July 2023: The Influence of Pornography on Child Sexual Assault

Culture Reframed is the premier science-based, global organization working to stop the emotional, behavioral, and sexual harms of pornography to children and youth. Join our online community to receive updates on our work, announcements of upcoming events, and the latest news related to pornography and youth.

Dear Friends,

This month at Culture Reframed, we’re celebrating our new look! We’ve dedicated time to rejuvenating our site with a special focus on reorganizing the many free resources we offer for parents, professionals, and educators. Our goal is for these tools to be easily accessible and easily shareable for anyone interested in learning more and helping to educate others about the dangers of hypersexualized media and pornography on children and youth.

On Culture Reframed’s new website, you’ll find:

• Our newly organized academic library, the only library of its kind, with 500+ peer-reviewed journal articles and selected scientific reports.
• A collection of easy-to-read fact sheets on the harms of pornography and porn culture, specifically related to kids and adolescents.
• The latest news and stories about the pornography industry, its effect on children and youth, and the work we do to stop the emotional, behavioral, and sexual harm caused by porn.

We encourage you to visit our new site and share these resources with those in your community. With these tools, we can help ensure kids build resilience and resistance to explicit sexual content and develop healthy and respectful views of sex and relationships.

Thank you,
The Team at Culture Reframed

As a Certified Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), Heidi Olson identified a growing trend of children who are sexually abused by other children. Olson now joins Culture Reframed as the organization’s first Clinical Consultant. She will be critical in helping develop the “Health Professionals Training Initiative,” with free online training, prevention, and treatment tools for clinicians who address porn’s links to sexual abuse. In this interview, Olson shares more about her unique line of work, the challenges she has faced, and her mission to protect children from pornography’s dangerous influence.

According to a study from the Journal of Adolescent Health, approximately 1 in 5 youth experience unwanted online exposure to sexually explicit material, and 1 in 9 experience online sexual solicitation. Social media platforms and video games are common ways youth experience this exposure and solicitation. For our latest resource, The Social Media and Video Games Used to Spread Pornography: A Guide for Parents, we explore the many ways social media and video games can be used to expose children to pornographic content and/or to potential child predators.

Thames Valley Police Violence Against Women and Girls Conference

In May, more than 350 people gathered in Reading, UK for the 2023 Thames Valley Police Violence Against Women and Girls conference. The event featured presentations from policing and partner agencies who shared how they can work together to protect women and girls. Culture Reframed Founder & President Dr. Gail Dines was among the speakers. You can watch her presentation “Growing up in a Porn Culture: Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Effects and a Public Health Solution” here.

Dr. Mandy Sanchez joined Paul Lavergne on his podcast, “The Turning Point,” to talk about pornography, sexual abuse, prostitution, and more. The Turning Point was established to help people struggling with sexual addiction and their families, partners, and loved ones.

Meta starts task force in fight against child pornography on Instagram

A Stanford Univeristy report found large networks of accounts operated by minors advertising self-generated images of child sexual abuse. READ NOW

How AI makes it even harder to protect your teen from sextortion online

Cybersecurity experts are warning teens and parents of the ever-increasing dangers of sharing suggestive images with strangers. READ NOW

So your tween wants a smartphone? Read this first

Before you click “place order” on that smartphone, pause and consider a few insights from a person who makes a living helping parents and tweens navigate the murky waters of smartphones and social media. READ NOW

Deepfake porn of TikTok stars thrives on Twitter even though it breaks the platform’s rules

Young TikTok stars have become a focus of nonconsensual pornographic deepfake creators. READ NOW

Sign up here to receive updates on our work, announcements of upcoming events, and the latest news related to pornography and youth