In this spoken Q&A, a teen‑dating‑violence prevention expert explains how ubiquitous access to online pornography harms adolescents. The speaker outlines three primary negative effects: (1) body‑image distress, as teens compare themselves to unrealistic performers and lose confidence; (2) distorted views of sexual intimacy, because porn prioritizes visual/audio fantasy, staged positions, and performance sounds, leading youths to expect cold, non‑intimate sex; and (3) exposure to overt or subtle violence, manipulation, and coercion, which teens may mistakenly see as normal sexual behavior. The expert stresses that adults should engage in honest, nuanced conversations with teens—acknowledging the unrealistic nature of porn rather than simply forbidding it—to help young people recognize its harms and make healthier choices.
Chapters
Hi. Today's question is, Mike, how does pornography today impact teenagers and their understanding of themselves and sexual relationships? This is a really important question because access to pornography is 24/7 nowadays. So easy for teenagers to get to. Let's get right into this one. Well, there's lots of problems with what pornography can do for teenagers who are watching, how it can impact them. One, body image. It can cause massive body image for teenagers because they don't feel they're going to pair up with what they see in pornography versus what their body looks like. It doesn't match and it causes insecurities. Insecurities can lead to someone losing their confidence, even losing their voice in a sexual situation. We never want that to occur. So that is one massive issue. A second massive issue is the way they see sex occur between 2 people. See, pornography is built on fantasy, which means visual fantasy and audio fantasy. So they'll hear things and they'll hear people act a certain way in pornography and think that all great sex has to sound that way. And therefore they get a very messed up understanding of what sexual intimacy can be like. They also see positions that are designed to be able to be filmed well, which means separation between the people. They're not right on top of each other. There's not as much close intimacy. Intimacy often, and therefore they have a depiction that that's sexual, like leaning someone over and going from behind. I'm not saying that these are bad things for somebody to do if they want to do this, but they depict that as the hottest, sexiest version of this kind of act, which can feel very cold to a lot of people, not intimate. It gives them a very messed up understanding. Third, you can see a lot of violence, whether Obvious or subtle forms of manipulation, coercion, and violence in pornography. And teenagers can think that's what healthy sexuality looks like. It is pivotally important that if you have a teenager or you work with teenagers, you're having this conversation with them and you're having an honest conversation with them, not just, don't ever look at it, because the odds are they're going to see it. Instead, give them an illumination to when they're looking at it, how unrealistic it is, what that can do as far as impacting them. So when they see it, they can recognize the harm or the unrealistic expectations for themselves and make better choices going forward. That's today's question about pornography and today's teenagers.
