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1 in 3 boys heavy porn users, study shows
Boys aged 13 and 14 living in rural areas, are the most likely of their age group to access pornography, and parents need to be more aware of how to monitor their children’s viewing habits, according to a new University of Alberta study.
A total of 429 students aged 13 and 14 from 17 urban and rural schools across Alberta, Canada, were surveyed anonymously about if, how and how often they accessed sexually explicit media content on digital or satellite television, video and DVD and the Internet. Ninety per cent of males and 70 per cent of females reported accessing sexually explicit media content at least once. More than one-third of the boys reported viewing pornographic DVDs or videos “too many times to count”, compared to eight per cent of the girls surveyed.
A majority of the students, 74 per cent, reported viewing pornography on the Internet. Forty-one per cent saw it on video or DVD and 57 per cent reported seeing it on a specialty TV channel. Nine per cent of the tens reported they accessed pornography because someone over 18 had rented it; six per cent had rented it themselves and 20 per cent viewed it at a friend’s house.
The study also revealed different patterns of use between males and females, with boys doing the majority of deliberate viewing, and a significant minority planning social time around viewing porn with male friends.Girls reported more accidental or unwanted exposure online and tend to view porn in same-gender pairs or with mixed groups.
Though being curious about sexually explicit media may seem a ‘natural’ part of early adolescence, porn is a major presence in the lives of youth. The media environment in Alberta homes makes access to porn easy for teens and viewing pornography at a young age can set children up for problems later on, said Sonya Thompson, a masters graduate student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and author of the study. “We don’t know how we are changing sexual behaviours, attitudes, values and beliefs by enabling this kind of exposure and not talking with kids about it in any meaningful way,” Thompson said.
Thompson, formerly a sex education teacher, is concerned about the health and social messages pornography sends. Excessive early exposure to pornography may be harmful in terms of expectations going into relationships. “What kinds of expectations will these young people have going into their first sexual relationships? It may be setting up a big disconnect between boys and girls and may be normalizing risky sex practices.”
Almost half of rural youths in the survey reported seeing pornographic videos or DVDs at least once, compared to one-third of the urban participants. Thompson is unsure why rural teens access porn more on video and DVD, but suggests that parents may think distance acts as a buffer. “Maybe they have a false sense of thinking they are far away from unhealthy influences.” Rural boys also reported a lower incidence of parents talking with them about sexual media content. Urban girls were most likely to have had discussions with their parents.
And while the majority of teens surveyed said their parents expressed concern about sexual content, that concern hasn’t led to discussion or supervision, and few parents are using available technology to block sexual content.
“It indicates there is plenty of room for better parenting around pornography use. Parents need to improve dialogue with their children and their own awareness level. They have to be educated enough to be the ones setting the boundaries in the house,” Thompson said. “Families using media together is no longer the norm, so parents need to know what their kids have access to in their alone time,” Thompson said.
Teachers also need to tackle the issue in sex education classes, she added. “Obviously it’s a huge influence on kids and it needs to be talked about. There’s a whole subculture we are not addressing.”
Retailers, government and the media industry regulators also need to work with parents to ensure they are educated about limiting their children’s access to sexually explicit material, have strategies to talk with their teens, and that laws around the sale of porn to minors are enforced, Thompson said.
Submitted by BJS on Fri, 2007-02-23 10:37.
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Helping myself
I love masturbating and cant stop. Is this normal?
help me
hellow i am vishnu
can u tell me what are the proble which will the boys face if they do masturbeat
porn is an outlet
without saying that young boys should become porn fiends, it is natural for them to be sexually curious. certainly it is better for them to have an outlet for their new hormones. porn is a much better alternative than trying to experiment with a peer before either is ready to accept what comes along with being active.
Reply: Teenage Boys Pornography Use
There's such a thing as sharing what you think is right with a child. No group sex, waiting until after marriage, etc. are morals that you probably WON'T find on the street for these guys to learn. But yes, there IS such a thing as getting too wrapped up in their world and by doing so, putting the wrong pressures on them and making it worse.
Remember though, how will they learn if they don't talk to someone and hear what's logically correct? Not everyone thinks as well as they should. Don't go extremist.
Teenage Boys Pornography Use
Guess what? We're sexual beings. And males, especially young boys, are aroused visually more than any other way. Mix modern media technology with a teenage boy's wildly squirting glands and what do you think is going to happen? The apparent desire of parents, schools and researchers that young teenage boys and girls be sexually inert is stupefying. Why is it that once people grow all the way up they become completely detached from their own youth and view what kids do (and exactly what they themselves did only a few years ago) with such a contrived sense of surprise, outrage and concern? Who's kidding whom?
There is little need for research here-anyone who was ever young and eventually matured to adulthood knows exactly what's going on. The teenage boys are masturbating around twice a day, yeah, often with their friends and cousins. Pornography has been 'casualized' - the boys don't have to hide Playboy's under their beds anymore - aftter they get off they only have to clear cookies and history on the computer and their secrets are safe from the snooping eyes of parents. Sex is now defined solely as vaginal intercourse. Everything short of that (what used to be called making out, heavy petting or necking) is just recreational, including, thanks to Clinton, oral sex. Male homosexual experimentation is now as it always was - rampant. It's just more open and accepted. So is teenage girl bisexuallity. So are 3-ways and groups. By high school graduation, most everybody who's wanted to has gotten laid. And everything else.
Starting to remember now? DUH. The real reason for al this 'study' of teenage sexuallity is that we never forget, or want to, our teenage sexual experiences. Adolescent sex is special in that it combines all the biology of adult sex with the deliciousness of being new, forbidden and top-secret. Yeah, it's irresistibly nasty and exciting as only adolescent sex can be. If two adults meet and end up in the sack, it's just that and so what. But to a teenager, it is a crossing over, a genuine evolution of oneself into a higher level of being. Often it's also an emotional roller-coaster. Growing up by leaps and bounds. Gotta love it. And that importance continues until it dawns on you that sex is simply what consenting and mutually attracted adults do. Unfortunately, often whether they're married or not. But that's another 'study.'
As adults, like it or not, consciously or subconsciously, we have an uncontrollable prurient interest in adolescent sexual behavioir. Not to get data, but to get justification for our own pasts. If, as a youth, you had the misfortune to attach guilt or fear to your 'nekkid' playtimes, adult scholarly study tends to defray that. What turns out to be OK for all is OK for you. And one more thing, no matter how old you are, you always want to study kids to find out if, back then, you really got your share, and if today's kids are getting more than you did, to sound the alarm that something must be done. Leave the kids alone, allow them their privacy. When you were a kid, you certainly didn't want some lecherous adult inquiring into your sexual thoughts and behaviors, asking questions, and making judgements. It's enough to teach them biology, but leave the rest to the streets, the gutters and the camp-outs, where it belongs. Get a life.
Teenage boys pornography use
Many teenage boys begin puberty around 12 years, many even earlier. Males are visually stimulated (a fact women have been exploiting for centuries) and pubescent boys are intensely interested in the opposite sex. This is totally instinctive and absolutely natural. Even though conservative forces within our civilization have aribitrarily assumed that ignorance will preserve innocence and that sexual encounters must be deferred as long as possible, pre-teen boys will continue to mature when their biological clock commands. What would Thompson and those like him prefer, that teenager boys use pornography for masturbation, or that they resort to rape when their natural urges overwhelm their self control? Would Thompson prefer boys use prostitutes so their "expectations" are more realistic? It's time for a reality check. Pornography helps boys manage their instinctive sexual urges while living in a culture of denial that imagines puberty can be deferred until the day they are married.
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