Mental Health
Impact of pornography consumption on children and adolescents: A trauma-informed approach.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Parallels may exist between consequences of underage pornography use and the post-traumatic symptoms of child sexual abuse. Could pornography alter child and adolescent development and become a trauma in itself? Child victims of these images could face a conflict similar to witnesses of domestic violence, but instead of impacting mainly on the bonding system, it would affect the sexual system. Victims faced with the erotisation of violence are subjected to contradictory, incomprehensible, and sometimes inexplicable forces, which can lead to a traumatised sexuality with negative consequences. in interpersonal relationships. The inability to explain something, or to make sense of it, activates the three classic pathways of trauma. One response to trauma is flight, which can lead to distancing from oneself and from others. This isolation, moreover, reinforces the consumption of pornography. Another response is the struggle to overcome the impact through self-control and aggression. Sexual coercion may appear as an attempt to modulate one’s own contradictory emotions, as a form of self-protection and avoidance of the dreaded humiliation. Finally, there may be a dissociation response in the re-victimisation that appears in affected children. Unable to find a way to integrate the scenes, these minors may end up learning to adopt a posture of absolute surrender. The reconceptualisation of pornography in underage consumers as something potentially traumatic would help to better our understanding of its effects and the differing susceptibility of the victims, so that we may develop real and effective legislation and more appropriate therapeutic interventions.
Relevance
Many of the psychological consequences observed in young pornography consumers could align with post-traumatic symptoms experienced following childhood sexual abuse. The culture of pornography and its normalisation can lead to our overlooking the significant impact it has on minors, especially at. an age when their sexual self is still undeveloped, leaving them without the tools needed to decode the eroticisation of violence.
Citation
Alvarez-Segura, M., Fernández, I., El Kasmy, Y., Francisco, E., Gallo Martínez, S., Ortiz Jiménez, E. M., & Butjosa, A. (2025). Impact of pornography consumption on children and adolescents: A trauma-informed approach. Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 4, Article 1567649.
https://doi.org/10.3389/frcha.2025.1567649
