Pornography use in adolescents can be linked to stronger attitudes supportive of sexual violence and violence against women.

Adolescent’s pornography use is associated with stronger beliefs in gender stereotypes, an association found stronger in boys.

The gaps between these expectations and reality have been found to produce sexual uncertainty and are related to sexual dissatisfaction. For example, what boys expect their partners to do and vice versa, and what people ‘should’ find pleasurable.

Young peoples’ attitudes, behaviours, and expectations about sex are influenced by what they see in pornography.

It is possible that viewing non-mainstream sexual practices can give legitimacy to them, although it is not clear that permissive sexual attitudes are inherently problematic or harmful. Consistently evidence suggests that adolescent’s use of pornography is associated with stronger permissive sexual attitudes, such as premarital and casual sex.

Pornography may impact on young people’s adoption of certain sexual behaviours.

Pornography can influence how children and adolescents view sexuality, and can impact on the language they use to describe certain sexual behaviours or body parts.

Research on the impact of pornography on young people is rapidly growing, some recent studies have suggested the following:

4 The impact of pornography on young people Some research has suggested that viewing pornography may be linked with young men having ‘aggressive’ views towards girls. However, pornography is considered to be an extremely poor and generally inappropriate method of sexuality education for young people, especially men. Some studies have suggested that viewing pornography can assist same-sex attracted, questioning young people to develop a positive sense of identity and sexual confidence. Males appear to be more likely to use pornography, to view it alone and to become sexually aroused by its content. 2Įxposure to pornography is not always voluntary, with ads promoting porn sites often arising as ‘pop-ups’ and many girls report experiencing the incidence of involuntary exposure.

Of these, 24% say they have seen online sexual images including nudity, 17% have seen someone’s genitals online, 16% (more teenagers than young children) have seen images of someone having sex, and 6% say they have seen violent sexual images. One study found 28% of Australian 11-16-year olds have seen sexual images online. 1 The types of pornography available on the internet ranges from mild to grossly offensive and illegal, and comes in the form of sexual pictures, writing, photos, videos, or chatroom talk. Pornography is generally described as being any sexually explicit materials intended to create arousal in the consumer.Īccessing and viewing sexually explicit material is now common among young people, especially boys. In the past, young people have typically come across or looked for sexually explicit material in the form of photographs, books and magazines. However, with phones and other devices making the internet so readily accessibl e, sexually explicit material is now even more available, easily accessible, cheap, and quick. Many young people are exposed to a culture saturated with sexualised images that are not easily controlled by parents or schools and can readily view pornography without age-related barriers.

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