Public health experts in Queensland are calling for State Government action to help prevent sexual violence, after new research published today showed that young Australians are learning about sex through porn well before their first intimate encounter.
Researchers from the QUT School of Justice Professor Michael Flood and PhD candidates Maree Crabbe and Kelsey Adams analysed the results of the first nationally representative survey of 1,985 Australians aged 15 to 20 on their exposure to and use of pornography.
The study has been published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
The survey was conducted by Our Watch, Australia’s leading violence prevention organisation, to inform violence prevention efforts.
Journal article lead author Ms Crabbe said a growing body of evidence indicated that young people’s pornography exposure and use had public health implications.
“In particular, pornography plays a role in shaping young people’s sexual understandings, expectations, and experiences,” Ms Crabbe said.
“Research has shown pornography is associated with a range of harmful attitudes, and behaviours, including risky sexual behaviours, greater sexual objectification of women, rape myth acceptance, and sexual coercion and aggression.”
Ms Crabbe said the survey showed that pornography had a widespread presence in young people’s lives in Australia.
“In this survey of 15–20-year-olds, 86 per cent of male and 69 per cent of female participants had seen pornography.
“Of those 50.1 percent of young men and 40.3 per cent of young women reported deliberately seeking pornography the first time they viewed it.
