*Corresponding author: Jyotika Gupta Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences, Amity University, India ISSN: 0976-3031 Research Article OBSCENITY ADDICTION SCALE (OAS): A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALE TO ASSESS ADDICTION TO OBSCENE CONTENT Jyotika Gupta and Kamini C. Tanwar Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences, Amity University, India DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijrsr.2022.1309.0467 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT There is a notable difference between having sex education and being obsessed with obscenity and sexual content. Exploring one’s sexuality has been considered a taboo in most societies and across different cultures; hence has invited much curiosity among netizens. Aim. To develop a multi-dimensional, descriptor-based Obscenity Addiction Scale to assess the addiction levels to the obscene content. A total of 315 responses were collected with the age criterion 18 years and above; 223 female responses, 88 male responses, and four responses from another category. The collected data was unbalanced, i.e., 70.8% Females, 27.9% males, and 1.3% other category; however, according to their responses, there is no significant difference in their respective scores. The reliability of the scale, evaluated by computing Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients to assess internal consistency across the scale as well as four variables, i.e., video content, audio content, audio-visual content, and social media/internet; showed reliability of 0.92 along with decent reliability of subscales of >0.65. Divergence and convergence were confirmed by using the correlation matrix using Pearson’s r. The validity of the scale was confirmed by using CFA with varimax rotation using Maximum Likelihood as an estimator. CFA was done twice on initial items (N=25), in which 9 items were dedicated to Social Media/Internet, out of which 4 items did not load well on the factor in round 1 and were removed in round 2, which increased the Comparative Fit Index and Tucker-Lewis Index from 0.76 and 0.73 to 0.80 and 0.77, respectively. The support of all the fit indices, including CFI, TLI, and RMSEA, indicated a good fit; hence the scale was valid. The OAS is a valid and reliable research tool to evaluate addiction to obscene content; for 18 years and above, irrespective of gender. INTRODUCTION There is a significant difference between addiction to obscene content, having sex education, and making an informed decision about the knowledge. Sex education and sexuality are not entirely accepted and openly discussed in many communities and with parents. As a result, adolescents and/or young adults hesitate to openly discuss their interests (Kumar et al., 2017). During their developmental years, children tend to have curiosity relating to their body, sexual identification, and exploration. The curious minds, if not given rightful answers and/or are suppressed or oppressed to having tried to explore their sexual knowledge, can get tainted to a greater extent, which insinuates to have either/or a negative knowledge base about the aforementioned topic. However, as media platforms have constantly evolved due to new technology that enables increased engagement and interactivity on smaller, more advanced graphically and computationally powerful devices (“Report of the Media Violence Commission,” 2012), these new technologies have become eccentric resources for acquiring knowledge at a rate that has never been possible. Contrary to traditional media (like broadcast TV, Radio), these new technologies allow people to access more varied types of visually appealing content than ever before, primarily when used with an internet connection (Donnerstein, 2013)and are addictive in nature(Bryant & Zillmann, n.d.). An addiction (Addictions, n.d.)is a dependency on a substance or an activity, and obscenity (OBSCENITY | Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, n.d.)can be solely defined as a state or quality of being obscene, i.e., an offensive or disgusting portrayal or description of sexual matters that have accepted standards of morality and decency. Thus, the dictionary definition of addiction to obscenity proposes an excessive preoccupation with sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors that are difficult to control, cause distress, or may negatively affect Available Online at http://www.recentscientific.com International Journal of Recent Scientific Research International Journal of Recent Scientific Research Vol. 13, Issue, 09 (B), pp. 2285-2292, September, 2022 Copyright © Jyotika Gupta and Kamini C. Tanwar, 2022, this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: 10.24327/IJRSR CODEN: IJRSFP (USA) Article History: Received 6 th June, 2022 Received in revised form 15 th July, 2022 Accepted 12 th August, 2022 Published online 28 th September, 2022 Keywords: Obscenity Addiction; Sexual Content; Social Media; Internet; Erotic Stimuli