Research
The scary effects of pornography: how the 21st century's acute addiction is rewiring our brains
Journal Articles
Porn Harms Kids Research Statement
Overview of Research into the Effects of Viewing Pornography on Children
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH
The harms of pornography to children and young people are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Messages that children and young people learn from pornography, shape themselves and the culture we live in.
Areas of pornography’s impact on children and young people include:
For the purposes of the following research, adolescents are defined as primarily between the ages of 13-18.
Poor mental health
Studies indicate that porn users experience:
Almost 22 per cent (21.9%) of young people report habitual use, 9 – 11% report frequent use or a kind of addiction, and a further 10% indicate that pornography reduces sexual interest towards potential real-life partners.
Studies also indicate that pornography impacts self-image; for girls, this relates to feelings of physical inferiority, and for boys, fear of not measuring up, with both virility and performance.
Sexism and objectification
Boys who regularly watched online pornography were significantly more likely to hold negative gender attitudes.
Other studies show that sexual arousal to online pornography by adolescents leads to sexist attitudes and notions that women are sex objects. These findings are consistent with a review of 20 years of research that found pornography use was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs.
Sexual aggression and violence
Consistently, findings link the viewing of violent pornography to increased tendencies for sexually aggressive behavior.
Child-on-child sexual abuse
The rise in rates of child-on-child sexual abuse indicates younger children are inadvertently exposed to pornography.
Shaping sexual behaviors
Exposure to sexually explicit Internet material
Areas of pornography’s impact on children and young people include:
- Poor mental health
- Sexism and objectification
- Sexual aggression and violence
- Child-on-child sexual abuse
- Shaping sexual behaviors
For the purposes of the following research, adolescents are defined as primarily between the ages of 13-18.
Poor mental health
Studies indicate that porn users experience:
- higher incidence of depressive symptoms
- lower degrees of social integration
- decreased emotional bonding with caregivers
- increases in conduct problems
- higher levels of delinquent behavior
Almost 22 per cent (21.9%) of young people report habitual use, 9 – 11% report frequent use or a kind of addiction, and a further 10% indicate that pornography reduces sexual interest towards potential real-life partners.
Studies also indicate that pornography impacts self-image; for girls, this relates to feelings of physical inferiority, and for boys, fear of not measuring up, with both virility and performance.
Sexism and objectification
Boys who regularly watched online pornography were significantly more likely to hold negative gender attitudes.
Other studies show that sexual arousal to online pornography by adolescents leads to sexist attitudes and notions that women are sex objects. These findings are consistent with a review of 20 years of research that found pornography use was associated with more permissive sexual attitudes and tended to be linked with stronger gender-stereotypical sexual beliefs.
Sexual aggression and violence
Consistently, findings link the viewing of violent pornography to increased tendencies for sexually aggressive behavior.
- There is a clear association between regular viewing of online pornography and perpetration of sexual coercion and abuse by boys.
- Both regularly watching pornography and sending or receiving sexual images or messages were associated with increased probability of being a perpetrator of sexual coercion.
- watched hard core and violent pornography to a higher extent
- were more likely to have engaged in a wider range of sexual activities
- fantasized about trying sexual activities seen in hard core pornography
- showed signs of sexual preoccupancy and problematic pornography use
Child-on-child sexual abuse
The rise in rates of child-on-child sexual abuse indicates younger children are inadvertently exposed to pornography.
- Australian research findings highlight that 75% of 7-11-year-old boys and 67% of 7-11-year-old girls in treatment for Problem Sexualized Behaviors (PSBs) reported early sexualization through online pornography.
- Between 2013 and 2016, police figures in the UK show a rise of child-on-child sexual offences by almost 80%
- Pornography provides a “how to” manual, that both equips and primes youth to undertake more advanced sexual practices earlier than they otherwise might.
Shaping sexual behaviors
Exposure to sexually explicit Internet material
- predicts adolescents’ willingness to engage in casual sex.
- is connected to higher levels of permissive sexual attitudes
- sexual preoccupation and earlier sexual experimentation
- younger ages for first oral sex and sexual intercourse
- normalization of painful, risky, coercive heterosexual anal sex
- an increased number of sexual partners and higher incidence of hooking up
- sexual intercourse without a condom