What’s in the porn content young people watch?

The content in mainstream porn varies. Recent analyses, however, indicate there’s an increasing amount of content with problematic messages around coercion, aggression, gender, racism, and diversity (49).

While most young people might not seek out this content, it’s common across the home pages of most porn sites and is difficult to avoid, especially for younger viewers.

A recent study amongst youth in Aotearoa indicated:

had seen non-consensual acts in porn. 72% 72%
had seen a woman being pressured into having sex. 66% 66%
had seen a male controlling or dominating someone. 91% 91%
had seen behaviours that one of the people didn’t seem to want. 72% 72%
had seen aggression. 69% 69%

“We see a lot of aggression, and I feel like it has slowly taken over most of the content that we see, and it floods the stream every single time … And it’s what people will go to watch. They will start learning that, and you will begin to expect those things.”

Female, 18 years

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