Poll: Teenagers and Pornography

[Playful Pony]

Just teach your kids about responsible sexual behavior as they are coming of age... I can't really say when people start wanting to have sex, for me it wasn' until I was 13 or so (I think I was quite late, people in my class started talking about sex and such way before I started even thinking about 'causing myself pleasure' X3). I didn't have any sex ed or such, just a few pieces of advice from my dad about how the boy must always wear protection and it is important to do it for enjoyment (which was all very awkward at the time...).

I have heard a few of my (male) friends complain they can't climax when with a girl for some reason, but with porn they do in a matter of minutes. That sounds strange to me, but I guess it's just because they are really nervous about it? I don't watch much porn at all, but I have noticed it is widly diferent to any sex I've ever had. I tend to giggle and laugh a lot more, and although it's far more awkward and our bodies are a thousand times less perfect it's still really nice and lots of fun.

Some of my friends also worry about their penises being too small, and they don't look good enough so girls wont find them sexy. I'm atracted to girls and not qualified to judge their sexiness, but I have been with a boy once (in my pretend-to-be-normal phase) who was also concerned about his size (telling me its terribly average) but I found it to be really quite big...

In the end I don't know really... Seems like it does make a lot of people feel bad an insecure about themselves, but what doesn't?

 

[Abomination]

Porn is just another, more convenient, form of prostitution. Which, in of itself, is not morally wrong or an ethical issue.

Now certainly it sets some crazy standards for normal folks to think they should aspire to but I remember when I lost my virginity and I learned very damn quickly that it's NOTHING like porn. I mean, the parts are all there and it will give you on occasion a good idea for some positions to try out... but they're mostly positions for maximum third party exposure rather than pleasure for either party.

Sex is great, more people should be having it and being less hung up about it and more encouraging towards safe sex is where society should push itself.

I never even got the "sex ed" talk from my parents. When it came up in conversation with my father I think HE walked away the only party who learned something new.

 

[MeisterKleister]

If you have any interest in what the science behind internet porn addiction is, or if you would like to know what addiction in general actually is, I highly recommend checking out this video series:

Your Brain On Porn [http://yourbrainonporn.com/your-brain-on-porn-series]

Our brains are not evolved to deal with modern media, and that includes internet pornography.
I think the most adapt analogy is this: pornography is like sweet and fatty foods - it's healthy and even vital for survival in moderate amounts. However we live now in an age where sweet and fatty foods are abundant and easily available, and that results in many people getting obese and diabetic. Similarly the recent rise in computer and communication technology has led to pornography being available in vast amounts for everyone for free.
Internet pornography can lead to addiction, just like World of Warcraft can; People can get addicted to sweet or fatty food too. It's an inconvenient truth.
Addiction doesn't simply mean doing something a lot, and not everyone gets addicted. Addiction involves a particular pattern of changes in the brain, especially in the reward center.

By the way, there is actually a very large subreddit about getting off porn addiction:
http://www.reddit.com/r/NoFap/

 

[Jamieson 90]

Drugs, smoking, alcohol, gangs, anti-social behavior and teenage pregnancies seem like more important and serious issues to be honest, kids have always looked at pornography, it's just easier to for kids to access it now and easier for studies to quantify it since in the past it was just magazines etc.

 

[Flatfrog]

I mean, the parts are all there and it will give you on occasion a good idea for some positions to try out... but they're mostly positions for maximum third party exposure rather than pleasure for either party.

Caitlin Moran made a similar point about the trend towards hairlessness - that the main reason why porn actresses tend to be shaved is simply because it allows the camera to see more of what's going on; but somehow that got translated into 'hairlessness is sexy'. Which has always seemed weird to me - the actual flaps and folds aren't that attractive of themselves, especially when surrounded by stubble, but a nice forest of fur you can bounce your hand off is lovely.

 

[Abomination]

I mean, the parts are all there and it will give you on occasion a good idea for some positions to try out... but they're mostly positions for maximum third party exposure rather than pleasure for either party.

Caitlin Moran made a similar point about the trend towards hairlessness - that the main reason why porn actresses tend to be shaved is simply because it allows the camera to see more of what's going on; but somehow that got translated into 'hairlessness is sexy'. Which has always seemed weird to me - the actual flaps and folds aren't that attractive of themselves, especially when surrounded by stubble, but a nice forest of fur you can bounce your hand off is lovely.

Here is where we have to agree to disagree - it's a personal preference. I enjoy my partners to have no hair or some hair in the area, perhaps a Brazilian to keep things neat and tidy, while I would have well-trimmed or fully shaved parts.

I have found it to be more pleasurable for either party, but I would not fault someone for preferring hair. I mean, if there's one thing porn does VERY well is supply niches. So to say that porn only offers clean shaven would be terribly incorrect.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Biologically speaking humans should be having sex (with other teenagers) as soon as they reach puberty (12ish).

However since modern society tends to frown on such young people having sex even with people their own age, these people need to have something to compensate for this.

That would be porn.

Porn helps these people have a healthy masturbation cycle until they can start sex.

 

[gibbles545]

I think it isn't dangerous per say. It does however give teenagers, perticularly those who havent had sex, unrealistic ideas about what sex is really like.

 

[Flatfrog]

I have found it to be more pleasurable for either party, but I would not fault someone for preferring hair. I mean, if there's one thing porn does VERY well is supply niches. So to say that porn only offers clean shaven would be terribly incorrect.

Well, this is tricky. What porn does is tend towards extremes. So yes, you can get porn with shaved ladybits and you can get it with hairy ladybits, but what is quite tricky to find is what I would classify as 'normal' - that is, it's assumed that if you like your women to have pubes, you want them down to the knees (Except in vintage porn, although that tends to come with bad saxophone which may be even worse). It's not surprising, because in the porn marketplace, it's important to be able to classify things accurately and say 'this is the best place to go to for ___'.

The other thing I would say about porn's ability to supply niches is that this is one area which could genuinely be quite damaging to society in general (although this isn't a statement without its issues). In the past, if you were, let's say, a person who was attracted to zebras, this is something you would really tend to keep to yourself and not satisfy. And perhaps this would lead to you being personally unhappy. But now, it turns out that you can find other zebra-lovers around the world and realise 'I am not alone in my stripy equine love'. Which is all the better for you, but perhaps it would be better for society as a whole if you continued to suppress your zebra fetish.

Obviously this is silly, but of course I'm really taking about things like child porn which are not. I do wonder if the availability of child porn and the ability of paedophiles to find one another and tell one another that their condition is not as unusual as they might think is something that might make them more likely to act on it.

I have no answers here - I have no idea what the statistics are. But it's something that does occasionally concern me.

 

[Flatfrog]

Edit: Sorry , double-posted! Meant to press Edit on the last one but pressed Quote instead!

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Definitly a no. Parents just have to be more careful nowadays, since the internet gives you accses to all kinds of porn.

Nude mags aren't such a big thing anymore today, but i'd say when we were teenagers that was the go-to thing to see your first boobies&bonkin'.

And i can only repeat the same thing other said in this thread over and over again already: As long as these teenagers get a healthy education on the topic sex from their parents/school/social environment and it's not a taboo i don't think it will lead any problems at all.

Everytime this topic comes up i'm amazed by the phobia towards it from alot of people, why pewpew-boomboom action flicks and criminal investigation series like CSI, NCIS or Criminal Minds with murders, serial killers and rapists are a-ok.
<.<

 

[Tentaquil]

Saw one word: Dailymail
Second word: Femail (seriously)
Read the article

 

[Psychobabble]

Thank goodness for the agenda free, paragons of honesty at the Daily Mail once again selflessly looking out for our children. Violent video games, pornography, asylum seekers, there's no evil in this world to large for those heroes to protect us from.

 

[Flatfrog]

Anyone who's tried cunnilingus knows why a woman who shaves down there can be nice...

Nothing wrong with the occasional curly hair between the teeth. Plus I have a beard so it's all much of a muchness...

 

[Hero of Lime]

It's a bad thing to be addicted to, like anything addictive, but it's not the worst thing for teenagers. Teens getting into drugs and alcohol are the vices that usually end up ruining them.

Drinking and driving may take their license or their lives.

Drugs will have them locked up or ruin their grades and relationships.

Porn will may give them(usually teenage boys) a warped idea of how to look at romantic relationships and sex. That's a lot less dangerous than the other two examples.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

What do you think? Is pornography the biggest threat facing our young-lings? How much have you been scarred by watching pornography?

The biggest threat to younglings is the Sith, more specifically Darth Vader. That dude will straight up murder them.

I don't think viewing pornography in my youth scarred me. If anything it made my first time a bit easier.

 

[DANEgerous]

As far as danger to children I do not think porn even ranks in the top 100. I almost instantly have problems with this article as while it is not deceitful outright it is extremely misleading talk about teens show a 7 year old, a sample size of 20, a test that is to list knowledge of sexual terms and the dismissal of degrees of porn as in how violent it may be or fetishes.

The only part of this that is in any way concerning is the section starting with "Boys expect porn sex in real life" and if that was the focus of the this study then good but it feels more just gloom in doom look what Johnny saw on the internet lets get rid of it and yet that is a horrible solution as it is nearly impossible and even if it was done would be far more difficult, restrictive and wasteful then just killing the notion of "Boys expect porn sex in real life" so they don't and realize porn is generally fantasy and hardly sex one could expect in real life.

 

[freedash22]

Not sure what's wrong with pornography. I think Glee and Twilight are the greatest threat to kids.

Kidding aside, I think porn, with the correct sexual education accompanying it, can help kids understand themselves more and lead to better things like less unwanted pregnancies, rape and sexual assaults in the long run. Just be sure to inform the kids early of the dangers of pedophiles, child molesters and unprotected sex. Because child molesters and the like mostly rely on the youth being uninformed to facilitate their crimes with less resistance.