Parents! - It's Time To Talk About Porn!
On April 9, 2021, Susan Ciancio published an online article titled, "Teen Porn Addiction"
In this well written and informative article, Ms. Ciancio tackles porn for parents and how it affects an adolescent brain. This article includes current and sobering statistics.
US statistics show:
According to The average age of a child’s first exposure to porn is before the age of 11.
Of people younger than 18, children under the age of 10 account for 22% of those watching online porn.
According to 2020 research by the British Board of Film Classification,
51% of 11- to 13-year-olds in the UK have been exposed to porn.
Sixty-six percent of 14- to 15-year-olds have been exposed.
And 79% of 16- to 17-year-olds have been exposed.
According to "The Nature and Dynamics of Internet Pornography Exposure for Youth." by Chiara Sabina, Janice Wolak, and David Finkelhor, Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 2008. (Yes, and yikes, that was more than ten years ago.)
70 percent of boys have spent more than 30 consecutive minutes looking at online porn on at least one occasion
35 percent of boys have done this on more than ten occasions.
Only 3 percent of boys and 17percent of girls have never seen Internet Pornography
83 percent of boys and 57 percent of girls have seen group sex on the internet.
According to a 2016 study of 1492 Italian high school seniors. (Adolescents and web porn: a new era of sexuality. Int J Adolesc Med Health. 2016; 28(2):169-73, by
Pizzol D; Bertoldo A; Foresta C)
All young people, on an almost daily basis, have access to Internet. Among those surveyed,
1163 (77.9%) of Internet users admit to the consumption of pornographic material, and of these,
93 (8%) access pornographic websites daily.
686 (59%) boys accessing these sites perceive the consumption of pornography as always stimulating.
255 (21.9%) define it as habitual.
116 (10%) report that it reduces sexual interest towards potential real-life partners.
106 (9.1%) report a kind of addiction.
19% of overall pornography consumers report an abnormal sexual response, while the percentage rose to 25.1% among regular consumers.
Ms. Ciancio discusses what porn does to the malleable adolescent brain, other dangers of porn, signs that your child may be watching porn, and how to talk to your child about porn.
Here is a link to the full article.