Teens And Porn: Facts Rather Than Hysteria

So this week has seen Clive Hamilton come out hyperventilating in support of the ill-considered mandatory internet filter – originally his idea, by the way.

His arguments are flawed in a lot of ways and I recommend the excellent Somebody Think Of The Children blog for further analysis. To be honest I’ve been trying to stop thinking about it because it, and the comments section, inundated with nonsense as a result of an email from fundie Christian groups, make me too angry.

I am, however, inspired to make this post thanks to two recent news items regarding the reality of the way teens approach porn online.

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The first is, admittedly, sensationalist but it does offer some very useful statistics. A recent survey found the average British teen will spend one hour and 40 minutes a week surfing porn sites. It also found they spend roughly the same amount of time looking at dieting and weight loss sites.

The study of 1000 teens revealed that the average kid also spends an hour and eight minutes researching breast enhancement and liposuction on cosmetic surgery sites. Teens also look for information on contraception, pregnancy and sex as well as details on adolescence in general. They spend around two hours a week looking at Youtube and nine hours chatting on social networking sites.

So porn is in the mix, but so are diet and cosmetic surgery sites. Sounds like a typical teenage mindset: I’m too fat, my butt is too big, I want sex but I don’t know what I’m doing.

Thing is, I don’t hear calls for mandatory filtering of diet or cosmetic surgery sites.

The next article is the really important one because it answers Clive’s boogeyman fear-mongering quite well. How Teens Really Feel About Pornography cites three recent European studies that sought to discover how young people deal with the issues surrounding porn.

The whole thing is worth a read, but here are some salient facts:

While sizing up youth porn consumption, investigators found three main uses for it:

1. It’s a form of social interaction between viewers. Youth who observe porn together end up gauging their reactions as compared to others. Viewers create a norm as far as what’s “normal” or “deviant” via information that’s communicated, such as comments, laughs, jokes and sighs.

2. It’s a “reliable” information source. Youth learn new things from porn — for example, tips on different positions. Yet they are processing this information critically, comparing it to life experiences and information from other sources. Young people are able to evaluate the materials as overstated, distorted or incorrect. The ultimate reaction: They tune out or distance themselves from the source.

3. It’s an inspiration for sexual excitement. For boys, interest in porn grows less as they get older and have their own sexual experiences. They actually become more critical and negative about porn with age. Porn for them becomes something more for stimulation and ideas than a source of information or socializing.

Let me say that it is perfectly reasonable to worry about what sort of messages teens may be getting from porn. Most mainstream smut is far from politically correct and a lot of it is misogynist or offensive.

But these studies suggest that teens learn to treat porn with a certain amount of cynicism. They realise it’s not real life, in the say way they understand that you can’t drive a real car the way that Bruce Willis does in the movies. They process it, compare it and ultimately put it in perspective. It’s a learning experience and it’s something they cope with as part of becoming an adult.

I’m a firm believer in education when it comes to porn. I honestly think that the issues surrounding it need to be discussed sensibly with teenagers so they can deal with it in a mature way.

Given the above research regarding the relatively benign nature of porn, imposing a nationwide mandatory filter in order to stop teens from seeing it seems a ridiculous approach to this issue.