While strides have been made to protect kids online, pornography continues to be part of childhood. It creeps into bedrooms, phones, and social media feeds. A recent survey from the Children’s Commissioner for England reveals an alarming reality—children’s exposure to porn is rising, not falling.
According to the report, 70% of young people aged 16–21 have seen pornography before the age of 18, up from 64% in 2023.
More than a quarter said they first encountered it by age 11, and some children reported seeing porn as young as six years old.
This isn’t about teens making a “choice” to explore sexuality. For many, exposure is accidental.
The survey found that 59% of children stumbled upon porn without intending to. Social media platforms now surpass dedicated adult sites as the main source of exposure.
One teen shares their experience.
“I was just scrolling through memes with my friends, and suddenly something popped up that I wasn’t ready for. I couldn’t look away, but I didn’t want to be there either.”
These experiences leave lasting impressions, often before kids even have the tools to process them, and the content children are exposed to today is seriously concerning.
Over half of respondents reported seeing strangulation in porn, 44% saw sexual activity while someone was asleep, and 36% witnessed non-consensual acts.
We know kids have a difficult time distinguishing reality from what they see through screens. Now imagine your first exposure to learning what sex is includes depictions of rape, strangulation, gender stereotypes, and racist ideologies. How will a child know that what they’re seeing isn’t “normal”?
Another teen shares how exposure to hardcore porn shaped what she thought was normal.
“I didn’t realize that what I was seeing online wasn’t normal. It changed the way I thought about dating, and it took years to unlearn that.”
Accidental Exposure Is Only the Beginning
Research shows that early exposure can have lasting effects. Studies indicate that children exposed to pornography are more likely to adopt distorted ideas about consent, sexual expectations, and relationships. For instance, a 2025 study in Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that adolescents’ reactions to pornography depend on context, content type, and personal characteristics—but exposure often increases tolerance for risky sexual behavior.
Personal stories and messages we get at Fight the New Drug support these findings.
Another teen. says, “I thought everyone acted like that. I didn’t know it was wrong until much later, and even then I felt like I’d missed out on understanding what real relationships are supposed to feel like.”
This isn’t a UK-only problem. In Canada, 98% of adolescents reported exposure to pornography, with the average age around 12. In the United States, the average age of pornography exposure is also around 12.
The Most Vulnerable Are Hit Hardest
The research reveals another troubling pattern: those who are already vulnerable are seeing pornographic content even earlier.
Children who received Free School Meals, those with a social worker, those with Special Educational Needs and those with disabilities – both physical and mental – were more likely to have seen online porn by 11 than their peers.
This disparity highlights how pornography exposure compounds existing inequalities, potentially setting vulnerable children up for additional harm during critical developmental years.
Pornography Fuels Risky Sexual Behavior
The consequences of early porn exposure create more than just confusing or awkward moments.
Exposure at a young age can reshape how children perceive intimacy, consent, and relationships. According to the American College of Pediatrics, adolescents who see pornography early are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, including early sexual initiation, multiple sexual partners, and unprotected sex.
Psychologists also warn that exposure to violent or extreme content can reduce empathy, normalize aggression, and distort expectations for real-life sexual interactions.
From the study in the UK, nearly half of the respondents (44%) agreed with the statement: “girls may say no at first but then can be persuaded to have sex.”
And we don’t need to dive into why that belief is problematic.
More than four in five children and young people said seeing pornography online affected their expectations around sex (82%), while nearly three-quarters (73%) said it affected their behavior towards one another.
What kids are seeing online is bleeding into how they treat others, and in some cases, can be dangerous.
Certified Pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Heidi Olson, who has reviewed thousands of pediatric sexual assault cases, identified a growing trend of children sexually abusing other children.
Her program’s data indicated that between one-third and almost one-half of child-on-child sexual assault perpetrators were between 11 and 15 years old. Olson’s analysis pointed to pornography’s influence as a significant factor in these incidents, noting that many children who engaged in such behaviors had been exposed to explicit content online.
Additionally, a report by the Children’s Commissioner for England found that 50% of cases of child sexual abuse perpetrated by another child included references to sexually violent acts commonly seen in pornography.
These statistics underscore the potential impact of explicit content on children’s understanding and enactment of sexual behaviors.
We’re seeing how pornography can impact an entire generation’s understanding of consent, relationships, and human sexuality.
Protecting Kids
At Fight the New Drug, although we are nonreligious and nonlegislative and primarily exist to educate individuals worldwide on the impacts of pornography, we do stand for legislation to protect children, and we know the power of education to make real change.
Protecting children goes beyond age verification or blocking websites. It requires education, conversation, and cultural change, and it starts with simple conversations.
Parents and caregivers must be equipped to talk about pornography early, openly, and without shame; that’s why we create our conversation blueprint to help guide the conversation.
Schools should prioritize educating their students on the harms of pornography. Our live educational presentations engage audiences from middle school to college on the harmful effects of pornography so they can make informed decisions and change the conversation on their campus.
Social media platforms need to be held accountable for content recommendations and algorithmic amplification that expose children to sexualized material.
Support for kids who have already been exposed is also essential. Counseling, peer support, and trauma-informed therapy can help them process experiences, understand healthy boundaries, and rebuild trust in themselves and others.
Creating Change
The Children’s Commissioner’s report is a wake-up call. Childhood is being interrupted by pornography at younger ages, with consequences that extend into adulthood.
Awareness, education, and proactive support are crucial in protecting children from content that can harm their understanding of intimacy, consent, and self-worth.
Fight the New Drug has long advocated for protecting young people from the harms of pornography, not by shaming or ignoring them, but by equipping them with tools, knowledge, and support to navigate a hypersexualized world.
Childhood deserves protection, guidance, and care. Pornography should never be part of growing up, and it’s up to all of us—parents, educators, and communities—to ensure that children have the opportunity to grow free from these harmful influences.
Book a live presentation on the harms of porn
Help your community make educated decisions about pornography. Fight the New Drug’s age-appropriate and engaging presentations highlight research from respected academic institutions that demonstrates the significant impacts of porn consumption on individuals, relationships, and society.
We offer presentations customized for each audience, aligning with our mission as a non-religious and non-legislative organization educating with science, facts, and personal accounts. All of our tailored presentations, whether it’s a school, community, parent, or conference presentation, will provide attendees with comprehensive, age-relevant information about how porn impacts the brain, can harm relationships, affects society as well as how to have healthy conversations about porn, as well as some free resources for further education and recovery.
We empower your community to make educated decisions to better equip them to love themselves, have healthy relationships, and make a positive difference in the world.
What are you waiting for? Click here to learn more and book your live presentation today.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
This is why Fight the New Drug exists—but we can’t do it without you.
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