Youth and Porn Resource Kit
1. Understanding
1.1 Youth and Porn – The Facts
Porn and consent
There is no explicit indication of consent across the scenes in most mainstream porn sites, which can provide problematic messaging to young people around consent.
Research suggests that when aggression without explicit verbal consent is viewed as normal in porn, it can:
  • Suggest that a ‘lack of no’ is the same as ‘yes’.
  • Contribute to young people’s blurred understanding of consent (49).
  • Suggest that sexual aggression without affirmative/explicit consent is an acceptable, normal, and expected part of sex (49).

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“Porn doesn’t teach us consent. And it doesn’t teach us what actually happens beforehand, and afterwards, and also during as well. I’ve never seen a porn where they have stopped because one person is uncomfortable.”
Male, 18 years