Rates, Age, & Impact of Exposure to Pornography
Adolescent Dilemmas About Viewing Pornography and Their Efforts to Resolve Them.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Concerns have been raised about how viewing Sexually Explicit Internet Material (SEIM) shapes adolescents’ understanding of sexual relationships and has potentially negative impacts. However, research frequently takes a narrow view of adolescent SEIM use and excludes their understandings. The present study explored how 13 participants, aged 14 to 15 years, made sense of their experiences with SEIM. In-depth individual interviews were conducted, and five dominant dilemmas faced by participants were abstracted using interpretive analysis. We discuss how these dilemmas were negotiated by adolescents using various strategies. The analysis provides new understandings of how adolescents interpret their SEIM experiences and highlights the limitations of understanding SEIM use solely through risk models. On a practical level, these findings can inform youth, parents and caregivers, and professionals as to how they might understand and help young people navigate the complex area of SEIM.
Relevance
“The findings show that viewing SEIM presented participants with several complex dilemmas, which positioned SEIM as both natural and unnatural, fake and real, harmful and harmless, and good and bad. Although these dilemmas were given binary labels, most participants explained how SEIM fitted both ideas rather than being either/or concepts. They described viewing SEIM to satisfy their curiosity, while seeking to resolve the tensions that these dilemmas produced through managing potential risks, such as restricting content and self-control. However, the use of these strategies by adolescents is typically overlooked in most research into pornography.”
“Most participants expressed fluctuating ambivalence and did not hold an all-or-nothing stance about SEIM being good or bad. Their changeable viewpoints wavered depending on how much they questioned SEIM and how they saw its relevance to their sexual exploration.”
Citation
Vertongen, R., van Ommen, C., & Chamberlain, K. (2025). Adolescent Dilemmas About Viewing Pornography and Their Efforts to Resolve Them. Journal of Adolescent Research, 40(1), 226-254.
https://doi.org/10.1177/07435584221133307