Pornography

With the proliferation of the internet and mobile devices, pornography has become easily accessible to all age groups.  Because of their developing sexual identity, and because they are more likely either to use pornography uncritically or to consider the depictions of sex in pornography as realistic views of sexual activity, it is usually assumed that young people are most at risk for the negative consequences of pornography usage. Please click here to view a short video outlining the effects of pornography on brain chemistry.

In their research, Matija Sinkovic, Aleksandar Stulhofer and Jasmina Bozie (2013) explore whether  early exposure and use of  pornography play a role in the development of sexually-risky behaviors. They found that the age of first exposure to pornography (11 years old and under) and sexual sensation-seeking together and independently were predictors of sexual risk-taking among young adults (both male and female). The authors compared this to other research showing that violent pornography use increases sexual aggression, but only when other risk factors were also present (e.g., proneness to aggression). The authors did not find any correlation between substantial pornography use and sexual risk taking among young adults.

The implications of this research for professionals is that pornography use is associated with (but does not necessarily cause) a number of other sexual sensation-seeking behaviors. In the presence of other factors that contribute to sexual violence, it is a risk factor for repeat sexual offending. Given this risk, how should a practitioner consider the use of pornography by a client? Given the complexities involved in individual client behavior, practitioners should consider pornography very carefully, and only condone its use with clients whose risk assessments indicate that its use is NOT a component of their overall risk profile. Otherwise, the evidence suggests that youth with sexual behavior problems should not view pornography.