A Call For Porn Literacy:The Role of Sex in Media Education

Activist and actress Jameela Jamil said in a speech at the 2019 MAKERS Conference that, “learning to have sex from porn is like learning to drive from watching The Fast and The Furious. A bloody horrendous idea” (Jamil 2018). This humorous, yet powerful statement amidst her plea for better sex education is true in more ways than her speech could identify. In fact, the concept goes beyond sex education and health. The use of porn as a sexual educator is only becoming more prevalent in our society as digital technology allows for free and easy access to sexual content with few restrictions. Earlier in Jamil’s speech, “Tell Him,” she warns women with boys growing up in their households that a lack of education can promote a dangerous development of sexuality: “If you push him into the shadows, he will find Porn Hub in there and that will become his teacher” (Jamil 2018). This statement is a plea to family members and guardians, hoping for open communication and throughout education around the topic of sex and pornography, but how has the burden of internet protection fallen on individuals?

Though communication and education are important parts of limiting premature exposure to sexual content and pornography, it is important to understand why it is needed in the first place. According to a 2014 report entitled, “Internet Pornography Statistics,” there are 28,258 internet users viewing pornography every second. New pornographic videos are created every 39 minutes in the United States alone. The average age of first exposure to porn is now 11, but 90% of children aged 8-16 have viewed porn online. The study found that there are at least 26 children’s characters, including popular Pokémon, whose names are linked to pornographic content online, allowing for accidental exposure to porn via innocent search (Ropelato, 2014). There is no exact data offered on whether or not the exposure of pornography to children was sought out or accidental, but either way, it is undoubtedly easily and commonly found.

The report claims that pornography has stronger effects on children than other forms of media, or sexual media. The claim that porn is a bad sex educator is shown in the report’s findings that porn has tendencies to: show unrealistic acts of sex, neglect intimacy and romance, present common themes of sexism and objectification, feature unrealistic body images, and be based on violent eroticism (Ropelato, 2014). These issues may not come as a surprise but are nevertheless connected to ethical issues introduced by the internet. Many of these observations can be viewed with a feminist eye, and from an angle that puts women at the forefront of ethical concerns surrounding children’s exposure to porn. In order to understand the negative social impacts that porn exposure can have on children, it is necessary to understand the ethical issues pornography presents, which are commonly seen through a feminist lens.

In Safiya Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression, she presents a large sum of research conducted around the way in which digital technology and the algorithm of Silicon Valley powerhouses oppress people, or in a case such as porn accessibility, harm people (think: pornographic results on a Pokémon search). Her work is centered around a feminist analysis of a digital ethics problem, and her work has influenced the way in which I understand digital ethics from a social identity-based standpoint. When discussing ethical issues surrounding pornography, it is impossible to ignore the impacts on women.

The previously mentioned study from 2013 features statistics on women and porn. It states that 1 out of 3 visitors to pornographic sites are female, but that 70% of women keep their use of pornography a secret (Ropelato, 2014). This is due to the double standard and stigma around female sexuality and the use of porn, as well as the production of porn being made primarily for and by males. When porn is created through a male gaze, for male consumption in a historically and socially patriarchal society, the result is porn that “portrays men as dominant and women as submissive, prioritizing male sexual pleasure and orgasm” (Dawson, 2019, p. 11). These issues feed into many of the influences that are acknowledged to be problems in children’s exposure to pornography.

In response to an article entitled Planet Porn, about the benefits of porn literacy as a solution to premature pornographic exposure, Andrew Bengry-Howell identifies an absence of female perspective, not only within the porn industry, but throughout the theories and studies surrounding it. He states that porn’s, “uncritical framing of pornography as a harmless adult fantasy and its failure to acknowledge some of the deeply problematic aspects of pornography and its discursive association with real abuse and the construction of women as sexual objects” (2012, p. 372). Through the sexist and objectifying themes and imagery that plague pornographic material, female and male children are receiving messages that promote an unhealthy understanding of sex. Moreover, they are developing a dangerous perception of what it means to be a man or woman in our world. Because of this, the issue of premature exposure to porn can go beyond the misinforming of sexuality and into a harmful understanding of gender roles in life as a whole.

With all of this social context in mind, it is important to understand that not everything about porn is inherently bad. Porn can be fun for individuals, or couples, to enjoy and feel liberated by. Porn can inspire people to experience their sexuality more freely or try new things in their intimate lives: “pornography by itself is unlikely to influence an individual’s entire sexual expression, and consumption may be part of a broader sexual repertoire” (Flood, 2009, p. 387). In his analysis of pornography’s harm to children, Michael Flood claims that:

“Protecting children from sexual harm does not mean protecting children from sexuality. In fact, maintaining children’s sexual ignorance fosters sexual abuse and poor sexual and emotional health…However, pornography is a poor sex educator. Most pornography is too explicit for younger children; most shows sex in unrealistic ways and neglects intimacy and romance; most pornography is sexist; and some is based on and eroticizes violence” (2009, p. 394).

Flood’s point suggests that a healthy conversation around the topic of sex and sexuality is necessary, and pornography in theory can be a helpful tool in that conversation. However, pornography in its current state of practice does not fall into the category of a healthy dialogue around sex. He suggests that “we must minimize exposure to sexist and violent sexual media and improve the kinds of sexual materials available to young people, without sacrificing sexual speech in general” (2009, p. 395).

A solution to this ethical concern surrounding the accessibility of porn for children is the integration of porn literacy into sexual education programs and discussions around sex with children and adolescents. Porn literacy is seen as a branch of media literacy that targets a particular area of digital media that presents its own concerns and harms. Dawson explains the difference in the article, “Toward a Model of Porn Literacy: Core Concepts, Rationales, and Approaches” in The Journal of Sex Research:

Media literacy initiatives that empower people to access, produce, negotiate, and understand media have become extremely important. Increased access to more explicit sexual media, such as Internet pornography, has similarly led to calls for youth porn literacy education… The concept of “porn literacy” has evolved from a base of research into media literacy, an area which has developed over time. Originally, media literacy models focused on traditional print and audiovisual material. However, this concept has expanded to encompass the Internet and other new forms of media” (2019, p. 1-2).

Though the integration of this concept is relatively new, it proves promising for a reversal of pornography’s messaging and its consequential effects, while promoting a healthier conversation around sex. Ultimately, a broader implementation of porn literacy can result in an informed understanding of sexual content online for children.

Dawson provides data from a study conducted in 2019 to test the outcomes of porn literacy programs. During this study, participants identified eight core concepts that they learned and developed a better understanding of. These included: reducing shame/increasing acceptability of pornography engagement; discussion of sexual communication and sexual consent; body and genital image; the realities of sex; pleasure and orgasm; physical safety and sex; the role of pornography as an educator; and the sexualization and fetishizing of LGBTQ+ people (Dawson, 2019). These outcomes are a correction to the harms of pornography identified in Ropelato’s 2014 report and continue to surpass those mentioned previously. Based on this study, porn literacy proves to be a step in the right direction toward protecting children from porn exposure. If nothing else, it educates them enough to be protected from its negative effects.

Although there are new programs, like porn literacy, and movements to destigmatize sex, it is not guaranteed that these programs and conversations will reach far enough or wide enough to solve the problem as fully as possible. This is where the plea for harm reduction surrounding pornography and children shifts to the digital world, mirroring Noble’s criticisms of the tech industry. Are big tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft doing all they can to prevent premature exposure to pornographic content in children? Are there algorithms or content controls that can be put in place to reduce the chance of children accessing pornographic content? Can censorship be implored on internet providers and web browsers to stop the spread of harmful, abusive, and objectifying porn?

The arguments are all based on the 1st Amendment’s promise of free speech and press – and media – but when will ethics be integrated into the way these tech giants are run? This is a call for programs like porn literacy, and conversations like Safiya Noble’s, to be taken up by the very digital platforms they aim to reduce harm on. There is no gray area when looking at codes, but there is when the material produced for one audience featuring harmful images and themes is being found by the most innocent and malleable minds of our world. That is when pornography becomes the ethical responsibility of not only the people who raise and educate young people in our society, but the people who assist in its distribution to their modern, digital world.

References

Bengry-Howell, A. (2012). Planet porn: a resource pack for working with teens around porn. Sex Education

Dawson, K., Gabhainn, S. N., & Macneela, P. (2019). Toward a Model of Porn Literacy: Core Concepts,

Rationales, and Approaches. The Journal of Sex Research

Flood, M. (2009). The harms of pornography exposure among children and young people. Child Abuse Review, 18(6), 384–400. doi: 10.1002/car.1092

Jamil, J. (2018, December 20). Tell Him by Jameela Jamil. Retrieved from https://jameelajamil.co.uk/post/181263516735/tell-him-by-jameela-jamil.

Ropelato, J. (2014). Internet Pornography Statistics. TopTenREVIEWS.

Vandenbosch, L., & van Oosten, J. M. (2017). The relationship between online pornography and the sexual objectification of women: The attenuating role of porn literacy education. Journal of Communication, 67, 1015–1036. doi:10.1111/jcom.12341