Porn and sexual violence: What the research says
Why there is a link between sexual violence and pornography
You might be wondering why this post has been included and why so many links are contained below. Here’s the thing, it’s really difficult to have a conversation with young people addressing inappropriate sexual behaviours without acknowledging the role of pornography use. Pornography forms a large part of a young persons sexual understanding. The consensus is pornography is viewed many years prior to real sexual experiences and is used by young people for sex education, confidence, exploration and peer acceptance. Then there are the negative side effects, pornography can set the standard, the sexual norms, the modelling of attitudes and behaviours.
The majority of pornography is centred around themes of aggression, degradation and objectification. No, this is not a dramatisation, it’s in the numbers. Pornography consumption is associated with higher levels of attitudes supportive of violence. Does it mean that an attitude will necessarily result in sexual violence? No. But you can see where this is going. Read the insightful meta-analysis for yourself here.
Early exposure to pornography
The latest study in Australia looked at close to 2,000 young people aged between 15 and 20 on their exposure to pornography. The survey results showed 86% of males surveyed had viewed pornography and 69% of females had viewed pornography. You can view the study results here. A 2017 Victorian study results showed 69% of boys first saw pornography at age 13 or younger compared with the 23% for girls. See study here, Whether it is boys or girls viewing pornography does not diminish the power of pornography in perpetuating sexual norms, myths or behaviours.
“Pornography consumption is associated with a range of harmful attitudes, behaviours, and experiences, including risky sexual behaviours, more sexually objectifying and stereotypic gender views of women, rape myth acceptance, sexual coercion and aggression, and sexual and dating violence victimisation.”
Most common forms of sexual violence
While we’re here, let’s take a quick look at a new report from the Australian Institute of Criminology. Their recent study showed “the most common forms of sexual violence perpetrated in the previous 12 months were: pressuring someone for dates or sexual activity (3.8%); emotionally or psychologically manipulating someone to participate in sexual activity (2.7%); non-consensual kissing (2.6%); non-consensual touching (2.4%); pressuring someone to participate in unprotected sexual activity (2.4%); engaging in image-based sexual abuse (2.1%); and non-consensual sexual intercourse (1.8%).” View the full report here.
