The harms of pornography exposure among children and young people

Abstract

Exposure to pornography is routine among children and young people, with a range of notable and often troubling effects. Particularly among younger children, exposure to pornography may be disturbing or upsetting. Exposure to pornography helps to sustain young people's adherence to sexist and unhealthy notions of sex and relationships. And, especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifi es attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault. While children and young people are sexual beings and deserve age-appropriate materials on sex and sexuality, pornography is a poor, and indeed dangerous, sex educator. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.KEY WORDS: pornography; sexuality; violence; boys C hildren and young people are routinely exposed to pornography. They encounter sexually explicit images while on the Internet, some watch X-rated videos and, like adults, they live in a culture increasingly saturated in sexualised representations. What is the impact among children and young people of exposure to pornography? This article explores the likely effects of children's and young people's exposure to sexually explicit media. It argues that while there are disagreements over how to judge pornography's effects, pornography exposure can lead to emotional disturbance, sexual knowledge and liberalised attitudes, shifts in sexual behaviour, and sexist and objectifying understandings. Particularly for boys and young men, the use of pornography may exacerbate violence-supportive social norms and encourage their participation in sexual abuse.This review focuses on children's and young people's exposure to pornography, rather than children in pornography,

La exposición de los menores a la pornografía en Internet: prevalencia, motivaciones, contenidos y efectos

“…Thus, we support the necessity to protect young people from exposure to inappropriate and disturbing sexual contents by providing parents with effective monitoring rules and developing sexual education programs that includes the teaching of ethical norms and skills to critically evaluate pornographic materials (Flood & Hamilton, 2003). Likewise, it is essential to reach a balance between the protection of minors and the promotion of their development (Miranda, 2005) since "protecting children from sexual harm does not mean protecting children from sexuality" (Flood, 2009); a difficult and worthy task.…”

“…Finally, although there is growing worry about the harm to youth's psychosocial development of seeing online pornography (Mesch, 2009;Wolak et al 2007), research on the effects of exposure is still scarce (Flood, 2009). In 2006, Wolak et al found that 74% of 10-17 year-olds felt not at all or only a little upset when they saw online sexual material, suggesting that exposure, even when unwanted, is not necessarily distressing.…”

“…With regard to effects on youth sexuality, a recent review of the research shows that adolescents who consume pornography may develop unrealistic sexual beliefs, more permissive sexual attitudes, sexual preoccupation, and earlier sexual experimentation. Findings, nonetheless, are not conclusive (Owens, Behun, Manning & Reid, 2012) and most are based on correlational analyses that do not allow determinations of casualty (Flood, 2009). Additionally, it has been found that exposure to sexually explicit internet material does not increase sexual risk behaviour among adolescents (Luder et al 2011;Peter & Valkenburg, 2011a).…”

An Educational Response to the Issue of Online Pornography for Schoolboys: The Case of Participatory Action Research in Lithuania

“…Van Zoonen (2000) highlights feminism's unconditional focus on analyzing gender as a mechanism that structures material and symbolic worlds and our experiences of them. According to Flood (2009), pornography can influence viewers' attitudes towards, and adoption of, particular sexual behaviours. Internet and online pornography can therefore become a significant factor in gender socialization, promoting beliefs that women are sex objects (Peter & Valkenburg, 2007), sexual violence, decreased sexual intimacy (Flood, 2009), increasingly negative attitudes toward women (Emmers-Sommer & Burns, 2005), and online infidelity (Henline, Lamke & Howard, 2007).…”

“…Van Zoonen (2000) has noted that many feminists argue that pornography objectifies women for men's pleasure, that it contributes to the erotisation of power and violence and hence the construction of forms of masculine sexuality which seek pleasure through power and violence. Flood (2009) emphasizes that pornography can influence viewers' attitudes towards and adoption of particular sexual behaviours. According to Flood, children may also be alienated, as many adult women are, by the subordinating representations of women common in pornography.…”