Are Kids Learning About Sex from Porn?
Therapists who work with problematic sexual behavior often say, me included, that we are worried about kids being exposed to pornography at an early age or are learning about sex from porn.
Anecdotally, we know that young children have access to pornography of any theme, including violent pornography, child pornography, etc., and it scares us. We don’t want kids learning that this is what live sex with a real partner looks like. What we don’t actually have is the science to either back up or refute out fears.
What does the research say about kids learning about sex from porn?
Rothman et al, in a research article published in 2021 in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, sought to address this lack of research by surveying American adolescents (600 14–17-year-olds) and young adults (666 18-24 year old) to find out where they found helpful sexual education material and what made some of them find pornography to be the most helpful.
The survey respondents were asked the following questions, where did they find sources of helpful information to learn about sex? Did they receive helpful information about sexual health from their parents? What sexual experiences have they had? What is their relationship status as well as general demographic characteristics?
The study found that when parents had not talked to their adolescent about sex in at least a year, the child was more likely to perceive pornography as a helpful source of information about sex.
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So, do we really have cause to worry? The study found that among the adolescents, the two most frequent sources of helpful information about sex came from parents (31%) and peers (21.6%). Very few of the adolescents (8.4%) stated that they found helpful information from pornography.
The data from the young adults was quite different. Among the 18- to 24-year-old respondents, they thought the most helpful information about sex was from pornography (24.5%) with sexual peers as a source of helpful information coming in as a close second (24.1%).
My Analysis
As a treatment provider and someone who has written about the effects of cybersex on teens, what disturbs me the most is the finding that 43% of the adolescents and 45% of the young adults in the survey reported that they did not receive any helpful information about sex from any source in the year prior. This means that many of the individuals are likely sexually active and not accessing or being provided important healthy sexuality education.
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For those of us who are worried that adolescents are looking to pornography for sexual education, we can perhaps take the fear down a notch. The authors concluded, based at least on their study respondents, that adolescents do not consider pornography as the most helpful resource for information about sex.
The Key Takeaway
Here is the tidbit from the study I like the most. The study found that when parents had not talked to their adolescent about sex in at least a year, the child was more likely to perceive pornography as a helpful source of information about sex. This means that parents need to be having continual conversations with their adolescents about sex and sexual health. A one and done conversation is NOT optimal and may influence a child to look to pornography for information.
Reference: Rothman, E.F., Beckmeyer, J.J., Herbenick, D., Fu, T-C., Dodge, B., & Fortenberry, J.D. (2021). The prevalence of using pornography for information about how to have sex: Findings from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adolescents and young adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01877-7
Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
