Fast Facts

(Martellozzo, Monaghan, Adler, Davidson, Leyva, & Horvath, 2016)

A UK survey found that 44% of males aged 11–16 who consumed pornography reported that online pornography gave them ideas about the type of sex they wanted to try.

Citations

Martellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J.R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M.A.H. (2016). 'I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it'. A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. London: Middlesex University. NSPCC. Retrieved from https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1187/mdx-nspcc-occ-pornography-report.pdf

How Porn Can Distort Consumers’ Understanding Of Healthy Sex

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(UNICEF, 2026)

Up to two thirds of children say they worry that AI could be used to create fake sexual images of themselves.

Citations

UNICEF. (2026, February). Artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse and exploitation [Issue brief]. https://www.unicef.org/reports/artificial-intelligence-and-child-sexual-abuse-and-exploitation

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(Giunta, Burton, Nicholas, Villegas, & Minihan, 2025)

Teenagers feel that they are frequently encountering online pornography without intending to view it and describe these encounters as unwanted, uncomfortable and unavoidable.

Citations

Giunta, K., Burton, M., Nicholas, M., Villegas, L., & Minihan, S. (2025). Unavoidable, unwanted and uncomfortable: teenagers’ unintentional encounters with online pornography and their desire for porn education. Sex Education, 1-16. doi:10.1080/14681811.2025.2594597

Why Today’s Internet Porn is Unlike Anything the World Has Ever Seen

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(Rothman, Kaczmarsky, Burke, Jansen, & Baughman, 2015)

Findings of a qualitative study indicated that teens often reported trying to copy porn in their own sexual encounters, and that the pressure to imitate porn was often an aspect of unhealthy relationships.

Citations

Rothman, E. F., Kaczmarsky, C., Burke, N., Jansen, E., & Baughman, A. (2015). 'Without Porn … I Wouldn't Know Half the Things I Know Now': A Qualitative Study of Pornography Use Among a Sample of Urban, Low-Income, Black and Hispanic Youth. Journal of sex research, 52(7), 736–746. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2014.960908

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(Martellozzo, Monaghan, Adler, Davidson, Leyva, & Horvath, 2016)

Over half of 11 to 16-year-old boys (53%) and over a third of 11 to 16-year-old girls (39%) reported believing that pornography was a realistic depiction of sex, according to a 2016 report.

Citations

Martellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J.R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M.A.H. (2016). 'I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it'. A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. London: Middlesex University. NSPCC. Retrieved from https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1187/mdx-nspcc-occ-pornography-report.pdf

How Porn Can Distort Consumers’ Understanding Of Healthy Sex

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(Vera-Gray, McGlynn, Kureshi, & Butterby, 2021)

Researchers have found that representations of step-relationships in porn titles were actually less common than depictions of blood relationships, with the majority of incest-themed titles describing sexual activity between immediate family members.

Citations

Vera-Gray, F., McGlynn, C., Kureshi, I., & Butterby, K. (2021). Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography. The British Journal of Criminology, doi:10.1093/bjc/azab035

How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

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(UNICEF, 2026)

A 2026 study found that across 11 countries, 1.2 million children reported having had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes through AI tools in the past year.

Citations

UNICEF. (2026, February). Artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse and exploitation [Issue brief]. https://www.unicef.org/reports/artificial-intelligence-and-child-sexual-abuse-and-exploitation

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(Rothman, Beckmeyer, Herbenick, Fu, Dodge, & Fortenberry, 2021)

Results of a survey of young adults show that 1 in 4 (24.5%) listed pornography as the most helpful source to learn how to have sex.

Citations

Rothman, E. F., Beckmeyer, J. J., Herbenick, D., Fu, T. C., Dodge, B., & Fortenberry, J. D. (2021). The Prevalence of Using Pornography for Information About How to Have Sex: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey of U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults. Archives of sexual behavior, 50(2), 629–646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01877-7

How Porn Can Distort Consumers’ Understanding Of Healthy Sex

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(Walker, Makin, & Morczek, 2016)

Research shows that “teen” is one of the most consistently popular porn themes, and that this theme is 1) becoming increasingly popular, and 2) includes the portrayal of underage characters.

Citations

Walker, A., Makin, D. A., & Morczek, A. L. (2016). Finding Lolita: A comparative analysis of interest in youth-oriented pornography. Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 20(3), 657–683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9355-0

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(BBFC, 2020)

One study shows that approximately 45% of teens who consumed porn did so in part to learn about sex.

Citations

British Board of Film Classification. (2020). Young people, pornography & age-verification. BBFC. Retrieved from https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/research

How Porn Can Distort Consumers’ Understanding Of Healthy Sex

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(BBFC, 2020)

Nearly 1 in 5 sexually active 16- to 17-year-olds said they had either asked or been asked to incorporate acts from porn into their sexual experiences, according to a 2020 report from the UK.

Citations

British Board of Film Classification. (2020). Young people, pornography & age-verification. BBFC. Retrieved from https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/research

How Porn Can Distort Consumers’ Understanding Of Healthy Sex

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(Martellozzo, Monaghan, Adler, Davidson, Leyva, & Horvath, 2016)

Over 46% of young people reported that they saw online porn for the first time when it just “popped up”, and 22% reported that someone else showed it to them when they weren’t expecting it.

Citations

Martellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J.R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M.A.H. (2016). 'I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it'. A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. London: Middlesex University. NSPCC. Retrieved from https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1187/mdx-nspcc-occ-pornography-report.pdf

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