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How Many Children Are Watching Porn?
Today, it’s reported that at least 90 percent of kids between the ages of 8 and 16 have watched pornography online at least once. Not only have most tweens and teens seen porn, but boys ages 12 to 17 are actually the largest consumers of online pornography. With this statistic, pornography has even been compared to being the drug of choice for youth.
The amount of kids accessing porn truly is alarming. In fact, the statistics keep rising every single year.
How to Know If Your Child is Watching Porn?
Do you believe that your kid may be watching porn, but are not 100 percent sure? Here are some warning signs that should give you a pretty good indication if they are or not:
- Is your child very curious about sexuality for a very young age? Do they seem fascinated by the thought of sex and their genitals?
- Has your child showed any early signs of sexual activity? Do you have reason to believe that they have indulged in sexual contact before?
- Are there charges popping up on your credit card that you have no clue where they came from? Is your child constantly asking to borrow your credit card, but never gives you a straight answer on why they need it?
- Have you noticed that now your computer has been getting a lot of pop-ups and that you are receiving an alarming amount of inappropriate e-mails?
- Do you feel your child is going through any obvious changes in behavior? Are they acting way more defensive or secretive lately?
- If you start seeing any of these warning signs, this should be a red flag to you that something’s going on with your child. At this point, you need to step in and start watching your kid’s online actions.
Here Are Some Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind...
- 9 out of 10 boys and 6 out of 10 girls are exposed to pornography online before the age of 18.
- The first exposure to pornography among boys is 12 years old, on average.
- 83% of boys and 57% of girls are exposed to group sex online.
- 69% of boys and 55% of girls are exposed to same-sex intercourse online.
- 32% of boys and 18% of girls are exposed to bestiality online.
- 15% of boys and 9% of girls have seen child pornography online.
- 71% of teens have done something to hide their online activity from their parents.
- 28% of 16-17-year-olds have unintentionally been exposed to pornography online.
- 20% of 16-year-olds and 30% of 17-year-olds have received a sext.
- 39% of boys and 23% of girls have seen sexual bondage online.
After an analysis of more than one million hits to Google’s mobile search sites in 2006, adult queries were demonstrated to be the most popular query category, with more than 1 in 5 searches being for pornography.
According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, prolonged exposure to pornography leads to:
- An exaggerated perception of sexual activity in society
- Diminished trust between intimate couples
- The abandonment of the hope of sexual monogamy
- Belief that promiscuity is the natural state
- Belief that abstinence and sexual inactivity are unhealthy
- Cynicism about love or the need for affection between sexual partners
- Belief that marriage is sexually confining
- Lack of attraction to family and child-raising
Tru Research conducted 2,017 online interviews with teens, ages 13-17, and parents of teens:
– 71% of teens have done something to hide what they do online from their parents (this includes clearing browser history, minimizing a browser when in view, deleting inappropriate videos, lying about behavior, using a phone instead of a computer, blocking parents with social media privacy settings, using private browsing, disabling parental controls, or having e-mail or social media accounts unknown to parents).
– 32% of teens admit to intentionally accessing nude or pornographic content online. Of these, 43% do so on a weekly basis. Only 12% of parents knew their teens were accessing pornography.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation discovered among all online youth ages 15-17:
- 70% say they have accidentally stumbled across pornography online.
- 9% say this happens very often.
- 14% somewhat often.
- 47% not too often.
According to a report commissioned by Congress, in 2004 some 70 million individuals visit pornographic Web sites each week; about 11 million of them are younger than 18.
Young People & Sexting
Sexting is sending or posting a sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude photo or video of oneself. Older teens are more likely to report having sent a sext.
- 4% of 12-year-olds have sent a sext.
- 7% of 14-17-year-olds have sent a sext.
- 9% of 13-18-year-olds have sent a sext.
- 19% of 18-24-year-olds have sent a sext.
- 21% of black and Hispanic youth in 10th grade have sent a sext.
Percentages of teens that have received a sext are higher than those who send them.
- 4% of 12-year-olds have received a sext.
- 17% of 13-18-year-olds have received a sext.
- 20% of 16-year-olds have received a sext.
- 30% of 17-year-olds have received a sext.
- 21% of 14-24-year-olds have received a sext.
When a child or adolescent is directly exposed to pornography the following effects have been documented:
- Lasting negative or traumatic emotional responses.
- Earlier onset of first sexual intercourse, thereby increasing the risk of STDs over the lifespan.
- The belief that superior sexual satisfaction is attainable without having affection for one’s partner, thereby reinforcing the commoditization of sex and the objectification of humans.
- The belief that being married or having a family are unattractive prospects.
- Increased risk for developing sexual compulsions and addictive behavior.
- Increased risk of exposure to incorrect information about human sexuality long before a minor is able to contextualize this information in ways an adult brain could.
- Overestimating the prevalence of less common practices (e.g., group sex, bestiality, or sadomasochistic activity).
Pornography doesn’t just cause a risk to the security of your online devices, but also a risk to teens that are lured outside the home to meet with these falsified persona’s created online, as your teen has already developed a relationship with this person.
Teens that have not been educated by their parents about the dangers of online porn are at greater risk being abducted and forced into the human sex trafficking industry.
