Over 100 quick stats and findings from an ever-growing body of research that details the effects of porn for individuals, relationships, and society.
Nearly half of porn scenes (48.7%) contained verbal aggression, according to a study of popular porn videos.
Even quitting porn for a short time can lessen its negative effects and have positive effects on consumers' lives and relationships.
A 2021 study analyzed videos from popular porn sites and found that porn featuring Black people tends to perpetuate harmful racist stereotypes, disproportionately emphasize violence and aggression, and often depicts Black people as “worse than objects.”
Of the adolescents who had been exposed to porn, 28% were first exposed by accident, 19% were unexpectedly shown pornography by someone else, and only 19% searched for it intentionally, according to research by the NSPCC.
One study shows that approximately 45% of teens who consumed porn did so in part to learn about sex.
The majority of young people are exposed to porn by the time they’re 13, according to research involving young people in the UK.
65% of underage victims recruited online in 2020 active criminal sex trafficking cases were recruited through Facebook, while 14% were recruited through Instagram, and 8% were recruited through Snapchat.
Only 4% of women who were casually dating men reported that their partner regularly consumed porn, when in reality, 50% of the men who were casually dating reported that they regularly consumed porn.
Qualitative research reveals that young women often feel pressured to play out the “scripts” their male partners had learned from porn —they feel badgered into having sex in uncomfortable positions, faking sexual responses, and consenting to unpleasant or painful acts.
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.
Research has shown that those who don’t consume porn report higher relationship quality—on every measure— than those who viewed pornography alone.
One study that kept track of couples over time found that consuming porn was the second strongest predictor that a relationship would suffer.
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