Billie: Porn warped my young mind
Star bares trauma of seeing sick clips
Billie Eilish says porn “destroyed” her brain after she began watching graphic online videos while still in elementary school.
“As a woman, I think porn is a disgrace,” Eilish, 19, declared in an interview with Howard Stern on Monday. “I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11.”
The “Ocean Eyes” singer continued: “I think it really destroyed my brain, and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.”
With the easy availability of graphic types of pornography online, Eilish said it warped her ideas about sex and relationships.
“It got to a point where I couldn’t watch anything else unless it was violent. I didn’t think it was attractive,” she confessed.
“I was a virgin. I had never done anything. And so, it led to problems . . . The first few times I had sex, I was not saying no to things that were not good. It was because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be attracted to.”
The singer told Stern that she began watching “abusive” BDSM porn, which she says causes her to now suffer from night terrors and sleep paralysis.
“I’m so angry that porn is so loved,” Eilish blasted. “And I’m so angry at myself for thinking that it was OK.”
Psychologists have long warned about the dangers of children being exposed to pornography before they become sexually active, saying it negatively shapes their ideas and expectations of sex.
Brad Salzman, a clinical social worker and founder of the New York Sexual Addiction Center, told The Post that it’s not unusual for children to first begin watching online porn at the age of 11.
“It’s actually the norm,” said Salzman, who has treated young men suffering from sex and porn addiction, many of whom are aged in their early 20s — not much older than Eilish herself.
“Parents aren’t paying attention and [porn exposure] can affect them for the rest of their lives. . . . It totally colors their perception of what normal sexuality is supposed to look like. and it changes the way they think that they’re supposed to interact.
“They can begin seeing other people as sex objects as opposed to human beings.”
‘Most addictive drug’
Dr. Ziv Cohen, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, agreed that the age of porn exposure is shockingly young today.
He said some parents have approached him in a panic after discovering that their 7- and 8-yearold children have been accessing porn, such as by being shown the content on an older kid’s phone.
“For young children to be exposed to that gives them a very skewed and inaccurate image of sex,” Dr. Cohen said.
“Its not positive for their perception of intimacy and the opposite sex.”
Salzman said there are three components that make porn addictive, “none of which existed 20 years ago.”
“It’s totally accessible, totally anonymous and totally affordable — or free. There’s an unlimited supply in any flavor you want.”
Salzman is not surprised that Eilish eventually began to access more and more extreme types of porn.
“It has to become more frequent, more extreme, more risky — people have to keep turning up the volume. That’s why people drift into categories they never would have gotten into in the first place — to chase the high,” Salzman said, adding that today’s porn is not all like the Playboy and Penthouse pinup snaps of years past.
“People have to realize that Internet pornography is not a harmless pastime,” he said.
“It might be the most addictive drug we have today. There’s so many people who are addicted to it and they don’t even know.”
For parents, it’s not “realistic” to think that their children will be able to avoid exposure, said Cohen, who also warned that it’s essential that parents learn how to restrict access to porn on personal devices whenever possible, and that it’s also key that adults be open and loving to children about the subject.
“It is important for parents to be involved with their kids and to talk to them about what it is and why it’s not for them,” he said.
Both experts praised Eilish, saying the singer has sparked the beginning of an important discussion — and might open young fans’ eyes to the dangers of illicit content.
“You don’t hear a lot of women going public [talking about porn and its potential perils],” Salzman said. “It takes a lot of courage and a lot of guts.”