforced in online spaces.

Nonetheless, despite the scale of the issue, over the last year, we have seen a greater drive towards regulation of pornographic content. In 2025, new UK legislation placed an expectation on platforms with pornographic content to "robustly" age-check users with websites who ignore the new laws facing fines up to £18 million or 10% of worldwide revenue. Additionally, the UK government also announced plans to criminalise pornography depicting non-fatal strangulation, making it a priority offence alongside child sexual abuse material. These developments help to foster greater accountability around the creation, hosting and consumption of violent content.

However, to build safer online and offline societies it is essential we continue this momentum. Recognising the connection between pornography exposure and consumption and abuse is crucial for challenging patriarchal power structures and overcoming barriers to support.

Training opportunities with Refuge

If you would like to learn more about how technology is being misused, we also deliver a range of CPD accredited and bespoke training courses designed to upskill professionals on the emerging risks of technology-facilitated and economic abuse.

Online Misogyny and the Manospehere

Wednesday 2nd December 2026 - 10:00am-12:00pm

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Upcoming podcast episode

Refuge... In Conversation With, Experts on Migrant Experiences of Economic Abuse

Featuring Punita Chaubey from Sheffield Hallam University, Kaveri Qureshi from the University of Edinburgh, and Anna Barnett from Opoka, this episode will focus on migrant and minority ethnic women's experiences of economic abuse.

We will explore how immigration status, financial exclusion, and wider structural inequalities can increase vulnerability to abuse, and what needs to change to ensure survivors can access meaningful support.

You can follow our podcast on Spotify to keep up to date on new releases.

Get support

If you have been impacted by any of the issues discussed in this article, do know that support is available.

For domestic abuse support, please contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on a trusted device. The National Domestic Abuse Helpline can be accessed 24/7 and provides both practical and emotional support to individuals impacted by domestic abuse. The Helpline can be contacted on a freephone 0808 2000 247. Support is also available via British Sign Language – 10 AM to 6 PM Monday to Friday.

To find out more information about digital safety and how you can keep your information safe online, please access Refuge’s tech safety guides through our website on a trusted device. We also have a dedicated Home Tech Tool which is designed to support survivors to identify devices in their home which could be misused, with guidance on how to secure them safely.