October 11, 2018 by Amy Lang, The Queen of the Birds & Bees

SURPRISE! Porn Impacts Teen Development

64% of surveyed students had watched porn

Guest writer: Sam Watrous, for The Sentinel, Nathan Hale High School, Seattle, WA

Porn Impacts Teen Development

It’s surrounded by stigma and is too uncomfortable to talk about even with your close friends. You triple-check that your bedroom door is locked and make sure to clear your search history before your mom finds out. It’s the taboo, awkward, titillating world of porn.

In the current age of technology, porn is more accessible than ever. Anyone with an internet connection can watch porn.

Ninety-three percent of male college students and 62 percent of female students surveyed said they saw online porn before the age of 18, according to a study done by the University of New Hampshire.

Sixty-four percent of Hale students surveyed by The Sentinel had watched porn. A sample size of 186 students were surveyed from different grade levels. Thirty-six percent of Hale students surveyed by The Sentinel saw porn under the age of 13.

A lot of kids are getting their sex education from porn

“A lot of kids are getting their sex education from porn,” health teacher Devorah Eisenberg said. “People look at pornography and think ‘Oh, that’s what women like’ and the women are used to being in this pleasing role.”

Many students feel the same way. “[Guys] start assuming things like “Oh, the girl in that video enjoyed it, so this person that I’m having sexual relations with must also,” an anonymous male junior said.

Porn can also miseducate teenagers on sex and can cause permanent damage, according to Eisenberg. “Porn — how male oriented it is — it’s doing a lot of disservice to educating people about sexuality,” Eisenberg said. “For example, there are things that could have lasting consequences like… sexually transmitted infections.”

Some students have even felt ashamed when watching porn. An anonymous female senior was caught watching porn by her mom in the seventh grade. “My mom was heartbroken. She was like ‘Why are you doing this? I don’t understand. This isn’t something you should do.’ My parents see it as sinful,” she said.

While some families see watching porn and masturbation as shameful, others are more open to it. “[My family] never really talks about porn specifically, but my mom offered to buy me a sex toy once so that was kinda cool. My parents are very sexually positive,” another anonymous female senior said.

Watching porn is usually a solo-act and can be seen as lonely and isolating, but that isn’t the case for everyone. One senior began to bond with a friend when she realized they were both watching porn. “When I found out that [my friend] was doing it too… the stigma shattered. There’s [a sense of community] knowing that one person does that same thing that is highly stigmatized,” she said.

Porn has a lot of diverse bodies outside of the mainstream. “Personally, [porn] can be positive especially if I diversify the type of porn I watch. It’s nice to see different kinds of bodies,” an anonymous female senior said.

Watching porn has also been a safe place for some to explore their sexuality. “It definitely helped me figure out my sexuality,” an anonymous female senior said. “I couldn’t be like ‘Mom, I like girls’ but being able to like girls in secret and actually figuring out ‘Do I like this?’ was nice. Watching [porn] showed me it was okay to [be gay].”

Many other students feel the same way. “Porn can be an outlet for teens to explore their sexuality,” an anonymous student wrote in The Sentinel survey.

Sexuality educator Amy Lang agrees. “The good news about porn and teenagers is that it shows them that sex is all about pleasure,” Lang said. While watching porn can be about discovering your body and figuring out what you like, it can also lead to expectations of what sex is supposed to be like.

“If you really put porn on a high level for yourself mentally that that’s how sex should be, you need to understand that [porn is] just really, really prepared and experienced people. It’s not going to be like that right off that bat,” an anonymous female senior said. These expectations can misrepresent what sex is actually like. “It gives kids an unrealistic idea of what sex is supposed to look and feel like. It makes youth feel like they need to be like the people in porn,” an anonymous student wrote in The Sentinel survey.

Lang feels similarly. “Most pornography shows a completely unrealistic view of bodies, pleasure, and how sex actually works. Teens often think that porn shows ‘real’ sex when it doesn’t,” Lang said. “Having… sex sometimes looks like porn sex, but that’s usually only after someone has been sexually active for a while and understands all the ins-and-outs of sexually connecting with someone.”

Porn also portrays women in a way that can feel degrading to some viewers

Porn also portrays women in a way that can feel degrading to some viewers. “It’s weird to see what kind of porn is being made that people are into, especially if it’s really degrading,” senior Kaila Righi said. “Is that how men view [women] in real life? I always wonder if… males… are able to separate their fantasies from the reality of how they interact with women.”

Some videos even have titles that can feel demeaning to the women in the video as well as the women watching. “There’s a lot of porn out there with headlines like ‘She said no, but I want it’ or ‘Had to trick her by doing her homework and then I got her.’ If guys… see that then it okays the image of doing that at a school dance or in the community,” an anonymous female senior said.

Along with watching porn comes the possibility of developing an addiction. About 200 thousand Americans are porn addicts, which is defined as watching 11 or more hours of porn per week according to a study done by Tech Addiction, a treatment center for adults and teenagers. The study also found that teenagers who watch porn regularly are at a greater risk of becoming addicted later in life. The exposure to sexual content at a young age “disrupts normal neurochemical, sexual, and social development in youth,” according to the study.

While some professionals agree, others have a different name for it. “I don’t actually believe in porn ‘addiction.’ A better analogy is an eating disorder — it’s not the French fries’ fault — it’s the person’s relationship to the French fries,” Lang said. We don’t know what effects, if any, widely available porn will have on this generation.

“Even though it is more accessible, it’s not like kids these days are any more horny than kids were back in the day,” Righi said.

If you would like to contact Sam about his article, please send me an email and I’ll connect you.

Amy@BirdsAndBeesAndKids.com