- A new report found that 79% of people surveyed had seen porn before they were 18 years old.
- In the survey, 47% of respondents aged 16 to 21 believed girls "expect" sex to involve aggression.
A new survey found that more children are viewing violent pornography, with 79% of survey respondents saying they first saw it before they turned 18 years old.
The new data also found that, of those who had seen pornography as a minor, 66% of respondents had seen pornography depicting sexual coercion, and 73% of respondents had seen at least one degrading act.
This exposure is leading people to normalize sexual violence and believe partners desire it, with 47% of survey respondents aged 16 to 21 stating that girls "expect" sex to involve physical aggression such as airway restriction or slapping, and a further 42% of respondents saying that most girls "enjoy" acts of sexual aggression.
The Children's Commissioner of England, Rachel de Souza, said: "I will never forget the girl who told me about her first kiss with her boyfriend, aged 12, who strangled her. He had seen it in pornography and thought it normal."
—Children's Commissioner for England (@ChildrensComm) January 31, 2023
"Pornography, especially when viewed at a young age, colors expectations and teaches children to view women as objects of sex rather than as actual people," a 20-year-old survey respondent, who said he first saw pornography at age 12, told the report authors.
With the report finding that the average age the respondents first consumed pornography was just 13, concerns continue to rise over how easy it is for children to access adult content.
The report also found that most respondents did not find porn on adult websites, but rather on social media, with 41% of respondents having seen such content on Twitter.
Parents are misunderstanding porn
De Souza, who authored the report, said that technology has advanced so quickly that parents may be underestimating what their children can access.
"The adult content which parents may have accessed in their youth could be considered 'quaint' in comparison to today's world of online pornography. Depictions of degradation, sexual coercion, aggression, and exploitation are commonplace and disproportionately targeted against teenage girls," De Souza said.
Research by the British Board of Film Classification and Revealing Reality that De Souza referenced in the report found that 75% of responding parents believed their child would not have seen pornography.
Part of the report explores children's peers pressuring them to view pornography.
One 16-year-old girl in the focus group said: "I remember people being picked on because they hadn't watched porn before, and that is kind of shocking thinking that now."
The report comes as the UK Online Safety Bill passes through Parliament.
Richard Collard, the NSPCC's associate head of child safety online policy, said in a statement to Insider that "these findings show we cannot underestimate the sheer number of children of all ages that are being exposed to online pornography on a daily basis. The negative and long-lasting impact this can have on children and their views on sex and healthy relationships is deeply worrying."