A 2016 study conducted by Middlesex University revealed that 94% of youth are exposed to pornography by fourteen. 

Of those exposed, 47% began actively searching for porn. 

Despite these statistics showing a public health crisis among the youth, our health classes don’t discuss it. If a health class is not covering real-world issues, regardless of how taboo or tough these topics might be, it’s not doing its job.

I’d also like to note that I will use “exposed” and “viewing” throughout this article. I want to emphasize that exposure to porn is far different from viewing. Unlike viewing, exposure is the unintentional introduction of pornography.

Historically, pornography was located exclusively in limited formats such as television, magazines, movies, and books. Since these mediums were more challenging to obtain or watch unregulated, children typically wouldn’t become exposed until much later in their adolescence. With the rise and dominance of the Internet, that age range has been lowered.

This exposure stage often occurs between 11-14 in unexpected places. Gaming hubs and illicit movie-streaming websites often display pornographic advertisements in large, hard-to-ignore frames. 

Children have a natural impressionability and tendency to actively seek out what they don’t understand. And despite that over 47% of youth (and that’s only what’s reported) follow the trail of illicit content, schools completely ignore porn’s widespread consequences. 

Even though porn has proven adverse mental effects, schools have avoided taking on the necessary responsibility to discuss and educate students about porn, regardless of how uncomfortable those discussions might be. 

For example, young girls exposed at an early age are more prone to body image and self-esteem issues, two topics covered in King County’s FLASH curriculum. Despite that eating disorders are the top reason for suicide in young girls, our schools gloss entirely over some of the reasons those insecurities were brought on in the first place. 

Many people in porn have unrealistic bodies, reinforcing the idea that men and women are only sexually attractive when they get surgeries that make them seem more appealing according to the unreachable beauty standard achieved by surgical enhancement and filters.

This over-sexualization of women often results in a less progressive view of them. Pornographic videos almost always portray a woman doing something exclusively for a man’s desire and rarely for her own.

“When somebody’s only view of sexuality is through these pathways,” said Launi Treece, a Seattle therapist specializing in mild to moderate addictions, “they’re training their brain to be turned on by situations that stray further and further from realistic bodies and situations. It actually does the opposite of what the myth suggests: it impedes your ability to have quality, mutually-enjoyable sex.” 

When porn videos depict rape and abuse, young people develop more accepting views of sexual violence. Consent in porn tends to be ambiguous at most, and sexual harassment is often romanticized. If there is consent given––safe words, check-ins, or any healthy communication happening during filming––we don’t see it. When less sexually experienced people see these videos, they think a lack of communication and consent is normal, or worse: that it’s attractive in an intimate situation. 

“Porn addictions are more common than you think,” continued Treece. “It makes it easier to carry out these behaviors when you’re desensitized to the horror of these actions. Viewers cannot see their sexual partners as people rather than objects.”

Combined with the social pressure to have sex and the messages pornographic content conveys, teenagers feel the need to have sex earlier. And while, yes, FLASH does talk about pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), not everybody has access to resources to have safe sex and options to abort should they need it. 

Studies show that having open discussions about porn in a safe environment has benefits. Knowing the falsities of pornography and its consequences in real life can deter youth from having sex at an early age.

But over-exposure and easy access make it a challenge to keep children from watching porn at young ages. 

It makes us uncomfortable to talk about something we view as private. Still, by censoring discussions about healthy sexuality and bodily autonomy, we’re inhibiting our ability to have real and practical discussions surrounding harassment and abuse. It’s why we must talk about it.