Porn-guided teen TV harms intimacy, say experts
The Australian 16 April 2021
Experts have warned that sexually explicit content influenced by adult pornography has infiltrated popular television dramas aimed at teenagers and can harm young people’s intimate relationships.
Wayne Warburton, an associate professor from Macquarie University’s psychology department, told The Weekend Australian that “internet pornography is changing the norms’’ of teenage sexual behaviour, and that “with sexualised media we’re also seeing a change in what’s regarded as normal … These aren’t necessarily behaviours that are helpful to good relationships”.
An article in today’s Review argues that an exploitative, “pornified aesthetic” has crept into globally streamed and cable dramas set in high schools, including Elite, Euphoria, Tiny Pretty Things and Sex Education.
These dramas feature transgressive sexual acts and graphic scenes, including a teenage incest romance, threesomes, sexual intercourse conducted in public and in one case, violent anal sex between a middle-aged man and a transgender schoolgirl. Mr Warburton said porn’s influence on teenagers was manifesting in trends such as young people engaging in anal sex despite not enjoying it and feeling it was normal to have multiple partners or to coerce, strangle or hurt a partner during sex.
The academic and psychologist, who has researched the impacts of violent and highly sexualised media on children and teenagers, said: “We’re seeing in the mainstream media this kind of movement in the same direction,’’ he said. “ … In a society where we’re trying to reduce gender violence and sexual violence, how does that sort of modelling help?’’
Mr Warburton, who is also vice-president of the Australian Council on Children and Media, said academic researched suggested “that when teenagers see a lot of sexualised material, this is linked with early onset sexual activity and changes in sexual behaviour in line with what’s experienced”.
READ MORE: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/pornguided-teen-tv-harms-intimacy-say-experts/news-story/76e6e77a63803628c90a9f2c9f3e0641
