Pornography and sexual exploitation of children on the internet

Pornography Internet

The proliferation of internet use has produced greater access to information for young media users. It has also heightened the risk that such use will lead to the exposure to harmful materials. The research conducted here defines harmful materials as sexually explicit imagery or pornography and connects internet proliferation with patters of younger exposure and higher permeation of exposure amongst adolescent and pre-adolescent users. A qualitative literature review examines this claim in light of potentially negative impacts to sexual development such as the distortion of normal sexual expectations and the magnification of sexual confusion. The literature review also touches on the normative nature of exposure to sexual imagery for adolescents and teens, indicating that for some, this is part of normal development in sexual awareness. The research produces the recommendation that further research be conducted to isolate and identify specific sexual development consequences of early pornography exposure amongst adolescent boys.

Adolescent and Pre-Adolescent Exposure to Pornography on the Internet

Introduction:

The Internet has produced a great many opportunities for the expansion of knowledge, for independent learning and the youthful exploration of countless opportunities for education, entertainment, socialization and stimulation. With these, it has also produced an array of risks for its most vulnerable of users which produces a great degree of concern and debate over how to control internet usage for both those who create content and those who consume it. Much of the concern centers around the proliferation of pornography which has been one of the internet's most controversial of accomplishments. Indeed, the relative media frontier which is the Internet is governed by very few real restrictions, principles of censorship or limitations in usage at the broad sociological level. The result is that in many more liberalized media contexts, the Internet will tend to be the most popular access point to pornographic images, materials and even interactive communities. As the study here concerns this availability of pornographic images, a primary emergent consideration is that this is likely to significantly increase the access which underage Web users have to said imagery. The study proposed here proceeds from the assumption that the proliferation of Internet usage among pre-adolescent and adolescent boys has both increased the exposure which this demographic has to pornographic material and has lowered the age at which this demographic is likely to be first exposed to such material. In order to investigate this assumption, the research hereafter will be conducted in the form of a comprehensive literature review. This will address issues relating web use, exposure to pornographic material and childhood sexual development. This synthesis of materials would lead into a research investigation proposal intending to isolate patterns specific to the United States and pornography exposure.

Methods:

The literature review conducted hereafter is a qualitative research investigation relating internet usage and underage pornography exposure. The research is primarily intended simply to serve as an overview of the subject. As such, it will consider literature which objectively defines the nature of the issue, literature which takes the perspective that these patterns may have negative developmental effects on those exposed and literature which refutes claims that such exposure is likely to be damaging in any developmental regard. The research will be largely based on the discussion points yielded by such data, but are expected to produce the conclusions that the proliferation of internet usage has produced a pattern whereby adolescent or preadolescent boys are exposed to pornographic material. Consideration will also be given to such variables as the context in which exposure occurs, with the voluntary or involuntary nature of this exposure likely playing a role.

The literature review also considers several relevant points of consideration where investigation of the impact of such exposure is concerned from a child psychology perspective. Here, theories of sexual development will play a part in the nature of the discussion. Though the study is non-scientific in nature, it does present us with an independent variable, which is the proliferation of internet access. This is proposed to correlate to a potential array of dependent variables such as age of exposure to pornographic material, the sociological permeation of this exposure and the nature of any potential developmental, psychological or sociological consequences of this exposure. Also, though the research is non-scientific in nature, its findings would be intended to produce recommendations for future study which is more focused and empirically driven in its design.

Also for the purposes of this discussion at least, which will focus much of its attention on web navigation in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union primarily because these are contexts where so few restrictions exist to impede navigation or use of web content.

As a context for web navigation, this does not preclude our discussion from addressing content which may originate outside of these contexts, but will train our attention to the content viewing in such contexts so as to prevent discrepancy between these and contexts such as China, North Korea or Iran, where content usage is notoriously limited by government intervention. Often, such restrictions are perceived as impediments to individual liberties and media freedom. However, they provide a superficial counterpoint to the risks produced in a liberalized media system such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, which collectively provide little protection against individual 'misuse' of the Internet. The produces the complex philosophical and practical discussions which converge on the subject of proliferated and liberalized media usage, and requires also a consideration of such issues as the subjective identification of 'harmful materials.'

Findings:

Computers and computer-based technologies have become a part of our everyday lives. For many Americans and for people around the world, the computer has come to be seen as a gateway to the conduction of all manner of personal, professional, consumerist and social activities, whether at home, at work and/or while in transit. The fact of the computer's thorough integration into our lives is reflected with increasing seamlessness across generations, with our younger generations coming of age at a time when such technology is readily available, accessible and popularly appealing. As a point of fact, those who are entering elementary school today are considerably more likely to be well-acquainted already with the recreational and constructive aspects of the computer than were those who were entering into elementary school just a decade ago. One of the reasons for this relative shift is that, with the fairly swift evolution in the technology's applicable versatility, there has also occurred an equally swift evolution in its applicability to the needs, interests and faculties of today's young uses. This has of course created all manner of opportunity for early exposure to information, education and knowledge. But in direct correspondence with that exposure to information is the risk of exposure to potentially harmful materials. As the article by Ybarra & Mitchell (2005) contends, "Estimates suggest that up to 90% or more youth between 12 and 18 years have access to the Internet. Concern has been raised that this increased accessibility may lead to a rise in pornography seeking among children and adolescents, with potentially serious ramifications for child and adolescent sexual development." (p. 473)

These claims underscore the need here to consider on a surface level the implications of child and adolescent sexual development, which are largely identified as the psychological areas of greatest concern with regard to early exposure to pornography. In a certain respect, it is normal for the young man to begin to take an interest in sexuality and sexual imagery. As Rich (2002) shows, the normal and healthy child will reach adolescence with an increasingly evolved sense of awareness about the sexual self and about the desires which are accorded thereby. With the onset of more regular masturbation in the adolescent years of 10-14, there is also an increased drive for sexual validation. It is here that such conditions as sexual orientation, sexual self-image and the connection of social or romantic goals to sexual ambitions start to come into view. As Rich characterizes this period in the child's life, "as children move deeper into adolescence, romance, intimacy, and sexual issues are driven by and blend with physical feelings, emotions, and social expectations. Dating and more intense sexual relationships begin and deepen, moving from thinking about and discussing romances, to dating, kissing, sexual petting, and, in many cases, sexual relationships and intercourse." (p. 1)

In the early parts of this development though, research warns, there may be negative consequences to an early and/or frequent exposure to pornographic materials, as these experiences may have a determinant impact on the way the subject begins to view sexuality. As the article by Schwartz (2009) warns, the diversity of pornographic materials that are easily accessible online creates a complex set of expectations for young men whose first visual exposure to sexuality comes about thusly. The array of sexual predilections, deviations and variations which can be found on the internet are likely to confound what is already the very challenging process of defining one's own sexuality. Schwartz warns that "pornography depicts human sexuality in ways that are distorted and unrealistic. This is what creates confusion in the minds of young and vulnerable people." (p. 1)

Concerning this vulnerability, our research suggests that upon entering an adolescent age, individuals who are not yet emotionally or intellectually prepared for the responsibilities of sexual engagement are yet beginning to experience emotions hinting at this impulse. Schwartz warns that encounters with explicit and potentially deviant materials such as those which may incorporate violence, exploitation, pedophilia or even simply a predilection apart from the individuals such as homosexuality, group sex or fetishism, will impede with the child's process of learning sexual boundaries.

This is underscored in the article by Flood (2010), which reports on the general range of effects that have been associated with exposure to pornography at a young age. Flood reports that "especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifies attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault. While children and young people are sexual beings and deserve age-appropriate materials on sex and sexuality, pornography is a poor, and indeed dangerous, sex educator." (Flood, 1)

Indeed, it is at this age that an awareness of the social parameters relating to sexuality begin to surface in children. The period of adolescence can be crucial for helping children to develop a greater sense of sexuality as a normal and healthy human function but one with distinct limitations provided for by social and ethical parameters. As noted by Dunn et al. (2006), the age of adolescence will help to reveal patterns to developing young persons and can also help to reveal to those around him or her the presence of any number of sexual dysfunctions or correlated emotional abnormalities. As the text by Dunn et al. notes, "children learn a lot about sexuality through these years. They also learn much more about what it means to be a boy or a girl. Also, children may start using sexual terms to insult each other. Sexual language is also used more at this age, to call others names or to show others what they know. Children at this age usually understand the secrecy that surrounds sexuality as well as what behavior is appropriate in public." (p. 1)

This is to indicate that adults such as parents or teachers must not fear the implications of childhood sexuality. There is a danger in attempting to repress normal and healthy sexual feelings, which can then become psychologically associated with feelings of guilt and shame that may be misplaced and instigative of a lifelong psychic disturbance. Moreover, a blanket fear of childhood sexuality may cause adult members of a support system to miss crucial symptoms of a problematic or abnormal sexual behavior pattern. Such pressures may even cause the child to resort to internet pornography as a way of relieving otherwise stigmatized or repressed feelings of sexual arousal.

This is an especially challenging area in terms of fostering positive development. For some children who become precociously aware of their sexuality but who do not yet possess the social or psychological mechanisms to control ideas and impulses, there may be awakened a fear of sexual deviance for the child's parents. As the source by Harorian (2000) tells, "of greater concern is the child who is very public with sex talk and sex play, masturbation with self or with peers. Parents are concerned that the child is abnormal genetically or hormonally, that s/he will be censured by other adults and children, that his/her sexual behavior will reflect badly on siblings and family, that s/he will be a target for sexual abuse or exploitation by adults or that s/he will grow up to be promiscuous or perverted." (p. 1) it is difficult to know to what extent sexual explicitness at an early age is a signal of abnormal or deviant development or whether it is a distinctive expression of a normal, healthy drive. However, it is clear that this age represents a challenging intercession between the presence of sexual proclivities but the incapacity yet to understand or act on these proclivities.

It is in this regard that the accessibility of pornography inherently attracts the attention of those who are too young to fully understand the implications of sexual intercourse in all of its dimensions. So reports the article by Skoog et al. (2009), which denotes that exposure to such materials at an age too early for sexual activity has been shown to relate directly to behaviors which overstep the boundaries of appropriate sexual behavior. Skoog et al. report that in a study from 2006, it was found that "the more the boys report viewing pornography, the more often they have sexually harassed a peer and forced somebody to have sex. Curiosity and sexual arousal are typical reasons why adolescent boys view sexually explicit material online." (p. 2)

This indicates that in a certain regard, there may be evidence of a causal relationship between the viewing of materials either stimulating this natural arousal or in removing appropriate expectations regarding social-sexual behavior. Images on the internet eroticizing sexual violence or rape may have a confusing and distorting impact on the young man. In the study cited above, it suggests that this impact produces a miscomprehension of sexual limitations. The article by Skoog et al. is particularly useful to this discussion though as it relates both sides of the discussion on youth viewing of pornographic material. Reinforcing the above-cited study, Skoog et al. report that "most pornography is created for adults. Among others, Jacobs and Klaczynski (2002) reason that cognitive abilities such as judgment and understanding consequences may not be fully developed during early adolescence. Therefore, young boys who view pornography might be at higher risk than older people are for being affected negatively. (p. 5)

Such negative effects may include the incapacity to fulfill later sexual urges due to unrealistic expectations concerning the nature of sexual intercourse; a tendency toward inappropriate or deviant behaviors that endanger others; and a long-standing conflation over pornographic arousal and sexual orientation. By the same token the research investigation by Skoog et al. is concerned with the correlation between the stage of 'pubertal' maturation and the proclivity to seek out pornographic materials. Framing it in this context, Skoog specifically identifies the exposure to such materials as voluntary, active and stemming from biological proclivities toward curiosity, interest and a need for stimulation. In this context, it may not be fully appropriate to contend that the impacts of pornography are inherently negative. The article reports that while many social scientists and moral hygienists have argued that pornography is an inherently destructive force, some have argued that "on the other hand, viewing sexually explicit material may be seen as playing a role in normative development and may be regarded as a normal way to explore sexuality (Swedish Medical Council, 2006). It is plausible that the type of pornography boys view may also be important." (Skoog et al., 2009, p. 6)