Adolescents and Pornography – A study by the MUSA group
| More and more pornography for ever younger users. It is what emerges from a study just published in Societies magazine, ed Loredana Cerbara, Giulia Ciancimino e Antonio Tintori, IRPPS, and Gianni Corsetti, ISTAT. In addition to highlighting theincreased use of pornography associated with a decrease in the age of its users, the research confirmed his reflections on the development of social and sexual identity. These are negative impacts on primary emotions, self-esteem and body satisfaction in adolescents and girls. But the study reveals in particular how early exposure to pornography also has positive effects, but only on girls. In fact, a strengthening gender stereotypes in the context of relationships, adherence to gender roles also in the sexual sphere and an increase in tolerance towards discriminatory, violent and deviant behaviour. Conversely, for girls, pornography is aexperience of sexual liberation which, unlike males, goes beyond the confines of the stereotyped hierarchies of social spaces. This diversity is the result, according to the authors, of the "binary" socialization still prevalent today, which reproduces gender stereotypes from generation to generation, inducing a passive adherence to predefined male and female social roles. The findings of this research suggest the importance and urgency of asex education that it is possibly offered in a school environment and with the mediation of professionals. This, in order to promote a critical - and not just passive - approach capable of overcoming the taboo of sex and going beyond mainstream, heterosexual and masculinized pornography, which provides a homogenized and unrealistic image of bodies, sexual performances and relationships social. The study was conducted with a psychosocial research approach and is drawn from the results of the national survey The state of adolescence 2023, which involved 4288 young high school students throughout the peninsula. Internationally, many studies have investigated the negative effects of early exposure to pornography, but the results are often controversial, due to the use of different research techniques and both methodological and theoretical shortcomings. |
