A Qualitative Study of What US Parents Say and Do When Their Young Children See Pornography

Child and Adolescent Pornography Exposure

“…A U.S. study of nearly 1,000 adolescents reported that 66% of males and 39% of females had viewed online pornography (Short, Black, Smith, Wetterneck, & Wells, 2012). Pornography exposure in children less than 10 years of age is relatively unexplored (Rothman, Paruk, Espensen, Temple, & Adams, 2017).…”

“…It is crucial that PNPs feel comfortable and knowledgeable in addressing the issue of pornography viewing with caregivers and children. Rothman et al (2017) studied parental reaction to their young children (less than 12 years of age) viewing pornography. Many parents in this sample of 279 reported feeling paralyzed, unsure of how to respond to their child, and fearful of the potential impact on their child.…”

Children's Exposure to Sexually Explicit Content: Parents’ Awareness, Attitudes and Actions

“…However, while evidence shows that New Zealand teens regard their parents as the first line of support in dealing with online risks and challenges (see Netsafe, 2018b), parents seem to underestimate or be unaware of the frequency of such risks (Byrne, Katz, Lee, Linz, & McIlrath, 2014;Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, & Ólafsson, 2011). What is more, little is still known about parents' behaviours and actions when their children have been exposed to online risks (Rothman, Paruk, Espensen, Temple, & Adams, 2017). This study seeks to address the gap in New Zealand.…”

“…A US-based study (see Byrne et al, 2014), on the other hand, found that parents tend to underestimate children's accidental exposure to sexually explicit content. Also, when parents find out that their child has seen such content their reactions tend to be: a) angry, shaming, or punitive; b) calm and factual; c) ignoring, minimising, or denying that it happened; d) panic or fear; and e) lying about the incident (see Rothman et al, 2017).…”

“…We conducted a quantitative survey with parents/whānau (and caregivers) of children aged 9 to 17 years old. The survey was informed by the Global Kids Online 2 (GKON) framework and other prior research on the topic (Rothman et al, 2017;Zurcher, 2017). We also sought feedback from relevant stakeholders to improve the questionnaire.…”