Teenage Porn usage
Nigel Skelsey
New survey finds a fifth of teenagers watch pornography frequently and 13% of these claim to be addicted
A study by Dignify, a charity based in Hertfordshire that researches sexual abuse, has found that a substantial number of UK teenagers aged between 14 and 18 have been watching pornography frequently, with some saying that they think they are now addicted.
The report in The Guardian newspaper quotes a Hertfordshire-based Headteacher claiming that they had seen a rise in the number of pupils reporting sexual assaults in recent years.
Speaking to the newspaper on condition of anonymity the Headteacher says, “Schools are picking up the pieces of the harm done by the porn industry. We saw the number of students reporting sexual assault start to increase seven to eight years ago and at first we didn’t know why. And then working with Dignify I began to learn about the impact porn was having on our students. The correlation between sexual abuse and watching porn is very high. The majority of what they see is violent.”
Dignify’s study of more than 4000 pupils aged between 14 and 18 makes for concerning reading. 40% of teenage students have seen porn and 22% have viewed it on multiple occasions with 19% of these claiming they had a porn habit. 13% said they felt addicted.
Of the 13% claiming to feel addicted 15% are boys, 8% are girls and 28% are other gendered students. Of the one fifth of those who claimed to have viewed porn on multiple occasions, 15% said they would watch it daily or several times a day and 38% of those who watched more than once said they had acted out something they first saw in pornography videos.
They were also asked what age they were when they first saw pornography. The average age was 12 with the youngest reported as just 3-years-old.
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation is a charity working with men who have been arrested for watching child abuse material online and the organisation now says it is speaking to school teenagers about porn to try and stop the possibility of sexually harmful behaviour starting later in life. They warn that a porn habit is frequently cited by callers to its helpline as a reason why they were viewing sexual images of children.
Laura Nott, who is coordinating the Foundation’s schools work, told the Guardian: “We want to talk openly with young people about porn without moralising. As a society we have dropped the ball with this issue. Kids are going down dangerous paths out of curiosity. You have 12-year-olds who think choking is normal as part of kissing someone. There was one school where they have had to get continence nurses in because older teenage girls are being injured by acting out what they see in porn.”
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Nigel Skelsey
