With the ease of access to porn sites, many teenagers and children have already viewed pornography. They are also a lot to sext or send suggestive photos to each other. A new American study takes stock.
- Pornography consumption was significantly more common among boys, according to the results of this study.
- Providing accurate information to children and adolescents about pornography and the risks of sending each other “nudes” is essential, according to the researchers.
- For example, it is important to explain to them that pornography uses actors and is not a representation of healthy, consensual, and safe sex.
While in France, the legal procedure aimed at preventing minors from accessing pornographic sites – requested by Arcom (the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority) since the end of 2021 – has come to a standstill, a new study sheds light on the extent of pornography consumption among young Americans.
1 in 2 teens have been exposed to pornography
For this study, the researchers interviewed 350 students, aged 12 to 17. According to their results, recently published online in Professional School Counselingabout 50% of them said they had ever been exposed to pornography.
A third reported having seen pornography at least once in the previous year. And 8% said they watch porn almost every day.
On average, children were first exposed to pornography when they were 11½ years old. That’s even younger than previous surveys on the subject had suggested. Greater access to smartphones among teenagers and the ease of finding free pornography on the Internet likely caused this age drop, according to the study authors.
Pornography is a terrible teacher of sex education for children
“Pornography consumption has been linked to a range of negative school outcomes in children and adolescents. And pornography is a terrible sex education teacher for children”said Amanda Giordanolead author of the study and a professor at the University of Georgia Early College of Education, in a communicated.
“What we see in research is that adolescents develop their sexual scripts and beliefs about sex from what they see in pornography, which can have varying degrees of violence, aggression and degradation of women”she added.
Teens are sending each other more nudes and sexts
Investigators also found that a growing number of tweens and teens have sent or received suggestive nude or partially nude photos – known as “nudes” – on their smartphones, or suggestive messages, “sexting”.
15% of them had sent a sext to someone. About 25% had already received a sext. Nearly 25% had already been asked to send a sext. And 12% said they had felt pressured by someone to send a sext in the past year.
“The prevalence rates we found in this study suggest that school counselors need to be prepared to talk about sexting and pornography use with students, and change the narrative of these behaviors.said Amanda Giordano. It is important for students to know that sending a sext is not a new requirement for romantic relationships and that pornography does not reflect expectations of sexual activity.”
