“Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life” premiers June 20 on the channel, which has tapped into a large, loyal audience by pumping out issue-based melodramas.
Warner Home Video Vice President Christine Martinez said, "Lifetime is one of the most powerful brands in all of media” and that "video and DVD versions of our Lifetime Original Movies are the single most requested item from our viewers.”
The movie tells the story of a popular suburban high school sophomore whose “addiction to Internet pornography wreaks havoc on his life and begins to tear his family apart.”
Jeremy Sumpter plays a 16-year-old swimmer whose friend introduces him to adult websites. The movie portrays the cutting himself off from his family, failing at school and athletics and becoming sexually aggressive with girls.
While there is no scientific proof that adult entertainment has addictive effects, conservative politicians have done an effective job of selling the idea to the media, which has reported widely on the issue.
Last November, Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., held a Senate subcommittee hearing called "pornography addiction," in which a number of researchers compared adult material with heroin and crack cocaine, suggesting that its effect on brain chemistry is similar.
The adult entertainment industry and academics with differing points of view were shut out of the meeting.
In an attempt to open a more balanced discussion on the topic, the Free Speech Coalition last month hosted a public community forum, "Today's Porn: Entertainment or Addiction?"
