A welcome review and change to the way sex education is taught in schools has been updated as of a ruling by Government, reached on 1 March 2017 in the UK.  The revised programme will now incorporate modules on how modern relationships work. With the onslaught of online technology and the unprecedented impact that it’s had on everybody’s life, including children and young adults, it’s a long overdue revision that is being introduced in every school as compulsory.

Years of campaigning, both for and against, ended on the 1st March 2017 when the Secretary of State, Justine Greening, revealed the amendment to the Children and Social Work Bill.  The last time the curriculum was revised was in 2000. In 2017 more of an emphasis will be placed on relationship education as well as the perils of looking at online porn and sexting.

Amongst many considerations Love Young People echo the concerns of what may be included and omitted from the programme.  When it comes to the newly entitled Relationships and Sex Education curriculum, the ultimate task is to help young people feel more in control of their actions. To be more engaged with their emotions, more invested in their community, more aware of their value, and to be mindful of others and the impact misuse of sex and relations can have on themselves too.

Whilst this revision is welcomed in some quarters, there are some concerns from teachers, parents and faith groups that the resources won’t be sufficient enough to support a successful rollout.

LYP says: At last the government has seen sense in paving the way for mandatory sex eduction and relationships teaching. We now have a few more hurdles to jump when it comes to what is taught to students. The sooner they get going with this, the better. LYP will definitely be interested to see what happens next and hopefully this will start to rebuild the long-term damage that online pornography has created with children and young adults with their relationships and sexuality.

Young people and children may not be looking for them. But porn is definitely looking out for them.

Today we live in a world where over half of teens own a smartphone or an iPod, which, without restrictions, and if the owner was inclined, could be used as a portable x-rated cinema, almost as easily as it could be used as a phone.

In 2008 YouGov conducted a survey of nearly 1500 American youths. Here is a handful of statistics for you to digest:

1. 9 out of 10 boys and 6 out of 10 girls have been exposed to pornography before the age of 18.
2. Average first exposure to pornography among boys is 12 years old.
3. 83% of boys and 57% of girls have seen group sex online.
4. 69% of boys and 55% of girls have seen same-sex intercourse online.
5. 32% of boys and 18% of girls have seen bestiality (sex between a person and an animal) online.
6. 15% of boys and 9% of girls have seen child pornography.
7. 71% of teens hide online behaviour from their parents.
8. 28% of 16-17 year olds have been unintentionally exposed to porn online.
9. 20% of 16-year-olds and 30% of 17-year-olds have received a sext.

LYP says: We know that these are statistics from America, however we also know that we, in the UK, tend to follow the examples of American teen culture.  This is why LYP is active in schools trying to educate them to prevent young people from being casualties of this addictive drug. If young people are constantly exposed to this level of sexuality online then it will change their behaviour in relationships and consequently if left over a long period of time, it can severely effect the culture of society. That is why we are very much relieved to hear that the Government is going to make sex and relationships education (SRE) mandatory in all schools across England and Wales. 

Does looking at pornography make men lose interest in their partners, even making them less in love?

In the 1980s, Professor Kenrick published studies on how heterosexual men and women responded to naked pictures of attractive members of the opposite sex. Participants were then asked a series of questions, including how they felt about their partners.  Women were unaffected, but men expressed less attraction to their wives or girlfriends after seeing all the sexy alternatives, and were even less likely to describe themselves as being in love with them. Ever since, this has been frequently cited as evidence for the destructive effects of porn on the male brain.

For 27 years no one tried to replicate Kenrick’s work, which is particularly strange since his most influential work involved a small sample.

R Balzarini, a PhD student at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, conducted a series of trials with 10 times the size of sample that Kenrick interviewed, and found that looking at centrefolds made no difference to male participants’ assessments of their attraction to their partners, or how much love they felt for them. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that either Kenrick or Balzarini are simply wrong, with some flaw in their experimental technique or processing of data. However, there are plenty of alternative explanations as well. In particular, it is possible that more widespread exposure to pornography has caused what was once a real effect to wear off.

“Maybe the damage has been done.”

LYP says:

We think that studies like this should be carried out to ascertain the depth of how or why pornography has an affect on people’s brains. We believe from the young people we talk to on a daily basis that pornography is having a huge effect on young people’s development in their understanding of sexuality and relationships. Pornography is powerful drug just like any other drug only society doesn’t view it as a danger. We believe it is dangerous to allow young people to access it whenever they want, especially when they are too young to make informed decisions for themselves.

Please read the interesting article on Fight The New Drug by Matt Hussey from results he has compiled some very interesting data about international porn usage.
Take a look at the graphs below to see the extent that porn has saturated our Internet browsing habits. The graphs have been segmented by country.

Visits to porn sites account for nearly 4.5 per cent of website traffic at the time of the survey completed in partnership with SimilarWeb and ExtremeTech. In other numbers that 4.4 billion visits world wide per month. The showings are that the most repressed and conservative nations are the highest users which should tell us something about human nature.

As porn’s availability has risen, so have its devastating effects on people, relationships, and society at large. As therapist John Woods recently wrote, pornography addiction, “is no longer just a private problem. It is a public health problem.”

See the full article here for context.

LYP says: This is a great insight into what’s really happening behind the growth of online pornography and who’s driving it. We also are aware that there is an increased demand for more specialist, darker genres which in turn are influencing a younger generation to grow up making decisions about their relationships through the lens of pornography.

The NSPCC carried out a survey of more than 1,000 children aged 11-16, and found that at least half had been exposed to online porn already.  Of this group, almost all (94%) have seen it by age 14.

A very high percentage of the  boys surveyed revealed that they wanted to copy the behaviour they had seen watching porn. These answers came despite more than 75% of the kids agreeing that porn didn’t help them understand the rules of consent.

The survey also showed that young people are likely to see online porn accidentally and for almost 66%, first exposure to porn occurred in their own home.

Many of the girls were reported worried about how porn would make boys see girls and the possible impact on attitudes to sex and relationships.

“It can make a boy not look for love, just look for sex and it can pressure us girls to act and look and behave in a certain way before we might be ready for it,” Anonymous 13-year-old girl.

LYP says:

We are very concerned with the findings of this survey by the NSPCC and believe that society has a moral obligation to address these issues now by becoming educated and also by raising awareness. Sadly only a few people and organisations are really making a difference. We need more people to join us and take a stand against the harmful effects of pornography on young people before it’s too late. If you want to join us than contact us on our Facebook page.

A survey was managed by Typeform on behalf of the magazine Marie Claire has highlighted how portable technologies have made porn more accessible.

3000 female readers were asked about how often and how they sourced their porn. 90 % of the sample said they watched porn on their home computers and smartphones. Women’s relationships with porn has been largely left unstudied and is hugely ignored.

Of the respondents, 70 % of the women were aged between 18 and 34. More than half of them were in a relationship. Porn addiction in females is bound to be on the rise too. What are the reasons behind the need, has the desire always been there but it’s been disguised up until now because such surveys did not exist and the ways to access pornography in the past filled with obstructions?

LYP says: We think it’s a reflection of today’s westernised culture: independent, detached, isolated and empty.  It’s easy to access porn and requires no effort for instant gratification  unlike sex which requires a lot more work and may not always be as rewarding. Westernised women have now been given permission to write their own rules and they don’t need men to satisfy them anymore. The union of men and women has become redundant in the art of romance and intimacy. Sex in relationships has become shallow and meaningless because pornography has changed the way we view ourselves in the context of relationships. 

A new study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, looks at the factors that drive people into treatment for problematic porn use.

The scientist, Dr Gola wants to determine if the frequency of porn use or consequences related to porn use is more important. Unsurprisingly, when diagnosing and treating porn addicts the amount of porn a person uses is considerably less relevant than his or her porn-related consequences.

Preoccupation to the point of obsession with highly objectified pornographic imagery, and loss of control over the use of pornography, typically evidenced by failed attempts to quit or cut back. Negative consequences related to porn use can be diminished relationships, trouble at work or in school, depression, isolation, anxiety, loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities, shame, and sexual dysfunction with real world partners, financial woes, legal issues, etc.

As you may have noticed, none of these criteria mention how much porn a person is viewing. Porn addiction is comparable to substance addiction disorders where it’s not how much you drink/use, it’s the impact that drinking has on their lives.

In recent years, of course, we’ve seen numerous studies linking the amount of porn use to potential negative consequences. But until this recently published research appeared we’ve had little to no scientific support for our claim that consequences is the primary measure we should use when identifying and treating pornography addiction.

LYP says: We are really interested in trying  to understand why people become easily addicted, especially with  pornography and the impact it has on young people. We felt that this article tries to tackle the wider consequences of measuring that impact and we like the fact they’re looking at it from as scientific perspective. We also agree that it depends on the personality not necessary how much they watch. However we have noticed especially with the young people we work with that the more pornography they view the greater their need to look for more harder material to satisfy their desire.  Unfortunately they are not aware of the long term damage that may occur as their brain develops.