DUBLIN, Ireland: Extreme online pornography is influencing some young men to see violence against women as normal, according to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

Harris, who will step down as Garda Commissioner in September after seven years, raised the issue during his final meeting with the Policing Authority on July 31. Speaking to reporters afterwards, he warned about the harmful impact of internet pornography.

He said that the term "hard-core pornography" is now outdated, because what is freely available online is far more extreme. "The pornography which is easily accessible on the internet is violent, mostly against women," he said. "Young men watch this and it shapes how they think a sexual relationship should be."

Harris explained that this influence can be seen in real-life cases of serious sexual assault. "In some cases, gardaí have had to explain to perpetrators why what they did was wrong, because the violent behaviour they saw online had become normal to them," he said.

According to Harris, there is a clear link between the violent sexual behaviour shown in pornography and the behaviour of offenders. He said this trend has also been confirmed by research, pointing to a recent report by Women's Aid, which reached the same conclusion. While Harris admitted his own observations were more anecdotal, he said that both the descriptions of incidents and the attitudes of offenders show that online violence has been normalised.

He warned that some men now have a "completely distorted" idea of what a normal sexual relationship looks like. "You could almost say they have been radicalised," he said.

Harris stressed the need for education. He welcomed recent calls to limit children's access to violent content online, but said that alone was not enough. "There is a multibillion-dollar industry behind this, and we will not defeat it by simply attacking it," he said. "What we have to do is make sure people are educated and understand what a proper relationship is."

He added that both policing experience and academic research show the same worrying trend. "We can see it in the cases that come before the courts in recent years," he said.