Rates, Age, & Impact of Exposure to Pornography

Home Academic Library Researching the Affects That Online Pornography Has on U.K. Adolescents Aged 11 to 16

Researching the Affects That Online Pornography Has on U.K. Adolescents Aged 11 to 16

Full Article Title: Researching the Affects That Online Pornography Has on U.K. Adolescents Aged 11 to 16

Open Access: Yes

Abstract

This article considers data from a large empirical study of nearly 1,100 U.K. adolescents aged 11 to 16 (in a mixed methods three-stage sample) and provides an overview of their experiences of online adult pornography. The article investigates how seeing online pornography influenced those who watched it, and to what degree, if any, the attitudes of those adolescents altered with repeat viewings. It concludes with an overview of the social policy challenges, both domestic and international, posed by the findings.

Relevance

30% of respondents found pornography “repulsive/revolting”; 23% found it “scary”; and 21% fount it “upsetting.”

“Girls’ anxieties about whether boys delineate between the fantasy of online pornography and the reality of adult sexual relations” was made “clear” from the study.

Far more boys (44%) than girls (29%) reported that online pornography gave them ideas about the types of sexual activity they would like to try out.

16% of 15-to 16-year-olds either agreed/strongly agreed that pornography “led me to believe that women should act in certain ways during sex,” while 24% of 13- to 14-year-olds did.

18% of 15-to 16-year-olds either agreed/strongly agreed that pornography led them to believe that men should act in certain ways during sex, while 23% of
13- to 14-year-olds did.

Participants “generally expressed negative views and anxieties about how watching online pornography might affect adolescents’ perceptions of normal/acceptable male and female roles in a sexual encounter.”