Decades of studies from respected academic institutions, have demonstrated significant impacts of porn consumption for individuals, relationships, and society. "What’s the Research" aims to shed light on the expanding field of academic resources that showcase porn’s harms in a variety of ways. Below are selected excerpts from published studies on this issue.
The full study can be accessed here.
Online Grooming of Children for Sexual Purposes: Model Legislation & Global Review
Authors: International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children
Published: 2017
Background
The grooming of children for sexual purposes through the Internet and related technologies is a growing problem worldwide, putting countless children at risk for sexual abuse and exploitation.
Grooming is the process by which an adult establishes or builds a relationship with a child, either in person or through the use of the internet and related technologies, to facilitate online or offline sexual contact with the child. Online grooming can be connected with a variety of different forms of sexual exploitation of children, such as the creation of child sexual abuse material and sexual assault…
In an effort to understand how countries are addressing this issue and to make recommendations for the development of new laws, ICMEC conducted a review of existing international and national law.
It is important that national legislation distinguish between online and offline grooming behaviors to ensure adequate investigation and prosecution of Internet-facilitated grooming of children.
Methods
Research into national online grooming legislation initially began in the spring of 2012.
Primary sources of information include: Westlaw; the Council of Europe publication Protecting children against sexual violence: The criminal law benchmarks of the Budapest and Lanzarote Conventions; the European Online Grooming Project; the US State Department’s Human Rights Report; and other similar works.
Once the relevant information was assembled, legal analysis was conducted and preliminary results were compiled.
Results
The online grooming process often includes sexual conversation, showing adult pornography and/or child sexual abuse material to the victim, and pressuring or coercing the child to create and share sexual images of him or herself…
Offenders use the trust they have built to desensitize the child to sexual abuse. They may send sexually graphic, suggestive, or explicit images to the child—including adult pornography and child sexual abuse material—to persuade the child to reciprocate this behavior.
The offender initially requests photographs of the child in ordinary settings and progressively pressures the child to send more sexually explicit images of him or herself… As the relationship develops, online groomers may show adult pornography or child sexual abuse material to the victim to lower the child’s inhibitions, desensitize the child to sexual activity by “normalizing” it, and teach the child sexual behaviors.
Showing the child pornographic images and videos can increase the child’s sexual curiosity and lead to sexual discussions that advance a sexual relationship. Offenders use pornography to teach the child how to masturbate, pose for sexual photos, perform oral sex, and/or engage in intercourse and other sexual activities.
Often, the offender will introduce the victim to “mainstream” adult pornography, progress to hard-core pornography, and then on to more abusive images of children.
Exposure to such material primes victims for being manipulated into sending pictures or videos of themselves to the offender.
The full study can be accessed here.
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 .
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