Adolescents' Exposure to X-Rated Material & Early Sexual Experimentation: .
Picture yourself perusing the Internet for tickets to see Bon Jovi at the Orpheum. At the bottom right of the page you see a picture of a practically nude woman who is "looking for some fun " in your area. If you click on her picture, it directs you to an X-rated website, offering movies, images, and all kinds of graphic material. Though you may be mature enough to see websites such as this, some "ankle-biters " are not. Exposure to sexually explicit material as an adolescent may lead to an early onset of experimenting with sexual behavior, including unsafe sexual activities. Subsequently, you will find great detail about attitudes formed after viewing sexually explicit material that may lead to engaging in sexual, and possibly unsafe, behaviors, such as more permissive sexual norms, acceptance of uncommitted sexual activity, progressive gender norms, sexual uncertainty, and negativity toward contraceptives. Following that, ways will be discussed in which parents can prevent adolescents from viewing pornography, like talking about sex with their children at a young age, as well as monitoring their Internet usage.
I. Permissive Sexual Norms & Progressive Gender Roles.
Adolescents who regularly view pornography tend to develop attitudes in favor of permissive sexual norms, as well as less progressive gender roles, which may lead to early experimentation with sexual activities. A study conducted by Brown et al. aids in strengthening this argument. They were interested in finding correlations between the early onset of sexually explicit material and gender role attitudes, sexual norms, sexual harassment, and engaging in oral sex and intercourse. They argued that exposure to pornographic material would lead to these characteristics later in their lifetime: more permissive sexual norms, less progressive gender roles, and more likely to sexually harass another individual.
