Pornography is quite controversial, but people won’t stop watching it. With the ease of access to content on the internet, it is at least naive to think that teenagers, pubescents or even children will not have contact with it. Is there any doubt about the access of pubescents and adolescents to pornography?
To help pubescents and adolescents, family members/caregivers and educators, female pornographic film producer Erika Lust created “The Porn Conversation”, a guide divided into 3 ages 8-11 years, 12-15 years and +16 years. When accessing the site you can find information about the project, which also involved the guidance of sexologists. When registering your e-mailreceives access to the three guides, in pdf it is in English.
Since the end of the 20th century, the negative effects of pornography consumption have been pointed out, mainly because of the social problems it causes, from the precariousness and exploitation of work that includes sexual slavery, lack of care with sexual health, sexual violence against women , gender inequality, in addition to the reproduction of a sexual activity that focuses on male pleasure.
But since sex education in schools, community and family also doesn’t advance the discussion about gender identity, gender inequality and sexual pleasure, where else would teens find content about sexual practices and emerging sexual identities other than in pornographic films?
Yes, your kids will watch porn movies
The Xvideos platform ranks 3rd in the ranking of most accessed websites in Brazil in 2021, with 830 million views, second only to Google and Youtube. On Pornhub, we are in the 10th position among the countries with the highest concentration of users, and Hentai, content based on the art of anime, manga and games, was the most searched term last year.
Among them Naruto, check out, the well-known series of the ninja boy watched by our children whose protagonist has already been transformed into a porn star. The rise of amateur videos, where people record themselves having sex, provides a new kind of pornography that transcends some of the feminist debates about coercion, objectification, and the morality of pornography.
A North American qualitative research with 35 university students investigated in depth how pornography was experienced as a leisure activity to be consumed in their free time – therefore a form of entertainment – in their adolescence, avoiding focusing only on the potential damage it can cause.
The result showed that the participants used pornography to explore their sexual desires, and to develop new sexual techniques, that is, as a way of learning about sexual practice. The paradigms of negative effects of pornography consumption in the scientific literature until the beginning of the 21st century assumed that risky behavior, delinquency and violence would be fostered with pornography consumption, but the lack of relevant empirical data does not support the hypotheses.
Young people consume pornography for a variety of reasons, including leisure activity; as an erotic experience; to combat boredom, explore sexual identity, as a recreational activity among friends. Some male participants even reported a preference for films that show sensual contexts, more foreplay and some connection between the actors, although we know that this does not represent the majority.
The researchers warn of the importance of considering age, gender and sexual orientation in the complex understanding of pornography consumption, that the leisure structure still allows the consideration of risks and harms, but does not privilege them over the potential benefits.
The debate on the topic must not lose sight of the experience of those who consume the content, but must take into account gender and social issues, sexual health, sexual behavior, relationships, violence and dependence. In other words, it is necessary to debate the subject from several aspects.
“The porn conversation”
Each document in the guide by Erika Lust provides a brief explanation of the sexuality of the chosen age group and a suggestion on how to start the conversation, which is known to be difficult: “I know you can see pornography at some point, it’s practically inevitable! So here it is! what you need to know about this…”; “Could you put your phone/tablet aside for a moment? I want to talk to you about some of the images or videos you may have seen online?” “Have you noticed how much sexual content is on the internet? You should know that most of what you see isn’t exactly like that in real life.
Just like in superhero movies, characters have superpowers like the ability to fly – but humans don’t in real life!” “The people you see in porn are actors. They negotiate contracts and get paid for what they do. This is their job and they’re not like that when they’re not working.”
The guide suggests that the tone of the conversation is casual and that it does not appear that the pubescent/teenager is in trouble, avoiding judgment, criticism and opening a field of conversation, so that they can come to parents whenever they need to. “Ask your child, “What do you think of this?” throughout the conversation to keep the conversation two-way.
Some topics such as sex, body image, the objectification of girls and women “many girls believe that they are expected to dress and pose sensually different from boys”, racism “there are many racist and hateful terms in free pornography online, which perpetuate prejudice against people of color” are addressed in the 3 age groups, and others more specific in each one, such as sexualization of children and young people, violence, online safety (8-11 years), rape culture, and the fetishization of blacks, indigenous and people of color, boundaries and consent (12 to 15 years old) “Giving consent is more than saying YES.
It is important to tell your partner what is and is not allowed in a specific way” “There is a lot of content online that can leave you confused and scared; you can always ask me if you see something you want to talk about” and teen fetishization (+16 years old) “you don’t have to please anyone by being anything but yourself”.
At the end of the Guide there is also a glossary of terms. Great stuff, so if you have kids, do your part.
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