**1. Introduction**

The publication of the Manifesto for a European research network into Problematic Usage of the Internet (PUI) [1] in May 2018 was a milestone in planning the roadmap for the behavioural addictions' community. It provided an international focus for developing policy across different elements of the research landscape for behavioural addiction over the next decade. The Manifesto was written from the perspective of the framework of the COST Action Network, a programme of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology CA16207.

The Manifesto identified nine key research priorities to advance the understanding of PUI (Table 1).

The Manifesto identifies pornography usage as a potential PUI. We have called this activity problematic usage of pornography (PUP).

**Table 1.** Summary of key research priorities to advance the understanding of PUI [1]


*Problematic Use of Pornography*

Since 2008 pornography consumption has transitioned from the model where a market supplied physical media such as magazines and DVDs to consumers through retail networks, to a transnational, Internet-based system mainly operating on a freemium trading model [2–4]. In the process it has scaled from predominantly national businesses reaching an audience of millions through shops and mail-order, to a world-wide online one with perhaps a billion customers [5–8]. Today, pornography is generally accessed on smartphones and other devices. Its consumption has the potential to develop into a large-scale form of PUI [9–11]. This technology-driven progression has massively increased the number of people potentially exposed to PUP, while simultaneously removing barriers moderating individual levels of consumption.

Some consumers uncomfortable with the apparent impacts of their pornography use have now gathered together in large-scale, online recovery communities [12,13]. Many of these are self-help groups who try to support individuals to manage their consumption, or to end it all together. A growing community of professional therapists [14–17], coaches [18] and mental health experts [19] has developed to support these self-help groups, as well as people accessing mental and physical health services through more mainstream medical, psychological and psychiatric routes.

Academic research and public policy to support consumers, recovery communities and professionals is still at an early stage of development. Much of the motivation for writing the current paper comes from the opportunity the Manifesto offers when it says:

*"Additionally, through an interactive Dissemination Plan (including website, social media, blogs) we are reaching out to relevant stakeholders at international and national levels with an emphasis on encouraging people with the lived experience of PUI to become involved in the Action"* [1] p. 1235.

This paper is a result of the authors heeding this call to action. First, it discusses the extent to which the topic of pornography usage is carried through in the nine key research themes. Next it considers how the Manifesto tries to address the diverse needs of the professional and consumer communities affected by PUP. It then goes on to suggest additional areas of research to bridge any identified gaps.

Our research question is "what topics should be included within future research proposals under the Manifesto to meet the diverse needs of consumers, recovery communities and professionals impacted by the problematic use of pornography"?

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

The current study has used the content of the Manifesto [1] as its target document. Its authors created the Manifesto both in the hope of influencing future research directions around PUI and to improve the availability of funding to support those aspirations. As far as the authors are aware, the Manifesto is the only research planning and policy document of its type currently available, which is relevant to the field of PUI.

Rather than developing a mechanism to choose to include some parts of the Manifesto and to exclude other portions, the target document is sufficiently short for it to be analysed as a single entity. Each and every paragraph referencing pornography within the Manifesto has been identified and is reproduced in this paper to provide context to allow consideration of both what has been said, and just as importantly, what has been omitted.

The Manifesto began by setting a level playing field for different problematic Internet usage behaviours. It also introduced the central focus on health impacts.

*"We use the umbrella term PUI to encompass all potentially problematic Internet related behaviours, including those relating to gaming, gambling, buying, pornography viewing, social networking, "cyber-bullying," "cyberchondria" among others. PUI may have mental and physical health consequences"* [1] p. 1234.

The nature of the health impacts is then developed further.

*"Disordered online behaviours, such as excessive video gaming, pornography viewing, buying, gambling, or streaming and social networks use (Ioannidis et al., 2018) have been associated with marked functional impairment including loss of productivity (or reduced scholastic achievement), and mental health sequelae including mood and anxiety disorders (Derbyshire et al., 2013; Ho et al., 2014)"* [1] p. 1234.

The next step was to contextualise the behaviours according to their form, their place within the international medical diagnostic frameworks and as issues affecting identifiable user populations.

*"As noted, PUI envelops a wide range of activities including video gaming, pornography viewing (and other compulsive sexual behaviours), buying, gambling, web-streaming, social media use and other behaviours. Some of these behaviours may fall into an existing mental disorder in psychiatric nomenclature (e.g., gambling disorder), whereas others are likely to be formally recognized in future DSM*/*ICD revisions, notably Internet Gaming Disorder (Kim et al., 2016b). Di*ff*erent types of PUI often start in childhood or adolescence (Volpe et al., 2015), but broad age ranges can be a*ff*ected (Ioannidis et al., 2018). Age and gender relate importantly to PUI behaviours, with younger people typically having problems with gaming and media streaming, males with gaming, gambling and pornography viewing and females with social media and buying (Andreassen et al., 2016)"* [1] p. 1234.

The manifesto then moves into a process of exploring the individual research priorities according to the list above.
