Child and Youth Development
Pornography and gender-based violence: two neglected topics in sexuality education. A systematic review
Open Access: No
Abstract
Pornography consumption at a young age may pose a threat for sexual health, due to the presence of aggression and the degradation of women. Sexuality education is viewed as a way to mitigate the effects of inadequate information and counteract certain tendencies that may be learned from pornography. This study involved a systematic review of sexuality education programmes whose effectiveness has been assessed to identify those programmes that included the topics of pornography and gender-based violence as part of their contents. A total of 30 studies met the inclusion criteria. Nearly all the reviewed programmes had been implemented in school settings in the USA. Some studies showed significant improvements in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour related to pornography. Additionally, significant improvements were reported in the prevention of sexual violence and in self-protection awareness, along with decreases in the acceptability of gender-based violence. Some of the programmes were also found to lead to increases in gender equity, critical media understanding, sexual consent, healthy relationships, and women’s risk perception and confidence, along with decreases in the intention to commit sexual violence. However, few sexuality education programmes were found to engage with the prevention of gender-based violence and the impact of pornography on children, adolescents and young people.
Relevance
This paper states “the primary objective of this study was to systematically review sexuality education programs that have been evaluated in the scientific literature, in order to identify programs that include the topics of pornography and gender-based violence in their syllabi.” The programs identified were in the USA, Columbia, Taiwan, and Netherlands.
The results of their study indicate “very few evaluated sexuality education programs in the published literature have tackled gender-based violence and pornography.”
The study found that:
“In general, the published programs addressing pornography and gender-based violence in this review appeared to lack the involvement of community members, especially families, which would be beneficial.”
“Although five out of the seven programs that addressed pornography also tackled at least one form of gender-based violence, in some of them discussion of pornography was not sufficiently related to violence against women.”
“The outcomes of the programs addressing gender-based violence showed significant improvements with regards to the prevention of different types of violence towards women, providing evidence that good quality CSE can be an effective tool for promoting greater gender equality.”
The study concluded that “The results of the study show there are very few well evaluated sexuality programmes that address all of these issues, with many using different approaches and contents.” And that “future research should attempt to identify which factors are more and less useful in the education of children and adolescents about pornography and gender-based violence in order to design effective sexuality programmes on these topics.”
Citation
Aznar-Martínez, B., Lorente-De-Sanz, J., López-i-Martín, X., & Castillo-Garayoa, J. A. (2024). Pornography and gender-based violence: two neglected topics in sexuality education. A systematic review. Sex Education, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2024.2316154
