‘Everywhere they say that it’s harmful but they don’t say how, so I’m asking here’: young people, pornography and negotiations with notions of risk and harm

Abstract

In Finland, as elsewhere in Western countries, public debate about the dangers of pornography and the sexual practices of adolescents has taken on new urgency due to wider Internet access and the development of smart phones. Over the past decade, there have been reports that Finnish young people are being harmed, traumatised and sexualised by the media. The consumption of pornography by minors has, for example, been associated with visual harassment and visual violence in terms of the harmful effects it is seen to engender (Martsola and Mäkelä-Rönnholm 2006;Näre 2006;Niemi 2011).Notions of risk and harm are often present in discussions about young people as consumers of pornography; risk being an issue of potential danger while harm signifies something that is experienced as damaging and unwanted (cf. Livingstone et al. 2011, 14-15). Press

A Health Education Website Developed to Meet Young People’s Information Needs About Web-Based Pornography and Sharing of Sexually Explicit Imagery (SCOPE): Usability Study

“…This is consistent with research that suggests that young people have an interest in sexuality and respond best to environments that encourage trust and openness and rely on evidence rather than moralistic undertones [26]. However, relying solely on evidence is challenging when dealing with emerging public health issues such as online pornography, where evidence is still being developed [7]. Our results suggest that this may be overcome by providing young people with the best available information, including on why there is lack a of consensus in evidence, and providing opposing views and discussion points to help them make their own informed decisions.…”

“…For example, a large (n=4564) survey of young people aged 14 to 17 years found that boys who regularly watch online pornography were significantly more likely to express negative gender attitudes [5]. Studies are yet to describe the direction or strength of these associations to be able to identify a causal relationship between pornography and harm [6,7].…”

The intimacy effect: Girls’ reflections about pornography and ‘actual sex’

“…Concerns over the impact of different kinds of media content on young people are critically examined in order to go beyond the dominant presumptions about the supposed ill effects of sexual media (see for example Attwood et al., 2018; Buckingham and Bragg, 2004; Knudsen et al., 2007; Mulholland, 2013; Nielsen et al., 2015; Spišák, 2016, 2017; Spišák and Paasonen, 2016; Tsaliki, 2011, 2015, 2016). For example, Buckingham and Bragg (2004) conducted the first systematic account within cultural studies about children's understandings of sex, intimacy and sexuality concerning media.…”

“…While the cultural role and status of pornography have been intensely debated in the course of the 2000s, there are tensions in identifying its various, allegedly mainly adverse, outcomes, causes and effects. Furthermore, these debates mostly lack the perspective of young people (Attwood et al., 2018; Buckingham and Chronaki, 2014: 305; Spišák, 2016, 2017; Tsaliki, 2016). This shortcoming is noteworthy, given how the young are considered as being at particular risk due to online pornography.…”

Polskie badanie EU Kids Online 2018 Najważniejsze wyniki i wnioski

“…W dyskusji na temat oddziaływania tego typu materiałów na młodzież można spotkać się z opinią, że temat szkodliwości tej sfery internetowej stał się wyolbrzymiony (Spišák, 2016). Istnieją koncepcje, w ramach których zakłada się, że ze względu na łatwą dostępność materiałów pornograficznych oraz nakładającej się na ten fakt specyfiki wieku dojrzewania, związanej z odkrywaniem własnej seksualności, poszukiwanie filmów, zdjęć zawierających tło seksualne jest naturalnym elementem procesu rozwojowego (Naezer, 2018).…”