Youth and Porn Resource Kit

2. Engaging & Equiping

2.3 Cultural Safety
Tips for practising cultural safety

Careful assessment and consideration are always needed when engaging with young people around porn. Here are some tips for practicing cultural safety in porn-related conversations and care with young people:

  Do’s
  • Take a humble, open, and curious approach.
  • Have a strengths-based approach to culture. Ask each young person to share what is culturally important to them, and then consider how this should shape any porn-related conversations and care.
  • If you are working cross-culturally, you may consider, if appropriate, exploring or acknowledging with the young person how your differing cultural backgrounds (or age, gender, socioeconomic status) may impact their comfort with the conversation.
  • Take time to listen and understand what is important to the young person.
  • Ask the young person if they would like their whānau or a community member to be involved in any conversations or care. (Note: Some young people may initially not want to disclose porn-related issues to whānau because of the stigma (or shyness or embarrassment); and others may want whānau present and an active part of their care. Assessing the unique needs of each young person and their whānau is therefore vital.)
  • If a porn conversation or care is needed and appropriate, always seek permission to discuss sensitive topics. For example: “Thank you for sharing your concerns around porn. Would it be okay with you if I shared with you some of the ways in which porn could be affecting the experiences you describe?”
  • Enquire about the role culture and/or faith may have in a young person’s beliefs around porn, the impact that may have, and the appropriateness and safety of openly discussing porn.
  • Always consider the appropriateness and safety of any porn conversations when responding to porn-related issues. Many cultures address sexuality (including porn) within a wider sexual-wellbeing framework, and only in a ‘safe’ space (as defined by them).

Understand that it can take a long time for a young person or whānau to disclose porn concerns to a health professional because of prior experiences with the health system and because porn may be considered a taboo topic.

  Dont’s
  • Avoid making assumptions about a young person’s culture.
  • Avoid treating young people from the same culture as though they all hold the same views, beliefs, and values. There is also no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to engaging on the topic of porn-related harm, and there can be significant diversity amongst young people who ascribe to the same cultural group.
  • Avoid making assumptions about the type of care a young person needs, based on their culture.
  • Avoiding using (verbal or non-verbal body) language that can suggest a young person’s culture is to blame, or is deficient, or problematic.
  • Avoid raising the topic of porn unnecessarily or without any appropriate context. Discussing porn can be associated with stigma and shame within some families, faiths, and cultures. Therefore, it needs to be dealt with sensitively and only when a young person feels safe doing so. Conversely, porn stigma can be a barrier to seeking needed help and support. So careful assessment and gentle raising of the topic may be necessary.
  • Avoid attributing blame around the stigma and shame associated with porn to specific cultures. Discussing porn is a sensitive issue across most cultures and attributing blame can be counterproductive and harmful to young people from those cultural groups.
  • Don’t underestimate the power of whanaungatanga when engaging in any porn conversations and care. Whanaungatanga is about forming and prioritizing relationships and strengthening ties between whānau and communities  – and engaging the Dynamics of Whanaungatanga will always help establish far safer and more open communication, trust and care between health professionals and the young people they are working alongside.

Note: Not reflecting on cultural safety during porn conversations and care, or not considering what is needed for each unique young person, may result in increasing risk and non-engagement.

Previous

 
“Health practitioners, need to be engaged in working towards cultural safety and critical consciousness. To do this, they must be prepared to critique the ‘taken for granted’ power structures and be prepared to challenge their own culture and cultural systems rather than prioritise becoming ‘competent’ in the cultures of others. The objective of cultural safety activities also needs to be clearly linked to achieving health equity.”