Almost half of young English people say girls '
expect
' sex to involve physical assault, according to a report published on Tuesday (January 31st) on the impact of pornography on young people.
The report "
highlights the urgent need to protect children from the harms of online pornography,
" said Rachel De Souza, the children's commissioner, who heads a public body charged with protecting children's rights.
Early exposure to pornography
One in 10 children have seen pornography by the age of 9, according to this survey carried out in England among 1,000 young people between November and January.
Half of 13-year-olds have been exposed to pornography.
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Nearly eight in 10 young people have seen violent pornography involving coercive, degrading or painful sexual acts before the age of 18.
Normalization of violence
According to this report, “
frequent pornography users are more likely to engage in physically aggressive sexual acts
.”
In this regard, 47% of respondents believe that girls “
expect
” sexual intercourse to involve physical aggression.
And 42% believe that most girls “
enjoy
” acts of sexual assault.
Nearly one in two young people aged 18 to 21 have experienced a violent sexual act, defined as aggressive, coercive or degrading.
“
Girls are significantly more likely than boys to have been victims
” of such an act, the report states.
"
Let me be clear
," Rachel De Souza writes in the report's introduction: "
Adult content that parents may have accessed in their youth could be considered
'
quaint
'
compared to today's world of online pornography
”.
“
Representations of degradation, sexual coercion, aggression and exploitation are commonplace and disproportionately target adolescent girls
,” she warns.
“
I will never forget the girl who told me about her first kiss with her 12-year-old boyfriend who strangled her.
He had seen it in pornographic films and found it normal
”.
"
I am deeply concerned about the normalization of sexual violence in online pornography and the role it plays in shaping children's sexuality and relationships
," the commissioner said.
Nearly 40% of young people aged 16 to 21 say they have accidentally come across pornography on the Internet.
But half of the respondents (58% of boys and 42% of girls, aged 16 to 21) say they have searched for pornography online themselves.