Executive Summary

With the advent of the Internet and social media, the introduction of smartphones, and the continued proliferation of other online technologies, pornography consumption has changed dramatically in our modern society. These advancements have changed both the amount and the types of sexual content available online. As a result, experts have documented that the number of people using pornography and the level of engagement of these users have increased exponentially in the last two decades. 

While these trends cut across all age groups, the emergence of a new form of childhood, where children and teens have unrestricted access to online sexual materials, has today made pornography use widespread among young people. It is not an overstatement that children and adolescents now have more access to pornography than any generation in history. Despite pornography being designated as “adult content,” in this new form of childhood our judicial system has gone out of its way to protect the rights of porn providers to distribute this material to kids (and adults) without constraint. That the pornography industry is afforded this deference—despite the overwhelming social science research that shows that underage pornography use is now the norm, rather than the exception, and that its availability has radical implications for healthy adolescent development in our society—is one of the crises of our time. 

Children and Teens Are Frequently Accessing Explicit Pornography with Developmentally Harmful Content 

The rise in underage pornography use has been paralleled by a shift to more extreme and harmful types of pornography being available online. A growing body of research has consistently shown that a large portion of the sexual media available online is not only sexually explicit, but also regularly depicts rape, violence against women, deviant sexual behaviors such as incest and sex with minors, and various other forms of developmentally harmful content. In an alarming trend, a growing number of studies are also finding that a significant portion of minors are directly seeking out and viewing these types of harmful online sexual materials. 

It is time for our culture to come to terms with the inconsistency of placing value in the dignity and importance of developing a strong rising generation of children, girls, and women, but then turning a blind eye to the types of messages conveyed in pornography to our young people. Such violent, demeaning, and deviant content is not merely passive media that has little to no effect on young minds. On the contrary, decades of media studies have shown that consuming any type of media likely influences both the attitudes and behaviors of young children and teenagers. 

Pornography consumption by children and adolescents has been shown to be frequently harmful to their healthy development in a number of significant ways 

The preponderance of evidence from social science research is that pornography consumption by underage children and adolescents is harmful to their healthy development in significant ways. This research shows that pornography consumption increases young people’s risk for both short-term and long-term harms, including, increased mental health problems, unhealthy sexual scripts and behaviors, increased sexual aggression, potential compulsive struggles, decreased future relationship stability, and other developmental challenges. 

Studies to date also confirm that while pornography poses a significant risk to all users, the likelihood of harm is increased among underage children and teens due to their sensitive developmental stage of life. And the risk of lasting harm is even greater for teens with a set of existing risk factors that make them particularly vulnerable to the threats of pornography. 

Studies also show that many of these risks continue into adulthood and have deleterious effects on later relationship quality and adult wellbeing. Such effects have been documented across dozens of studies, including large national surveys, recent meta-analyses (studies designed to systematically assess the results of previous research), and critical reviews of scientific literature, the highest standards for social science research. 

Parents, industry leaders, and officers of government need to promote measures that protect children from the documented harms of underage pornography use 

Trends around the globe show that an increasing number of children and adolescents in our modern world are struggling with mental health problems, family disruption, and other notable challenges. Much of this increase appears to be the result of a collective social failure to properly protect children from the rise of digital childhood, daily social media consumption, harmful content on the internet, and other online threats. Protecting the best interests of children in these modern times will require us to more fully acknowledge the “rise in vulnerability” we are witnessing among children and teens across the globe. 

When it comes to collective action to safeguard children the fundamental question we must address is not, “Does all pornography harm all children all of the time?” Rather, if we are to properly safeguard young people, the question we must ask that sets the baseline standard of protection is, “Does at least some pornography harm some children some of the time?” 

Existing research clearly shows that this standard is being met, even under the strictest of scientific standards. In fact, existing research confirms an even higher standard of harm and shows that most pornography harms most children most of the time. When all of the various ways that pornography can harm child development are considered, there is really no defensible argument for children and adolescents having unrestricted access to sexual media and pornographic materials of any form. 

We deeply support efforts to hold both the producers of pornography and social media platforms accountable for making sure they are not contributing to and profiting from underage pornography use. For example, some states have recently passed laws requiring pornography websites to verify a user’s age, and in the case of social media, obtain parental consent, in order to gain access. Furthermore, a new effort to implement device-based age verification, and require parental supervision for minor social media accounts, parental consent for app downloads, and accurate app ratings from the industry, would contribute to a critical effort to create a safer digital app environment for children in which parents are effectively involved. Our children need and deserve nothing less.