The Relationship Between Online Pornography and the Sexual Objectification of Women: The Attenuating Role of Porn Literacy Education

Abstract

Media literacy interventions partly aim at preventing undesirable media effects at a later point of time. However, longitudinal research on the interaction between media literacy education and media effects is lacking. In this longitudinal study among 1,94713-25-year-olds, we started to address this lacuna by examining the potential of porn literacy education at schools to attenuate the longitudinal relationship between exposure to sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) and views of women as sex objects. A two-way interaction effect emerged: The relationship between SEIM and sexist views became weaker, the more users had learned from porn literacy education. No gender or age differences occurred. This study thus provides some first evidence for the role of media education in reducing undesirable media effects.

Untangling the Porn Web: Creating an Organizing Framework for Pornography Research Among Couples

“…Objectification (commonly considered the separation of identity from sexuality; Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998) is one of the clearest examples of an overly narrow lens. Evidence shows that objectification is a common theme in pornography scenes (e.g., Fritz & Paul, 2017;Klaassen & Peter, 2015), and a growing number of studies suggest that pornography may be influencing more objectifying views, particularly of women (e.g., Peter & Valkenburg, 2009;Vandenbosch & van Oosten, 2017). However, a variety of messages are simultaneously presented in pornography.…”

Surveying Pornography Use: A Shaky Science Resting on Poor Measurement Foundations

“…They are noteworthy because they appeared to be founded on a set of items that have been the focus of some validation efforts, but in each case, adaptations were made without clear justification. All six of these studies (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009, 2011bVandenbosch & van Oosten, 2017;van Oosten, 2016;Vogels, 2018;Vogels & O'Sullivan, 2019), for example, used only four of the original five items proposed by Peter and Valkenburg (2006), with no mention of why the fifth item (i.e., the use of "erotic contact sites", p. 186), with which the scale validity was originally supported, was excluded. Further, the original scale asked about pornography use over the past six months, but three of these studies used either a two month or a four month assessment window.…”

Associations between Croatian Adolescents’ Use of Sexually Explicit Material and Risky Sexual Behavior: A Latent Growth Curve Modeling Approach

“…The associations between adolescent SEM use and sexual risk taking observed in this longitudinal study speak in favor of specific educational interventions. Some school-based media literacy and comprehensive sexuality education programs have been found to reduce risks related to the use of sexualized media (Jones, 2018;Vandenbosch & van Oosten, 2017). By assisting young people in making sense of overt and covert media messages and the implicit norms (and behavioral standards) that they often convey, such programs may reduce vulnerability to risk taking and other adverse outcomes.…”