“Too Grown?”

Are today’s youth overexposed to sex and pornography?

Adriana Newbury
5th February 2024
Image credit: pixabay, viarami
Let’s talk about sex, baby. Or, let’s show young people unhealthy versions of sexual relationships, baby. The internet’s easy accessibility has endless benefits and disadvantages, but in terms of sex, young people are over exposed to pornography. A complex issue, one that perhaps gets overlooked, is the effect that copious amounts of accessible porn has on the wellbeing and relationships of young people. According to a report carried out by Durex, the average age which people lose their virginity in the UK is 18.3, with approximately one third having had sex by the age of 16. In comparison to this, sexual awakening can begin when puberty starts, that’s to say, children start to think about sex as young as around 11. With these numbers in mind, for around 5-7 years, children’s only form of ‘healthy’ sexual relationships is online pornography. 

There is an epidemic of unhealthy perception and relationships because of young people’s overconsumption of porn. Porn normalises sexual behaviour that disregards any type of loving and caring relationship, instead prioritising male-centred pleasure and aggressive sexual play. Before the ban on unverified users on PornHub in 2020, there were 13 million videos on the site, many including phrases such as ‘see how much she can take’, and a huge proportion of videos normalise physically aggressive kinks such as slapping. Now, a matured adult might be able to identify that this is abnormal behaviour, but a young person with no personal sexual experience begins to have their perceptions warped. There is a common view among young people that someone who wants to have caring sexual relationships is seen as vanilla, because they are overexposed to aggressive play in porn. This is completely absurd; sex is supposed to be mutually enjoyable and can be an expression of love. But young people are starting to believe someone without kinks is boring because they consume so much online porn of this nature before they understand what a real-life sexual relationship is. 

This is completely absurd; sex is supposed to be mutually enjoyable and can be an expression of love

Not only has overconsumption of pornography warped today’s youth’s perception of healthy sexual relationships, but it has also misinformed them of realistic body expectations. Young boys battle with body image around the size of their penis and how long they can last in bed, comparing themselves to the men in porn who are most likely on medications to prolong their performance. Young girls suffer with body image too, expecting their bodies to mature to the fake boobs and bum of porn-stars. More importantly, they are scared of being prude with their bodies, with 1 in 5 young girls having had anal sex, a practice which can lead to many health issues if the right precautions are not taken. And it’s these potentially damaging sexual practices that stem from the overconsumption of porn from too young an age.  

It is naïve to think that we can entirely control young people’s access to porn sites, with website blocks easy to get around with servers such as VPNs. With today’s youth more fluent with technology than ever before, we have to educate young people with a more realistic sex education. Not just one that covers basic anatomy and intercourse, but one that talks about the complex issues surrounding the relationship between over-use of porn and negative mental health, or the impractical expectations that porn gives. By ignoring this problem, or brushing porn under the carpet, we are only further intensifying the problem. 

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