Adolescents and Pornography: A Review of 20 Years of Research

Abstract

The goal of this review was to systematize empirical research that was published in peer-reviewed English-language journals between 1995 and 2015 on the prevalence, predictors, and implications of adolescents' use of pornography. This research showed that adolescents use pornography, but prevalence rates varied greatly. Adolescents who used pornography more frequently were male, at a more advanced pubertal stage, sensation seekers, and had weak or troubled family relations. Pornography use was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs. It also seemed to be related to the occurrence of sexual intercourse, greater experience with casual sex behavior, and more sexual aggression, both in terms of perpetration and victimization. The findings of this review need to be seen against the background of various methodological and theoretical shortcomings, as well as several biases in the literature, which currently precludes internally valid causal conclusions about effects of pornography on adolescents.

Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Adolescents’ Sexual Performance Orientation: The Mediating Roles of Enjoyment and Perceived Utility

“…As a response to this availability of SEIM, previous investigations have documented relationships between adolescents' use of SEIM and their attitudes towards sex within the context of (casual or committed) relationships and their sexual behavior (for a review, see Peter & Valkenburg, 2016).…”

“…As the exclusion of adolescents that were not familiar with SEIM created a systematic drop-out (as was shown by the MANOVA analysis reported above), post-hoc analyses Prior literature has documented how exposure to SEIM is related to adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior (for reviews, see Peter & Valkenburg, 2016;Wright & Donnerstein, 2014). Extending this literature, the current longitudinal study suggests that SEIM also may play a role in another area of adolescent sexuality: adolescents' orientation toward performances in sexual activities.…”

“…Although cumulative support for reciprocal relationships between sexual media use and sexual outcomes is limited (for a review, see Peter & Valkenburg, 2016), there are some longitudinal studies that have found such a relationship (e.g., Peter & Valkenburg, 2009a;Wright, & Tokunaga, 2016). In addition, qualitative research suggests that the particular relationship between watching SEIM and a sexual performance orientation may be reciprocal: Adolescents not only indicated that they learned from SEIM how to perform sex, but also actively searched for SEIM to improve their own sexual performances (ArringtonSanders et al, 2015;Rothman et al, 2014).…”

The Risks Young People Face as Porn Consumers

“…The cumulative potential for harm to adolescents is likely to remain a contested space for the next few years. Nevertheless, social, health, and learning issues have been discussed in various reviews, such as those led by Owens, Behun, Manning, and Reid (2012), Peter and Valkenburg (2016), and Lim, Carrotte, and Hellard (2016).…”

Internet Sex discourse and porn viewing by Arab adolescents: The overt and the covert and its impact on their sexual education and behavior (Preprint)

“…Due to the pervasiveness of online porn in the cultural and social environment of adolescents, a systematic survey was held in 2016 [29 ], which found (despite the differences in the methodologies of the different studies) that pornography use was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs. It also appeared to be related to the occurrence of sexual intercourse, greater experience with casual sex behavior, and more sexual aggression, both in terms of perpetration and victimization.…”