Teens Look At Porn Online, But What Does It Mean?
Posted by anastasia on 02-12-2009The other day in Ypulse Essentials, Meredith cited a study generating headlines around the finding that British teens watch an average of 87 hours of porn per year. The study is being picked up on lots of blogs and traditional media helping to fuel the fears of parents everywhere and inspire them to purchase filtering software. That's exactly what the company that did the study wants, since that company is CyberSentinel, which this article describes as selling "software that claims to offer parents the ability to block websites and monitor their kid's use of the internet."
The study allegedly found that "at least one hour and 40 minutes a week – that's just under 87 hours a year – is spent looking at soft porn." They surveyed 1,000 UK youth between the ages of 13-15 online (have no idea where [which sites] they got the sample from).
I actually am really interested in this issue — but I want to see a real study done by actual researchers. Before the internet teen boys often stole dad's Playboys, got someone to buy them at the 7 Eleven or maybe dad even subscribed for his son. Girls, too, would discover these magazines and check them out as well. I'm sure what's online can make these magazines seem tame. I wonder how the survey defined "soft porn" vs. other kinds of pornography online. Here are some questions I would love to see academic researchers try to answer about this issue:
- Does looking at online porn shape gender role expectations and impact adolescent relationships (for both boys and girls)?
- What percentage of teens are compulsively looking at online porn (i.e. porn addiction)?
- Does looking at online porn lead teens to engage in sexual behavior at earlier ages? What about risky sexual behavior?
I'm not a researcher, so I have no idea what the challenges of collecting real data on this issue from adolescents are, but I would love to see this topic explores more in depth rather than just used as a sensational headline to sell more filtering software (that most 13-15 year olds can disable anyway). For any of my readers who are academics, please post a comment if there is research that exists on this topic or add some of your own questions….
Categorized under: Web
February 17th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Received this email from Luke Gilkerson
about this post (thanks Luke!):
In terms of these questions, I would do some reading the Journal of Adolescent Health. For instance, Dolf Zillmann has an article in Volume 27, Issue 2, from August 2000, about dispositions toward sexuality among adolescents with unrestrained access to erotica.
Also do some reading from the International Journal of STD & AIDS: the article by Tydén and Rogala in 2004 called "Sexual behavior among young men in Sweden and the impact of pornography."
Another one is "Children, teens, and sex on the Internet" by Freeman-Longo, in Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity.
Good statistics on teen sex and porn influences are difficult to compile for sure, but as we do a general sweep of teen culture, it is not hard to conclude that more teens view pornography as “the norm” of ideal sexual experiences, and that porn it teaches young men how “sexy girls”
ought to behave sexually.
Good questions you've asked here. I love the work you all do!
November 8th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
research on this will ALWAYS be wrong, because most teens dont admit to it, so peaple are just wasting time researching it