Psychological and Forensic Challenges Regarding Youth Consumption of Pornography: A Narrative Review (2021)

As mentioned above, watching and consuming pornography is a well-extended practice among youth nowadays. Considering that statement, it becomes relevant to highlight that, although the consumption of pornography can begin at early ages (typically during adolescence), it is usually not until adulthood when difficulties or alterations associated with its consumption manifest. One of the main issues regarding the consumption of pornography is that immediate, easily accessible, and unrealistic visual stimuli reinforce and facilitate addiction (Ledesma 2017).

Laier, Pawlikowski, Pekal, and Paul [36] concluded in their research that online pornography addiction and substance addictions share basic underlying neurobiological mechanisms and that they are analogous processes that produce in the addict a need for a higher and more frequent dose, with the particularity that in pornography consumption, stimuli are more immediate and more easily accessed (through a click) than drugs.

Further research has also established a clear association between substance abuse and behavioral addictions. Both categories share common characteristics, such as tolerance to the addictive stimulus and shared neurobiological routes. Grant, Brewer, and Potenza [37] have highlighted three common symptoms of both substance abuse and behavioral addictions: hyperreactivity to the addictive stimulus, an anesthetic effect of pleasure, and gradual impairment of will. Dodge (2008) analyzed neuroplastic changes in those who compulsively and chronically consumed pornography, finding that the individuals who were addicted needed more pornographic material, new stimuli, and harder content to maintain the same excitement levels. A recent literature review concluded that online pornography use is on the rise, with a potential for addiction considering the “triple A” influence: accessibility, affordability, and anonymity [15]. According to the authors, this problematic use and abuse of pornography might have adverse effects on sexual development and sexual functioning, especially among the young population [15].

Finally, repeated and compulsive consumption of pornography can also have important implications and alterations in youth. A recent study showed that 60% of the analyzed sample showed serious difficulties to have erections or get excited with their real partners but could do so when watching pornographic content online [33]. Further research using 3T magnetic resonance imaging scans also found an association between the number of hours a week spent watching pornographic content and structural and functional brain alterations, with specific findings showing a negative association between reported pornography hours per week and functional activity during a sexual cue–reactivity paradigm in the left putamen [38]. Kühn and Gallinat [38] reported that their findings evidenced that those who consumed pornography for a higher amount of time had developed tolerance to such content, confirming the hypothesis that high exposure to pornographic stimuli can result in a decrease in the neurological response to natural sexual stimuli. Despite the fact that Kühn and Gallinat’s results were obtained using an adult sample of ages 21–45 years old, it could be expected that long-term consumption of pornography might start having an effect on the brain at an earlier life stage, such as youth [38].

It has been seen that some consequences of consuming and being addicted to pornography are experiencing an increase in sexuality (hypersexuality), hypersexualization of the environment and intimate relationships, and developing a sex addiction (autoeroticism or with sexual partners). In this sense, Fagan [19] stated in his review that the consumption of pornography significantly distorts attitudes and ideas about the nature of sexual relationships. Regarding compulsive behaviors or sexual addiction, Cooper, Galdbreath, and Becker [39] reported that online sexual activity was carried out by participants in order to face daily problems, and other research has linked pornography consumption with compulsive and impulsive behaviors [23]. Even though both authors’ results are obtained using an adult sample (+18), it is important to point out that youth is an especially impulsive life period, which could be intimately related to their findings. In this regard, Efrati and Gola [17] confirmed that youth who present compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) have a higher frequency of pornography use [17].

Several studies have established the effect of pornography consumption and its influence on the sexual attitudes, moral values, and sexual activity of young people [5,8,20]. Given that young people often claim that they use pornography as a way to obtain sexual knowledge and information, it might be plausible to consider that such consumption can have an effect and impact on their knowledge about sexuality and their subsequent sexual practices [3,20,25,27]. Up to date, the literature has shown that porn consumption can impact youths’ knowledge about sexuality in practices such as compulsive sexual behavior, precocious sexual activity, and more variety of sexual practices [4]. Furthermore, porn consumption has a learning effect on youth who might end up emulating pornographic videos in real life, as well as engaging in high-risk sexual practices they have watched online [3,13,29]. Other studies have shown the relationship between the consumption of pornography in young people with a significant increase in the uncertainty about their own sexuality and more positive attitudes towards uncommitted sexual exploration [26].

The laxity and permissiveness that pornography can promote with regard to the experience of sexuality have a direct impact on the way it is conceived and practiced, which is why some data highlights that the consumption of pornography can lead to an increase in sexuality (hypersexuality), understood as an impulsive, compulsive sexual behavior [17,33]. Taking into account that the consumption of pornography usually begins at an early age, it can be deduced that when faced with this consumption, young people might be exposing themselves to risk factors for developing non-adaptive sexuality. In this sense, it has been found that young people who consume more pornography have more permissive sexual attitudes, unrealistic sexual beliefs and values, and consistent findings have emerged linking adolescents’ use of pornography that depicts violence with increased degrees of sexually aggressive behavior [20,25].

Research has shown that consuming pornography can be related to developing hypersexualized behaviors and that hypersexuality can lead to risky experiences, which increases the probability of developing physical and mental health problems [19]. Regarding hypersexuality in adolescents and youth, it has been found that those who present compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) reported a higher frequency of pornography use and more sex-related online activities than adolescents with a lower frequency of porn consumption, which highlights the role of pornography consumption in altered sexual behaviors in youth [17]. Likewise, a Swedish study carried out with 4026 adolescents (18 years old) showed that the frequent consumption of pornography was associated with many behavioral problems, and reported that frequent pornography users had a greater sexual desire and had sold sex more often than other boys the same age [31].

Furthermore, recent literature has highlighted the impact of consuming pornography on sexual behaviors and gender equality. The fact that young people consume pornography for educational purposes, due to a lack of references in sexual education, is particularly relevant. This habit might contribute to the appearance of imitational patterns, by trying to copy and reproduce in their own sexual encounters the sexual practices learned from pornography, and some young people might feel pressured to do or imitate such pornographic content in real life, with the risk of presenting dysfunctional consequences for themselves or others [29].

The rapid development of the Internet has been a conditioning factor regarding pornography consumption. The online world enables and facilitates the creation of new forms of social interaction, with the possibility of performing uninhibited sex practices. In many cases, these online sex practices are indiscriminate, anonymous, uncommitted, easy, and exempt from responsibilities, which can significantly condition and distort the understanding of sexuality and affection, especially in youth. A recent report developed by Save the Children established that almost 15% of their teenage sample (14–17 years old) reported that frequently consuming pornography had seriously affected their personal relationships, and 37.4% reported that it had affected their personal relationships “a lot” [13].

Ballester et al. (2014) indicated that one of the most relevant effects of consuming new pornography in young people is the increasing ritualization of relationships, modifying the understanding of social relationships, expectations, the criteria to evaluate them, the modalities of desired sexual practices, and other aspects of interpersonal relationships. In their research, carried out using a sample of 37 participants aged 16–29 years old, and a subsample of 19 participants aged 16–22 years old, Ballester et al. [5] found that one attitude that is clearly modified due to pornography consumption in young people is the acceptance of high-risk sexual practices, such as vaginal sex without a condom, frequently changing partners, group sex, anal sex without a condom with different partners, and so forth.

Furthermore, a recent study highlighted that ritualizing intimate relationships can have diverse consequences, among which they point out increasing difficulties to establish and maintain effective and sexual interpersonal relations, distorted expectations, which can result in greater failure when socially interacting, and poor levels of global functionality [1]. In particular, in their review, they pointed out that one of the possible negative consequences of exposure to new pornography is that it can lead young people to believe that they should emulate the practices they have observed (for example, non-consensual sex, violent sexual practices, copying illegal activities observed in extreme pornography, or engaging in risky sexual practices seen on the Internet), without a clear conviction or education about healthy and safe sexuality. Finally, it is suggested that as a result of the consumption of pornography, there may be an escalation of “hardcore” practices, as consumers need bigger and more violent stimuli to reach satisfaction after frequent exposure to sexual content [1].

It should be noted that young people’s sexual identities are shaped by the education and information they receive and are modulated by the experiences they live. Considering this premise, one of the risks of youth consuming pornography is that the unrealistic vision of sex that is shown in pornography can act as a “sexual mentor”, thus enhancing a distorted knowledge of what healthy sexual relationships ought to be [18].

In their research, Esquit and Alvarado [18] concluded that the consumption of pornography can negatively impact youths’ psychosexual development, including consequences such as a predisposition to developing a dependence on or an addiction to pornography, abnormal sexual development and unrealistic expectations, predisposition to promiscuity, a lack of contraceptive methods, vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases, and a distortion of the parameters of healthy sexual behavior and self-image.

Furthermore, consuming pornography at early stages of youth can facilitate the development of distorted ideas related to gender roles in sexual relationships (such as understanding men as the dominant gender and women as submissive or as a sexual object), which could favor the normalization of pathological sexual behaviors, distortions in sexual relationships, and the appearance of anti-normative, antisocial, or violent behaviors, as will be shown throughout the paper. In this regard, Stanley et al. [30] found in their research that the consumption of regular pornography was associated with a greater tendency to have negative gender attitudes, and with higher levels of perpetration of sexual coercion and abuse, highlighting a positive relationship between such consumption and coercion, sexual abuse, and behaviors such as “sexting”.

The relationship between pornography consumption and the development of maladjusted sexual tendencies is heterogenous and inconclusive. In this regard, Ybarra and Mitchell (2005) found an association between pornography consumption in youth and engagement in criminal behaviors, substance abuse, depression, and an insecure attachment, suggesting that pornography consumption in youth could be contributing to the development of paraphilias.

The majority of authors point out that the association between pornography consumption and paraphilias is not direct, and they highlight that consuming pornography could be a way to discover, trigger, and/or exacerbate an underlying and undeveloped paraphilia [9]. In this sense, research has found that the higher and earlier exposure to sexual content, the greater the risk of developing paraphilias [10]. Thus, paraphilias most frequently associated with pornography consumption are voyeurism and exhibitionism [9,10]. Voyeurism, as a paraphilia, is associated with pornography consumption by which the person watches erotic sexual content, but also pornography consumption gives the voyeur the opportunity to watch content that has not been filmed with the intention of creating pornography and feed their voyeuristic fantasies [9]. Moreover, the association between exhibitionism and pornography consumption becomes clear when seeing that the accessibility exhibitionists have to show their sexual organs online through webcams or record self-produced sexual content and upload it online [9].

Finally, despite the fact that it has not been possible to establish a direct relationship between pornography consumption and the development of other paraphilias, it has become clear that consuming “hardcore” pornography or violent content can facilitate the development of paraphilias, such as sexual sadism or pedophilia, and moreover, encourage and exacerbate the desire to carry out criminal behaviors either in the physical space (such as sexual assaults or pederasty) or in the virtual space (such as sexting or online grooming) [9]. Furthermore, some literature has shown that pornography consumption follows a gradual progression depending on the first age of consumption. These findings were extracted from an adult sample study, but it highlighted that the individuals who started intentional pornography exposure at earlier stages showed a higher probability of consuming non-conventional and paraphilic pornography later on, as opposed to those who were intentionally exposed to pornography at an older age [40]. From these results, it could be inferred that if early intentional exposure to porn is linked to the consumption of paraphilic pornography at later stages in adults, the earlier the exposure starts the bigger effect it might have on the consumer, meaning that if intentional exposure starts at youth, the effects of such early exposure might be even bigger than the ones found in adults.

As previously mentioned, Sánchez and Iruarrizaga [9] suggest that consuming pornography can encourage and facilitate the commission of sexual crimes because it can contribute to the normalization of certain violent behaviors within sexual relationships. A recent study carried out with Spanish adolescents found that 72% of the sample considered that the pornography content they consumed was violent [13], and consistent findings have emerged linking the adolescent use of pornography that depicts violence with increased degrees of sexually aggressive behavior [25]. Additionally, various investigations have found a solid correlation between pornography consumption in minors and an increase in physical sexual assaults, especially in minors that consumed violent pornographic content [14,41]. In this sense, Ybarra et al. [41] conducted a longitudinal study with 1588 teenagers (between 14 and 19 years old) and observed that the minors who had consumed violent pornography were six times more likely to perpetrate sexually aggressive behaviors.

A study carried out by Ybarra and Mitchell [35] found that, of all the men that presented risks of showing violent behaviors, those that frequently consumed pornography were four times more likely to sexually assault someone than men who did not consume pornography frequently. Moreover, a recent literature review highlighted the relationship between pornography consumption and sexual aggressions in teenagers [3].

With regards to sexual assault perpetration triggered by pornography consumption, the investigation carried out by Bonino et al. [14] with a sample of Italian adolescents showed that consuming pornography was associated with sexually harassing a partner or forcing someone to maintain sexual relationships. Moreover, the study carried out by Ybarra et al., [41] found that the perpetration of sexual assault was associated with the consumption of violent pornographic material but not with the consumption of general non-violent pornography. Moreover, Stanley et al. [30] conducted a study with a sample comprising 4564 teenagers aged 14–17 years old and found that boys’ perpetration of sexual coercion and abuse was significantly associated with regular viewing of online pornography.

Finally, regarding pornography consumption and sexual victimization, Bonino et al. [14] in their sample of Italian teenagers found out that girls that had consumed more pornographic content had more probabilities of being victims of sexual violence than girls who had not consumed as much pornography.

The rapid development of new technologies and instant communication through the internet has brought the development of new ways of social interaction. Some of these forms of social interaction are not harmful nor have negative effects; however, the online environment can entail risks that can enable the development of new forms of online victimization, both non-sexual and sexual. As such, pornography consumption by young people has been associated with a new form of online sexual interaction known as sexting [8]. Sexting refers to sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit text messages, images, or videos through electronic devices, especially mobile phones. The previous literature has found that the participants who engaged in sexting had more accepting attitudes towards pornography consumption and consumed more pornography themselves than those who did not engage in sexting behaviors. In this regard, research conducted with a sample of 4564 European adolescents found that viewing online pornography was associated with a significantly increased probability for boys of having sent sexual images/messages in nearly all of the studied countries [30], in line with a recently published report on the consumption of pornography amongst Spanish adolescents [13]. The study carried out by Save the Children surveyed 1680 teens aged 14–17 and found that 20.2% of teenagers who consume pornography have shared autoproduced sexual content at least once, and they reported significant differences in sexting engagement between porn consumers and non-consumers, with consumers engaging more frequently in sexting practices than non-consumers [13]. Furthermore, the consumption of pornography has been significantly associated with contacting unknown people online for sexual purposes, which is risky behavior that can lead to other forms of victimization, such as online grooming, sexting coercion, or image-based sexual abuse [42]. The recent investigation presented by Save the Children reports that 17% of teenagers who consume pornography have contacted an unknown person online for sexual purposes, and that 1.6% of the participants who consume pornography reported frequently contacting an unknown person online for sexual purposes [13].

Sexting itself poses many risks for teenagers, such as being a victim of non-consensual dissemination of the sexual content or being pressured or coerced into sending sexual content [43]. Furthermore, derived from the engagement in sexting and the non-consensual dissemination of sexual content, people involved in these behaviors can become victims of cyberbullying, sexual cyberharassment, sextortion, and, in the case of minors, they can also become victims of online grooming [43]. Engaging in sexting behaviors has an additional risk for minors, since the autogenerated sexual content can be considered to be child pornography, and teenagers are starting to create and distribute their own pornography [44]. Additionally, research has found an association between sexting and sexual partner violence amongst young people, with results indicating that girls who had been a victim of sexual violence (forced or pressured) were significantly more likely to have sent a sexual image than those who had not been victims of sexual violence [34].

These behaviors and forms of online sexual victimization have been linked by many authors to psychopathological consequences [43]. Van Ouytsel, Van Gool, Ponnet, and Walrave [45] associated engaging in sexting behaviors with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, whilst Dake, Price, Maziarz, and Ward [46] found a significant association between engaging in sexting and higher levels of depression and suicidal thoughts. Furthermore, the consumption of pornography and engaging in sexting behaviors are both risky behaviors, associated with online grooming victimization, as higher consumption of pornography and a higher engagement in sexting would raise the probabilities of being a victim of online grooming [47].

The abovementioned data shows and evidences the existing association between the consumption of pornography in minors and new forms of online sexual victimization, such as sexting, cyberbullying, sextortion, and online grooming. Moreover, it confirms the association between emotional alterations and psychopathological symptoms, highlighting the importance of an accurate evaluation of the different phenomena in forensic practice [42,43].