New Study Says: We Have No Idea!
How has the ubiquity of online porn affected the sexual development
of children and teens? The scientific consensus is: We have no idea.
A new comprehensive report from Middlesex University London (undertaken on behalf of England’s Children’s Commissioner) is titled “Basically … Porn Is Everywhere,”
but clear insights into the effects of that material are nowhere to be
found. Researchers sifted through hundreds of studies from around the
world that have attempted to draw conclusions about young people’s
relationships to online porn. Results were inconclusive. Most of these
studies don’t agree on what pornography is. They don’t agree on what age
“young people” are. They can’t confirm how often these young people
(whoever they are) actually watch porn (whatever that is).
Despite widespread fear about the increasingly deranged version of
human sexuality depicted by online porn, “it is unclear whether
pornography is more extreme and violent today than in the past.” (For
what it’s worth: One study found that while bestiality is easier to find
online, depictions of rape are more a VHS and DVD thing.) And when it
comes to pornography use among children and teens who then go on to
engage in risky sexual behaviors or even become sex offenders, “causal
relationships cannot be established.” In fact, the total lack of insight
into the much-feared cause-and-effect relationship between porn use and
sexual abuse caused the study’s authors to question whether it’s even
“possible to conduct research into causality.” If not, they wrote,
“perhaps it is time to ask different questions.”
For the rest of the story: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/31/internet_porn_study_the_affect_of_pornography_on_kids_and_teens_remains.html
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