With the Internet making video content available to billions worldwide, sexually explicit material has never been more accessible to young adults.
More than two-thirds of adolescents said they had watched pornography in a 2019 sample study, while a different study found that 76.5 percent of surveyed college students across four countries reported viewing sexual materials online. The Internet has quickly exploded as a major medium for adult entertainment, with the industry estimated to be worth more than $1 billion in 2023.
The effects — both positive and negative — of pornography on young people’s sexual and mental health have been widely evaluated. Studies have found that watching pornography could promote unrealistic expectations about sex, as adolescents might assume that real-life intimacy is similar to what they watch on a screen. Viewing sexually explicit material can also contribute to adolescents viewing women as “sex objects” and leading young men to tolerate dating and sexual violence, one study found. Other reports highlighted how pornography can be used as a tool for young adults to explore their own sexual identity while boosting self-confidence.
Mansi Sinha, the president of Planned Parenthood Generation Binghamton, discussed the complex relationship young people have with online sexual content.
“Because mainstream pornography often prioritizes performance over communication, intimacy, or safety, young people may internalize harmful ideas about sex being purely physical rather than emotional or relational,” Sinha, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, wrote. “At the same time, increased accessibility to sexual content has also facilitated more open conversations about sexuality, pleasure, and identity. With the rise of sex-positive influencers, educational accounts, and discussions on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, there is more awareness about topics like consent, communication, and sexual health. This can help counteract some of the misinformation or unrealistic portrayals found in pornography.”
Human beings have shared sexually suggestive or explicit content long before the digital age began. The Ancient Greeks and Romans created erotic displays of art, with frescoes and pottery bearing images of various sexual acts between two or more people. The Kama Sutra, an ancient Indian Sanskrit text written thousands of years ago, describes forms of intimacy and sexual techniques while also addressing larger questions about life.
In 1748, English author John Cleland’s famous erotic novel “Fanny Hill” was derided as pornographic and obscene for centuries afterward. Silent films at the turn of the 20th century featured the first sex scenes while loosening moral attitudes by the 1960s propelled the release of hardcore films throughout the following decades.
The advent of the Internet facilitated the spread of pornography in an unparalleled fashion. In 1998, five years after the public gained access to the World Wide Web, there were around 60,000 erotic websites on the Internet in the United States. A 2011 estimate from a high-level Internet service provider in the United States found that more than 15 percent of all mobile video traffic was traced to adult entertainment websites.
The rapid proliferation of pornography has left even young children vulnerable to adult content exposure. In the United Kingdom, findings from a survey commissioned by the Children’s Commissioner Office found that half of sampled 16- to 21-year-olds were exposed to pornography by the age of 13. A gender gap was also seen among boys and girls who watched pornography, with 21 percent of 16- to 21-year-old males viewing pornography at least once per day over a two-week period, compared to seven percent of girls.
Additionally, LGBTQ+ young adults view pornography more frequently than heterosexual adolescents — with erotic content potentially serving as a source of information for queer adolescents when such information is unavailable in other sexual education programs, according to one study. Conservative activists in largely Republican states have in recent years pushed for the censorship of readings in public schools that feature LGBTQ+ representation — with activists falsely labeling many of these books as being pornographic or “indecent.”
“The label ‘pornography’ has been used to stigmatize LGBTQ+ culture, especially when it comes to drag and drag queens,” wrote Nicholas Ginsberg, a student manager for Binghamton University’s Q Center and a junior double-majoring in political science and sociology. “We’ve seen drag queen story times in local libraries labeled as ‘pornography’ to youth. Labeling queer representation as ‘pornography’ to shield it from LGBTQ+ youth has been especially problematic within red states with LGBTQ+ youth.”
Students at BU have access to a variety of sexual health resources. The Decker Student Health Services Center on campus offers testing for STIs and HIV and access to PrEP and PEP medications for HIV exposure. The Q Center, established in 2015, offers a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ students to explore their identity and connect with others. Nearby clinics like Family Planning of South Central New York and the Southern Tier Women’s Health Services LLC offer a range of treatments, including access to birth control.
“As for striking a balance, distinguishing between social media (or pornography) and real life is crucial,” Sinha wrote. “A healthy approach could involve: Consuming educational content alongside entertainment-based sexual content. This includes resources about safe sex, emotional well-being, and healthy relationships. Practicing media literacy by critically analyzing the messages portrayed in pornography and recognizing that it does not always reflect reality. Prioritizing real-world intimacy and communication by fostering open conversations about boundaries, desires, and consent in personal relationships.”