It is true that most children, especially during puberty, are often quite curious and enjoy watching porn. Although parents may not like this, it is actually a common situation in today’s society.
With the popularity of porn movies as well as the Internet making it easier for your children to access porn movies than ever, many children have been negatively affected by sex movies, so parents need to have on-time preventive measures now.
To do that, parents first need to equip themselves with sufficient knowledge to understand this danger to effectively educate their children, the article below will continue to analyze 8 effects of watching porn on adolescents. You can review 6 Effects of pornography on teenagers (Part 1).
8 Effects of watching porn on adolescents
Wrong perception about safe sex
Regularly watching porn has been shown to motivate teenagers to have uncertainty about aspects of sex, such as what is safe sex.
The formation of sexual beliefs and values is negatively impacted when your child becomes more willing to have a permissive attitude toward having unsafe sex.
Risks of having sex with a teenager (9-15 years old)
In a cross-sectional study of 710 Norwegian youth between the ages of 18 and 19, 19.1% of men indicated that the likelihood of having sex with a 13 to 14-year-old was associated with a high frequency of watching sex and has many friends who are interested in child pornography and violent pornography.
It is illegal to have sex with a teenager (under the age of 18).
Your kids are at a high risk of sexting
Sexting – is the sending, receiving or forwarding of pornographic content or pornographic messages via text message or email.
A survey of 4,564 teenagers aged 14–17 years in five European countries found that watching pornography on the Internet was significantly associated with an increased probability of sending sexual texts and pictures (sexting) in male students.
A private survey of 617 freshman universities found that 30% of participants had at least once sent sexual images/videos during high school; 45% have received nude pictures on their mobile phones.
One mistake is that many parents assume that sex is harmless because, in reality, no sex happens. However, sexting is a form of sexual intercourse – sending, receiving and transmitting nudity photos, messages, videos, pornography such as nudity, sexual behavior or sexual emojis.
Unfortunately, sexting increases significantly when children and adolescents are often at home due to social distancing. Boring feelings motivate them to engage in more “interesting” behaviors, and many children make misunderstood when suggesting that sexting is one of those “fun” behaviors.
Some of the consequences of sexting can be mentioned as the risk of blackmail. There have been many cases where photo recipients repeatedly threatened to embarrass the sender. To preserve their reputation, many children, after being threatened, will try to give the attacker the requested money.
They are too ashamed to have to call for help and decide to take care of themselves. When things get out of control, many children will suffer psychologically seriously, leading to suicide or participating in illegal acts to make money.
Besides, there are online bullying and online humiliation. People will attack and judge your child just by looking at the pictures. These images can even ruin your child’s online reputation. Once it is shared on the Internet, it will exist there forever!
Sexual satisfaction
In a longitudinal study of 1,052 Dutch teenagers aged 13-20, the research found that regularly watching porn continuously reduced adolescents’ satisfaction with their sex life. The negative effects of porn on adolescents are equally strong for both male and female.
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Your child has a high risk of committing another offense
Teenagers who regularly watch porn are more likely to lie, steal, truant, frequently cheat/manipulate others, engage in arson, engage in forced sexual acts and conduct such as verbal aggression or using tools to express sexually aggressive comments. Finally, there is the risk of having sex with animals.
Other research has also demonstrated an association between the consumption of pornography and juvenile delinquency.
A prime example is Nathan Matthews. This guy killed his stepmother’s stepdaughter in a horrible way like in a horror movie. According to the investigation, Matthews is an extremely violent sex addict.
Source: thescottishsun.co.uk
Matthews was sentenced to life in prison, with at least 33 years serving. Police believe that the murderer’s motive is partly due to being too haunted by porn with extreme violent content.
Other risky sexual behaviors
Access to pornography on the Internet is associated with increased sexual activity at a younger age and is more likely to engage in sexual acts. There are dangers, such as having sex with multiple sex partners, anal sex, group sex and using stimulants during sexual intercourse.
A recent UK survey found that 44% of 11–16 male adolescents who have viewed pornography report that online porn has given them “violent” ideas about the kind of sex they want to try.
Sexual and physical chemistry
A nationally representative survey of porn use among 9–17-year-olds, found that those who were more exposed to pornography on the Internet were more likely to be physically and sexually abused.
Loneliness and other negative psychological effects
The results of a study show that the link between loneliness and pornography is positive and meaningful. Survey data of 1,247 participants seeking help using porn shows that children who watch porn are more likely to feel lonely and those who are experiencing loneliness are more likely to watch pornography.
And this circle goes on and on.
In other words, when anything is done secretly, your child will tend to hide it and feel ashamed of himself. The harmful effects of porn make your children dishonest and more susceptible to anxious personality disorders.
How can parents limit their child watching porn?
The period of puberty is when your child has very notable psychological and physiological changes, so it is necessary to have regular discussions with your child on issues related to gender.
When your child is in puberty, he or she is greatly influenced by the impact around them – the images of the actors in porn movies can completely mislead them that this is the body they must have had if they wanted a boyfriend in the future, leading to fasting, anxiety disorders, depression.
The effects of pornography on children’s brains go beyond their negative effects on adult brains. Therefore, sex education for children should not only be given to schools and teachers, it is important that you actively participate and teach your children about healthy relationships, about love and other gender issues.
Why? Because it is very likely that your child is looking for porn because he wants to learn about gender issues, perhaps because you have not given him a clear answer or that the lectures at school have not provided enough information that he or she needed.
Due to the vulnerable nature of children’s brains and the lightning speed of porn content, it’s important to more proactively protect your child from pornography.
To ensure your child’s online environment is safe and healthier, you should consider using an additional online content filtering tool – which is considered as one of the best free parental control software to hide 15 types of harmful content on the Internet, including:
- Pornography
- Horrifying content like gore, accidents, ghosts, violence, murder, terrorism, etc
- Content about stimulants, addictive substances such as alcohol, beer, marijuana, drugs, etc
- Content with aggressive elements, hurting others like Hate speech
This free porn blocker software can help to minimize your child’s access to harmful content, ensuring a healthy online environment for your child but at the same time, not invading their privacy rights.
You may also need some tips one how to block porn on pc effectively:
- How to set up parental controls on Macbook
- How to block porn sites on Google Chrome
- How to block porn sites on Safari
- Set up parental controls for Microsoft Edge
- Set up parental controls for Youtube
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