As a parent, finding out that your teenager has been viewing pornography can be your worst nightmare. Whilst you know that sexual health is an issue for teens, it can be easier to pretend that it doesn’t exist, and so being confronted with evidence of it can be hard to take. You may be concerned for their wellbeing and fear that this experience will have a detrimental effect on their future wellness.
It may not be as worrying as you think, however, as recent research has shown that pornography may not have as much of an impact on how young people view sexual relationships between men and women.
This study was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, and it used the results of an online survey which questioned 4,600 young people about their use of pornography, sexual habits and attitude towards sex. This was carried out in The Netherlands, and all participants were aged between 15 and 25.
Questions asked, as well as use of pornography, included number of sexual partners, number of one-night stands, whether they had ever had sex in exchange for money and whether they took part in adventurous sex, such as having threesomes.
The researchers discovered that 88 percent of men and 45 percent of women had looked at pornography during the past year. Both genders preferred viewing porn on the internet to other mediums, with men seeking out hard core porn whereas women preferred soft core.
A link between pornography use and sexual habits was found – but that link was found to be fairly mild. Those who use pornography were not particularly more inclined towards risky sexual behaviour or adventurous sexual encounters than those who did not use pornography.