Rates, Age, & Impact of Exposure to Pornography
Young People’s Intentional and Unintentional Encounters with Internet Pornography in Australia.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Amidst the increased online engagement of adolescents, a growing global body of literature has examined adolescents’ encounters with internet pornography (IP). Though prevalence rates vary across studies, collectively the literature suggests that most adolescents have encountered IP. However, there is a lack of recent Australian research regarding adolescents’ encounters with IP, in particular research that distinguishes between intentional and unintentional encounters. The present study provides updated evidence on the prevalence of intentional and unintentional encounters with IP among Australian adolescents (n = 1004, 16-18 years) and examines sociodemographic characteristics associated with encounters. Approximately 75% of adolescents reported having ever encountered IP, with 40% of adolescents first encountering it under the age of 13 and accidentally. Most adolescents (63%) indicated that they encountered IP monthly or more often. Older adolescents, boys, sexually diverse adolescents, and disabled young people, were more likely to have ever encountered IP. Sexually diverse adolescents, young people with disability, and those who spoke a language other than English at home were also significantly more likely to first encounter IP at a younger age. Girls were more likely than boys to report first encountering IP unintentionally and were also more likely to report subsequent accidental encounters with IP. Conversely, boys were more likely to report encountering IP intentionally and recurrently. Finally, participants who reported being under 13 years of age when they first encountered IP were more likely to report recurrent and intentional encounters with IP. Our findings indicate that IP is highly visible in the online lives of Australian adolescents, with many encounters likely occurring unintentionally. Evidently, more stringent measures are needed on online platforms to prevent adolescents from unintentionally encountering IP.
Relevance
Almost 40% of those who had ever encountered IP [internet pornography] reported being under the age of 13 when they first did so.
Furthermore, “sexually diverse adolescents were more than twice as likely as straight adolescents to report being under 13 when they first encountered IP. Those who spoke a language other than English at home and those with lived experience of disability were almost twice as likely to report being under 13 when they first encountered IP, compared with those who spoke only English at home and those without lived experience of disability, respectively.”
“Boys were over twice as likely to have ever encountered IP compared with girls and sexually diverse adolescents were over 3 times as likely to have ever encountered IP compared with straight adolescents. Adolescents with disability were almost twice as likely to have ever encountered IP, compared with those without disabilitys.”
“Almost 40% (n = 300) of participants who had ever encountered IP reported that they first encountered it accidentally.”
“Girls were almost twice as likely as boys to first encounter IP by being sent or shown it by someone, as opposed to searching for it intentionally” and girls “were also almost three times as likely as boys to first encounter IP accidentally, as opposed to intentionally.”
“Our findings also indicated that adolescents who reported first encountering IP at a younger age were more likely to report subsequent intentional encounters.”
Citation
Minihan, S., Burton, M., Giunta, K., Villegas, L., & Nicholas, M. (2025). Young People’s Intentional and Unintentional Encounters with Internet Pornography in Australia. Archives of sexual behavior, 54(4), 1575–1588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03109-2
