Two recent surveys interviewed teenagers about their attitude towards pornography. While some said it was too widespread to avoid, even if they wanted to, many more said they had watched "more porn movies than they could count"...

Unavoidable

“Many teenagers said porn was forced upon them, that it was virtually impossible to avoid porn on the internet,” said pedagogy student Andrea Ólafsdóttir from the University of Iceland.

A 16-year-old male said one only had to Google “banana” or “Russia” to end up on a pornography website. “It is everywhere on the internet,” he said. Many interviews revealed that it was expected of boys that they like pornography, that it was natural and “manly” for boys to watch adult films.

“You can’t walk around without seeing pornography in some form. Porn has a great impact on society. All advertisements have something to do with sex, porn or nudity,” said one 17-year-old female.

According to the research, all teenagers questioned believed pornography influenced the relationship between the sexes and the attitude of men towards women due to the role play that takes place in adult films. “Many said that if porn was their first introduction to sex it would give them false ideas about how sex and the relation between sexes is supposed to be,” anthropologist Sigmarsson said.

Can't Get Enough

A groundbreaking study on porn use by 13- and 14-year-old teens shows an alarming number are watching "more times than they can count" and their parents are unaware. "If you're 13 and you can't put a number on the times (you've used porn), that's a little frightening," University of Alberta researcher Sonya Thompson said, adding 35% of boys fell into that category along with 8% of girls.

Thompson said she got the idea for the study after she noticed more and more students asking questions about explicit and hardcore sexual activity. She asked about their exposure to and use of sexually explicit material on TV, DVDs, movies and the Internet, as well as about their interaction with their parents about such material.

The Internet was the most common way for kids to get access to porn, with about three-quarters of students reporting such contact. Thompson found almost one-quarter of the boys watched pornographic DVDs or videos "too many times to count" and 35% said the same about Internet smut. The corresponding figures for girls were 4% and 8%.

Thompson also found that boys tend to prefer privacy while viewing porn, but will sometimes invite other boys to watch with them. Girls, on the other hand, more often watch in same-sex pairs or in mixed-gender groups.

She also said sexually curious teens who are watching porn are getting the wrong messages about healthy sexuality and don't distinguish between actors getting paid to perform and real-world sexuality. "Parents need to be talking to their kids about porn in a non-judgmental way and to keep the conversation happening," said Thompson, who is also a sexual health educator.

Sources: Iceland Review Online and Cnews