The situation is more than worrying. Children, preteens and adolescents watch porn regularly (25% of children between 8 and 11 years old watch porn; 6.5% before the age of 8), despite the fact that their developing brains can hardly assimilate what they are seeing. seeing. They have it at their fingertips at the touch of a button, without parents being aware of what they are consuming. The consequences are dire at those ages, they believe that what they see is the reality of sexuality and the possibilities that they will later want to apply it in real life multiply. What they see (one in four young people) is porn with physical and verbal violence and almost 17%, porn that shows high physical or verbal violence or humiliation.
Boys face porn that they approach without having sexual knowledge. “We have left them alone in the face of pornography,” the experts point out. And then, society throws its hands up at the increase in rapes, group sexual assaults, depression and frustrations among minors.
These are some of the hard data collected by the study Youth and pornography in the digital age: consumption, perception and effects, published by the Reina Sofía Center of Fad Juventud and financed by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030. The study It was carried out by consulting a representative sample of the young population residing in Spain between 16 and 29 years old (1,259 young people). Its objective has been to generate knowledge about the consumption and attitudes towards pornography at this stage of life, as well as its implications as an agent of socialization and affective-sexual education.
The first contact with pornography happens around the age of 13. Nearly half say they first watched porn between ages 12 and 15, and 1 in 4 watched porn for the first time before age 12. 6.5%, before the age of 8.
Pornography consumption is widespread among young people: 62.5% consume porn at some point, although 1 in 3 do not watch porn. There are many differences by gender (boys watch more porn, 72%, than girls, 52.6%) and by age (more porn is watched as age increases).
Daily porn consumption is “infrequent,” the study notes, only 12.6% of young people. But this average figure hides a reality, that 22.4% of boys watch porn every day, compared to 2.1% of girls. 3 out of 10 consume every week; 18.7% watch porn at least once a week. As age increases, the frequency of consumption increases.
The most consumed porn is hard porn, that is, that shows full nudity and explicit sexual acts: 45.6% of young consumers consume it with a lot or some frequency. 25% very or somewhat frequently consume pornographic content that shows physical or verbal violence and 16.6% highly violent or degrading content. Although the majority, 55.8%, affirm that they never consume this type of highly violent content.
Again, there are large gender differences: 53.3% of boys watch porn with explicit sexual acts (without violence) frequently; 28.4% violent content and 18.2% highly violent.
Why do you watch porn? Masturbation is the main reason for watching porn: 46.4% of young people affirm that it is the main reason. Getting excited (36.7%) or having fun (19.5%) are also influential factors, as is consumption to reduce stress, anxiety or frustration (21.1%). Other less influential aspects: curiosity (17.2%), discovering tastes (16%) or learning about sex (11.8%).
How do young people feel about porn? Half of young people believe that they watch too much pornography (16.5% believe that it happens very frequently or often) and acknowledge that they have tried to reduce consumption without success (22.9% it happens very frequently or often). Up to 40% say that watching porn negatively affects important areas of their lives and around 35% have stopped doing things they are interested in because of watching porn.
Up to 30% acknowledge that at some point they have had problems with their environment for watching porn (10.7% happens frequently) or feel bad when they cannot see it (12.8% frequently).
35.8% of young people believe that pornography encourages less condom use among people who consume it. For more than 30%, there is a relationship between pornography consumption and pressuring other people to have sex or perform certain sexual practices, as well as feeling pressure on oneself.
Approximately 1 in 3 young people believe that there is an explicit effect of porn on the reproduction of violence: 28.2% believe that porn influences the use of violence in sexual relations and 31% that it contributes to generating sexual fantasies in which violence is exercised or received.
In general, porn influences positive aspects of sexuality a lot or quite a bit: greater experimentation in sexual relations (59.8%), knowing and understanding sex better (56.1%), source of inspiration (49.5%) , greater satisfaction in their sexual relationships (49.3%).
It also influences (a lot or a lot) other aspects that can be negative for your sexuality: creating a false image about what sex is really like (37%); make it difficult to satisfy sexual relations (20.6%) or lose interest in having sexual relations (19%).
Young people perceive a great presence of violence in pornography. Approximately 1 in 3 affirm that it is common to encounter: physical violence (38.4%), machismo and misogyny (34.8%) or rape or sexual abuse (33.3%). 1 in 4 believe that discriminatory, violent and degrading content is not common.
And they are aware of the situation of inequality, discrimination and violence suffered by women in pornography. 43.1% believe that pornography frequently discriminates against women and 37% believe that it encourages sexual violence.