FACT: Most Parents don’t know that their teen is viewing porn

Teenager porn is one of the most searched for phrases on Google.

The keyword phrase rakes in the hundreds of thousands of searches EACH MONTH. Odds are, a lot of that traffic is coming from the young people of our world today.Teenagers are engaging with porn on a more frequent basis, and have easier, and easier access to it as our world becomes more mobile friendly.While research is still inconclusive, it is not hard to think about the adverse effects that viewing porn can have on a young mind. In a world littered with #metoo and pushes for social equality, why is it that we consider porn normal when it advocates for the opposite of those movements?If you don’t think that porn is a problem for teens, then take a glimpse at some of these stats:

1. 64% of young people, ages 13–24, actively seek out pornography weekly or more often.
2. A Swedish study of 18-year-old males found that frequent users of pornography were significantly more likely to have sold and bought sex than other boys of the same age.
3. A recent UK survey found that 44% of males aged 11–16 who viewed pornography reported that online pornography gave them ideas about the type of sex they wanted to try.
4. 32% of teens admit to intentionally accessing nude or pornographic content online. Of these, 43% do so on a weekly basis.
5. According to TopTenreviews.com the average age of first Internet porn exposure is 11 years old.
6. The Crimes against Children Research Center says that 1 in 5 teenagers have received a sexual solicitation via the web.

  The thing is, these are but a snapshot of tons of more data on the porn industry and the effects it has on teenagers.It is not uncommon for a teenager to consider porn as their “guide” for learning about sex–which makes complete sense because accessing porn is way more comfortable than asking your parents.However, what is the cost of this new norm? Having teens exploring their sexuality thinking that porn is the standard for sex is the groundwork for a world where male-centric ideology and violence against women is accepted as usual.The majority of porn depicts women as objects for men–they are there solely to please a man, regardless of their consent or desire.As a culture, we must take a stance against pornography shaping teenagers minds and actions. Our teens need to learn about sex and relationships in a healthy environment that is grounded in reality, not showmanship.If you want to read more about teens and pornography, I highly recommend you check out “What Teenagers are Learning from Online Porn” by Maggie Jones of the New York Post.It is an extremely enlightening article about how porn interacts with the lives of teenagers growing up in a porn filled world.