Teens watching porn earlier spurs harmful attitudes
Teenagers are watching pornography from earlier ages, sparking concerns about ingraining harmful attitudes that can then translate into violence against women.
The average age a woman was first exposed to porn dropped two years to just younger than 14 compared to a similar survey in 2018.
Boys started watching porn at just over 13 - a few months earlier than women - and half of young men were watching it at least once a week, with about one in eight watching it daily or near daily, an Our Watch report found.
This compared to one in five women watching it at least once a week and only one per cent every or most days.
"The link is frequent viewing of violent porn increases the likelihood of holding harmful attitudes towards women," Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly told AAP.
Sexualised violence including choking during sex reinforced the depiction of men as dominant and women as subservient which "is really strengthening that view of disrespect toward women", Ms Kinnersly said.
"Violence against women doesn't come out of the blue. It stems from the disrespect of women in society and the messages in this type of pornography are normalising those harmful attitudes towards women."
With this being shown to people at such a young age, it wasn't surprising there was intimate partner violence happening at 18 and 19 years old, she said.
While people thought it was fantasy and didn't impact real life, one-third of young people were learning about sex, dating and relationships from porn even though they knew this wasn't a good way to learn, Ms Kinnersly said.
The vast majority of people agreed porn pushed stereotypes, impacted how women were viewed, was degrading towards women and often showed aggression and violence.
Those aged between 16 and 17 were more likely to view porn as realistic (25 per cent) compared to their slightly older peers (15 per cent).
"We're not going to be able to turn that tap off entirely so it's important we are shaping the community around them," Ms Kinnersly said, pushing consent and respectful relationship education to counter the prolific nature of pornography online.
Ms Kinnersly pointed to choking during sex, saying half of people aged between 18 and 35 had been strangled during sex at least once despite there being no safe way to choke someone or gather ongoing consent for the act.
While age verification and regulation were important, it was only part of the puzzle as people would eventually access the content or find a way around technology blocks which was why education was needed at all ages, Ms Kinnersly said.
The online survey commissioned by Our Watch involved 832 people aged between 16 and 20.
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