Peers, Parents and Pornography: Exploring Adolescents’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Material and Its Developmental Correlates

                In this study, researchers from Germany set out to determine how pornography affects teenagers, their development, their view of themselves, and their view of others. The researchers used an online survey of 352 German teens between the ages of 16-19, were 59% of the participants ended up being male and the average age of participants was 17.3. Prior research demonstrated that the internet has made access to pornography significantly easier than it used to be and even with past research, there is not much knowledge about how extensively adolescents view porn. Data from the USA, Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, and Singapore suggest that between 2/5 and 2/3 of adolescents 18 and under have already had contact with pornography of some sort.

                The researchers of this study were interested in how pornography affects the autonomy of adolescents. To reach autonomy, adolescents must figure out "who they are," acknowledge bodily changes, break away from childhood, learn how to use their sexually maturing bodies, and figure out how to integrate these ideas into a functioning "non-weird" being. During this period of adolescence, the peer group is very important and replaces the family as the adolescent's primary social environment, where peers encourage each other to enter in sexual relationships, learn about members of the opposite sex, and work as an advice station for each other. While learning about their sexually maturing bodies, adolescents are open for new information, but that information may not be easy to come by and actual information about actual sexual behavior is very limited. This is where pornography come in for adolescents; porn may be the only accessible depiction of sexual behavior available to them. For this reason, for adolescents, porn may not only be used for sexual arousal, but also as a learning tool to discover sexual behavior and explore their own sexual preferences.

                The researchers in this study had multiple hypotheses:

H1a -- The lower an adolescent’s perceived autonomy, the greater is his or her use of pornography (was supported by research results)

H1b -- The lower an adolescent’s satisfaction with his or her body, the greater is his or her use of pornography (was not supported by research results)

H1c -- Adolescents who do not (yet) have a sexual partner use pornography to a greater extent (was not supported by research results)

H2 -- The more an adolescent’s peer group integrates pornographic content into its group interaction the more extensive will be the adolescent’s use of pornography (was partially supported by research results)

H3a -- The extent of adolescents’ use of pornography is associated with beliefs that more people perform sexual acts which are similar to pornographic content (more varied sexual techniques)(was supported by research results)

H3b -- The extent of adolescents’ use of pornography is less strongly associated with beliefs that more people practice sexuality under circumstances which are similar to pornographic content (more uncommitted or promiscuous sexuality) compared to the relationship hypothesized under H3 (was supported by research results)

                Their results found that 61% of female and 93% of male respondents had viewed pornography, 8% of boys and 1% of girls viewed pornography several times a day, 39% of boys and 2% of girls viewed porn almost daily, 30% of boys and 12% of girls viewed porn weekly, 8% of boys and 15% of girls viewed porn monthly, 8% of boys and 22% of girls viewed porn less than monthly, and 7% of boys and 48% of girls never viewed porn. Aside from the significant difference between boys and girls, neither age, occupation, type of school, nor the parents’ marital status were shown to have any effect on pornography consumption. In terms of talking to their friends about pornography, 48% of boys and 22% of girls often talked to their friends about pornography. Also, 86% boys and 35% girls assumed that most of their friends watch pornography. Those respondents who regard themselves as less independent and more reliant on their families use pornography particularly often. This may serve as a vicarious act of sexual activity intended to represent maturity, status as an adult, and autonomy.