Boys who see porn more likely to harass girls

From Dignity:

Maurice Chittenden and Matthew Holehouse

BOYS exposed to porn are more likely to indulge in casual sex and less likely to form successful relationships when they grow older, according to research carried out in a dozen countries.The report, Harms of Pornography Exposure Among Children and Young People, also found that young boys who see pornography are more inclined to believe there is nothing wrong with pinning down or sexually harassing a girl.

Michael Flood, who carried out the study at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, said: “There is compelling evidence from around the world that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities.“We know it is shaping sexual knowledge. Some people may think that is good. But porn is a very poor sex educator because it shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. Often it is quite callous and hostile in its depictions of women.“It doesn’t mean that every young person is going out to rape somebody but it does increase the likelihood that will happen.”

Research in the UK suggests that 60% of boys under 16 have been exposed to pornography, accidentally or deliberately. The average age at which they first saw porn has dropped from 15 to 11 in less than a decade. The average amount of time they watch porn on the internet is 90 minutes a week.

John Carr, an adviser to the government and secretary of the Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS), said: “We had a case in west London where a boy in the first year of primary school was bringing pictures to school and was acting them out in the playground during the break. When they did a home visit the dad was downloading it and it was all over the house.“

It is not an argument for banning it but it is an argument to find better ways to make it harder for kids to get hold of it.”

Such is the international spread of porn through the internet that youngsters in Asian and African countries see blonde white women on screen and then regard tourists with the same attributes as sex objects, Flood says. (Same thing with US movies unrealistic portrayals of women as one dimentional which are distributed globally.)

However, Thaddeus Birchard, a psychotherapist who runs a sex addiction practice in London, said: “We are entering a period of moral panic and this is part of it. Children are not receiving sex education at home. Sexually explicit material on the net can even help educate them.“The internet is a way of being sexually addicted but it does not cause the addiction. What causes it is the relationship between the child and their parents. Almost always they are maternally deprived.”

Petra Boynton, a psychologist, said: “Children are not necessarily looking at porn for gratification. They are doing so because they are bored and not supervised. Often when children look at more extreme porn it is done for bravado so they can laugh and say how disgusting it is.”

Greenconsciousness Notes: If life drawing of nude models were done in grade school starting with kindergarten, young children would not be so needy of porn to learn and understand what their own bodies look like, as well as the body of the opposite sex. Dolls should be atomically correct and always used for sex education. No doll should be made without genitalia.

As they turn 11-12 years old children should be given sex ed complete with videos showing masturbation and intercourse in a straightforward way without the porn aspect. Such videos exist and can be shown in sex segregated classrooms. Parents can attend these lectures - mothers in their daughters classroom - fathers with their sons or in a separate class for single parents. But since there are so many sex offenders among the parents it is best not to mix adult genders with children in sex ed classes.

The answer to the porn lie is not repression which never works and not porn or sexual preference advocacy which is slyly done by some teachers (both homo and heterosexual advocacy should be discouraged). Instead sex ed should consist of definitions and accurate, straightforward, honest information complete with a discussion of the hormonal changes, adolescent lack of impulse control and disease symptoms and consequences.

Such classes should include the reproductive system of both sexes and birth control as well as trips to planned parenthood clinics. Parents can teach morality but all citizens in a secular society should be educated about their bodies and the bodies of the opposite sex.