A creepy link has been revealed between online porn and an injuries sustained by teen girls.
An increasing number of teenaged girls are being injured during ‘rough sex‘ – and experts believe it has something to do with porn.
Recent statistics show 88 per cent of scenes in porn clips include physically aggressive acts. Meanwhile more than 60 per cent of girls and 90 per cent of boys have been exposed to online porn — leading many young people to take what they see on screens to be ‘normal.’
Now, child welfare and psychiatric experts fear unsupervised internet access is fueling the hypersexualisation of young people — which in turn leads to anxiety and injuries from extreme sex acts.
“I’ve had GPs tell me about the injuries they are seeing in young girls when they have been forced or coerced to do what is in porn videos,’’ Federal government cybersafety adviser Susan McLean told The Australian.
“They’re not watching anything within a circle of normality — they’re looking at rape, bondage, torture and bestiality. The girls in the videos all appear to like it, so girls think that’s just how sex is.’’
Allison Pearson expressed similar concerns in a column for The Telegraph, writing that teen girls were increasingly being treated for internal injuries caused by frequent anal sex engaged in purely “because a boy expected (them) to”.
She added that pressured young women were engaging in sexual acts their bodies are “simply not designed for”.
Related: Porn vs real sex. Explained with fruit.
Psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg added that online porn had fed into many boys’ distorted view of sex, telling The Australian: “Their idea of sex is porn sex — it’s a terrible distortion of one of the most precious and important parts of their lives, which is love and intimacy.”
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While the reports about the link between porn and young girls’ wellbeing are frightening, suggests parents can take control by following these tips:
Limit exposure to the net.
Limiting and managing exposure to technology is key — since most porn is online these days, Reality&Risk — a program supported by the Sexual and Family Violence Division of Victoria Police — points out.
Related: Sexting, bullying and privacy: keeping kids safe online.
Dr Carr-Greg similarly told The Australian that measures should be taken to limit access; they could include installing internet filters, tracking young peoples’ internet use and talking to them about online safety.
“Teaching kids to stay safe, smart and responsible on Instagram is as important as teaching them how to swim or cross the road,” he said.
Encourage critical thinking.
“We need to teach young people to ‘read’ imagery and to develop the sorts of frameworks that allow them to understand and critique what they’re seeing,” Reality&Risk suggests.
Teenagers need to understand that media communicates a whole range of messages about power and gender — a skill that can be developed by fostering discussions about the power and relationship messages communicated in advertising, films and TV.
Teach practical skills.
Reality&Risk points out that young people need to develop practical strategies to protect their wellbeing when they experience peer pressure to consume porn, or when an intimate partner initiates unwanted porn-like sex.
Parents can support children to develop these skills by reminding them it’s never okay for anyone to pressure them to do anything sexual (including watching porn), as well as by talking through the situations they might face and exploring options for how they could respond.
“Together, think creatively about their options, and discuss the pros and cons,” the program suggests. “For example, if peers pressure them to watch porn, would they ignore it, use humour, say why they don’t want to watch it or make an excuse to leave?”
Model respectful gender relations.
“We can model good practice by engaging in just and respectful gender relations.” the program adds.
“We can seek to encourage ways of thinking and talking about sexuality that include communication, consent, mutual pleasure and respect.”
Kids: If you need help, call Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800. Parents: visit www.itstimewetalked.com.au/parents/.
Related content:
How to talk to your kids about sex.
Top Comments
This news about the affects of the porn industry on the health of our teenagers and their relationships is shocking.
To feel that roughing someone up sexually, torturing them, taking them from behind,playing games of domination and much more has become 'normalised' as a sexual experience says a lot about why we have high levels of depression, anxiety, suicide, worthlessness and lack of commitment to life in our young people.
Perhaps the distraction and disconnection we see in our youth stems from the lack of true intimacy, loving connection and understanding in their relationships. Having Porn sex in their relationships only highlights this lack of love and contributes to their craving for intimacy and 'acting out' in other behaviours that are harming to their wellbeing.
There needs to be more couples sharing to our young people, how beautiful and natural it is to make love, not exploit each other sexually with our needs. Our youth need to be inspired to not be pressured into, or get addicted to a way of expressing sexually that is so harming to their intimacy, as it devalues the person and their body and brings no true meaning to their personal intimate moments together.
Since reading this I can't help but feel the fact that the pornography industry is reportedly so huge and we are now seeing the full ramifications of how wide-spread and far-reaching it is, to the point that it is now for a lot of teenagers 'normal' to be watching and indulging in porn. What is disturbing about this fact is that there is obviously a huge demand for it, which means there must be a lot of adults watching porn, my suspicion is that these are not all childless adults, and in fact many people who 'use' porn are parents.....which poses the question, in the support and educating of our kids to not be exposed to, impacted by, affected and injured by porn-related activity, are we educating them from a point that addresses the harm involved in aggressive sex and the lack of self-worth that necessarily accompanies that for anyone at any age, or are we simply going to look at it from a "you're too young" perspective? If it is the latter, we have a long way to go in understanding what intimacy in relationships is and can be, and it is this we need to be bringing a level of maturity and lived experience to, to then be the role models that our younger people need to see, for them to know without doubt what is possible to claim for themselves in relationships, with no question of accepting anything less.