Health Professionals

Kia ora and thank you for joining the conversation!

The porn landscape has changed dramatically for young people over the last five years shaping youth sexual culture in new and diverse ways.

Porn has become a primary sex educator for young people (7,19), influencing youth sexual culture in new ways – and youth health services are starting to see a range of porn related issues in the workplace.

It’s important health professionals are equipped to be part of the porn conversation with young people in Aotearoa. This looks like… having porn knowledge and skills; being equipped with tools to assess porn related wellbeing issues; having healthy porn conversations and incorporating porn into existing workplace frameworks and practices; and helping build porn literacy in young people.

“We need help with ways to cope with like the pressure of watching porn and how to not use it as an education source – but we’re too scared to talk and ask adults questions about it.” — Anon young person, TLP ITK survey (25)
Why Porn Literacy? Porn literacy enables young people to critically examine and identify the messages in porn and understand how porn messaging relates to their own personal beliefs and values and to real life sexuality. By helping young people to develop porn literacy skills, we’re equipping them with the knowledge and tools to make informed and healthy decisions around porn, minimising any potential long-term harm.

We’ve put together some resources …

to assist health professionals in the workplace. If your team would like some training or workforce development, please feel free to contact us HERE. Thanks for being part of the conversation!

Porn: The Facts for Adults
An overview of the new porn landscape and current research on the potential impacts on young people (created for adults).
Getting Real:
Great Sex vs
Porn Sex
A youth resource to help start conversations and build porn literacy in young people by discussing great sex compared to porn sex in terms of pleasure, consent, emotional connection and safety.
Need help?
An I need help resource for young people who may be struggling with their own porn use, as well as a We need help resource for professionals, whānau and friends who may be worried about a young person.
Porn talks with youth
The basics for starting that awkward conversation about porn with young people and encouraging them to develop their own porn literacy skills through critically unpacking and examining the messages in porn (created for adults).
Can porn affect us?
A great go-to youth resource than can help with conversations when young people ask if and how porn can affect them.
intheknow.co.nz
Got questions or concerns about porn, nudes or online sexual experiences? Check out our new youth site.
Porn: The Facts for Youth
A youth fact sheet with the lowdown on the new porn landscape and the most recent research on porn’s messaging and impacts.
Resources
A helpful summary of recommended websites, books, research articles, YouTube videos and guidelines.
Porn Wellbeing Assessment Tool
(In development to be released in December 2021)

A simple tool for youth professionals that explores the unique context of a young person’s porn engagement (consumption, content, context, circumstances, concerns and care) to help assess any impacts on wellbeing and identify if support is needed.

PORN AND HEEADSSS
(In development to be released in December 2021)

The HEEADSSS assessment model with some key porn questions.

P.O.R.N Porn Literacy tool
(In development to be released in December 2021)

A simple Porn Literacy Tool that uses Socratic questioning to draw our young people’s ideas and understandings of porn through an ethic lens.

Please note: we acknowledge these resources may not meet all the specific needs of some cultural or religious groups and/or sexual or gender diverse communities in New Zealand. Please feel free to tailor these resources to meet the unique needs of the communities you work with or email us on hello@thelightproject.co.nz if there are other specific resources you think could be helpful.

We know from our research, that many NZ kids and teens will have seen these sorts of clips. The way this material treats consent and family relationships, the relative lack of affection, disregard of safe-sex practice and so on emphasises the simple fact that adult porn is a terrible product for young people to be drawing on to shape their views on sex. And yet they are doing exactly that.”
— David Shanks, Chief Censor, Classification Office, 2019