Few businesses have been able to take advantage of advances in communication as efficiently as the pornography industry. In recent years, mainly due to the popularization of the Internet, there has been a real explosion of adult content around the world. Social networks, messaging services, and mobile devices have been flooded with pornography shortly after its launch.
Nowadays, this type of content is more accessible than ever, which raises more than one concern among parents.
Beyond the moral position we may adopt regarding pornography, a series of behaviors have been observed, some of them alarming, related to uncontrolled access to this type of material.
Distortion of ideas related to sexuality
Teenage curiosity about sexual issues and easy access to pornography, via the Internet or other means, is a combination that needs to be investigated further. A study by Middlesex University in the United Kingdom highlights the lack of education in schools on sexual and emotional issues.
These gaps cause both boys and girls to turn to pornography to compensate for their educational deficiency, which will distort their parameters of sexual behavior, pleasure, body aesthetics, and emotional relationships.
The truth is that the pornographic field, like many cinematographic productions of other genres, has a lot of fiction. The problem lies, then, in learning to distinguish fantasy from reality. However, this becomes difficult when it is evident that there is still a lot of hesitation in talking about these issues in the family.
Pornography as the largest “factory of insecure teenagers”
Personality formation is possible thanks to models with which the subject identifies in some way. In the case of adolescents who have access to this type of material, this could lead to strong insecurity in the medium term.
A clear example of this is when the adolescent, very aware of the changes in his or her body, compares himself or herself with pornographic actresses or actors. The noticeable difference could lead to a rejection of one’s own body or to the feeling of “not being attractive enough.” This becomes very damaging in the immediately following stages.
Conditioning in the search for sexual pleasure
Another fact to take into account is the habituation of the sexual stimulus that pornography provokes. In other words, the subject becomes so accustomed to feeling excitement and pleasure with pornographic material that he becomes incapable of fully enjoying a real situation.
Expectations, clearly defined aesthetic models and unreal situations in pornography will be components that this person will constantly seek out. And by not finding them, he will devalue real sex.
What can be done in the face of this situation?
Although this is a rather complex scenario, a good option is for parents to make an effort to establish an open dialogue with their children regarding sexuality. This implies a formative process to be able to talk about issues such as pornography, instead of trying to restrict access to it by any means.