Teenagers and Pornography - Capstone Project Example

Capstone Week 6 Assignment I did not feel that I had any challenges in synthesizing my information for the literature review because by this time, I have done several literature reviews for different projects. The only challenge I had with synthesizing and integrating the resources for my literature review was that there were more articles about teen sexual addiction than there were for teen porn. The literature that was read explained that part of the challenge in this area is that teens are under age and this makes it difficult to construct studies about their sexual habits. Also, the fact that most teens do not like to talk about this has created challenges with finding the data on this problem. Basically, this was the only challenge that I encountered. Teens are vulnerable to pornography and if they are allowed to find it on the Internet, their behavior changes. I saw this as an interesting issue because I did not think that viewing pornography would create a change in the way that teens interacted with their peers. The literature said that many teens begin to act out or to develop a stronger idea of permissiveness as it related to sex. To this researcher, it seemed that there were challenges for teens that were premature in their origin. Many teens may not be able to handle seeing pornography over a period of time without having adverse consequences. The literature on this topic also suggests that there are many interventions that need to be done to help teens who are addicted to sex and pornography but there is a lot of research that still needs to be done in this area. Assignment 3 Introduction When the word pornography is brought to the consciousness of most people, they think of images of men and women engaged in some sort of sexual play. Pornography has been around for many thousands of years, probably ever since there was some way to transmit written or photographic materials. In many cases, pornography is associated with adult males although adult females do look at pornography. It is therefore important to understand how the literature is using this word, and in this research, how the word is applied to teen addiction. In order to understand this research, it was important to check with specific databases of information. For this review the Internet was used and the following keywords were Goggled: teens and pornography, teens and pornography addiction, teens and sexual addiction, teens and internet addition to porn. These keywords were repeated in several databases including Academic Search Premier, CINAHL with Full Text, Medline, PsycINFO and psycArticles. The literature pointed out the challenges that are present when attempting to study teens and addiction to pornography. One of the main challenges that was discussed was the fact that there is a limit to the amount of research that can be done with teens because of age and the topic as well as because teens do not talk about their sexual practices in study situations. Synthesis of Resources When faced with the idea that teens may be addicted to pornography, some people may not think that this is a very large issue. However, the use of the Internet has created addiction to pornography because children and teens have ready access to pornography sites unless parents are monitoring their every move on the Internet. According to all of the articles read for this literature review, many teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 have seen at least one or more pornographic sites (Freeman-Longo, 2000; Flood, 2004; Lundrigan, 2004). They are often shown these sites by their peers. In order to understand the extent of this problem, this researcher will present four articles in this literature synthesis to provide background information. Flood (2009) begins the discussion through his research on why pornography is harmful to children. He states that access to pornography is “routine” and that it has many adverse affects. In defining pornography he uses Malamuth’s definition which states that pornography is “sexually explicit media that are primarily intended to sexually arouse the audience” (Malamuth, 2001, p. 11817 cited in Flood, 2009, p. 385). The article explains how pornography is dangerous for young people and spotlights the challenges that can occur. As an example, some of the challenges that a teen can have when viewing pornography is that they do not have any knowledge to compare what they see with over time. How a child is affected will depend on several factors: their developmental level, the age at which they begin to see pornography, their gender and their previous sexual experience may all have to do with how they are affected by pornography (Flood, 2009). This article gave depth into what to consider when studying this topic and the factors that impact. The challenge was that it did not explain how children become addicted to pornography or the fact that they do. The author mentions that addiction can come from viewing pornography but he states this in general terms instead of relating it directly to teens. Freeman-Longo (2000) studied the effects of pornography and how easily accessible it is to young people through the Internet. He states that just by typing the word “sex” into Google or other search engines, a teenager or child can have access to thousands of sites. In fact, an individual who does not have parental controls on their computer can actually sign up for emails from sites that invite them to view pornographic sites. This information was astonishing because it added depth to this discussion. The author’s main objective was to use a grounded theory approach to how he presented the information for his study, which this researcher was not sure why he chose this method. The author gave an in-depth look at the various ways that children can have access to pornography on the Internet and these include not only through going to specific sites and receiving email, but also through chat rooms where children may go to find sex, even though they are underage (Freeman-Longo, 2000). In chat rooms, children are exposed to a diversity of sexual comments, and many (especially males in this research) were soliciting sex from females in chat rooms. Freeman-Longo attempts to draw specific lines between what constitutes a caring relationship online and one that includes sex. The information given was very good because it added another facet to this researcher’s capstone. The problem of teen addiction to pornography is the topic of my capstone and the fact that it has become more of a problem is the basic premise for the problem statement. This article gave more information in this area and it was geared towards helping the reader relate to this problem. Freeman-Longo also gives the warning signs that a parent can become aware of when a child is becoming addicted. This was a very good article giving lots of information to further the understanding of this topic. Another aspect of my capstone project is to look at whether teen pornography addiction is a problem across the world. There are a few articles on this topic that show how this may happen. Häggström-Nordin, Tydén, and Larsson (2009) interviewed Swedish high school students to understand their attitudes about pornography and sex in general. They studied a random sampling of 718 high school students who ranged in age from 17-21 years of age; the mean age was 18 years. This was a qualitative study that used a questionnaire of 89 questions that was distributed to these teens. The results of their study showed that more males than females had positive attitudes about pornography and that boys tended to be more open to sexual permissiveness than girls. The researchers felt that when looking at teenage programs on sex, counselors and others should understand the differences between the perceptions of sex for their students so that the programs can be geared towards these issues. The article was based on very good research and this gave another layer to the capstone project. I believe that the attitudes of children towards sex and towards pornography are important to consider when doing a project of this nature. The article points out that boys are usually more permissive when they think about sex than girls, and this may be because of the way they are raised (e.g. boys are raised to believe that having more than one sexual partner is okay, where girls are taught that they should be married before they have sex). The researchers used a questionnaire and I wondered whether the students told the truth on the questionnaires or not and whether this was factored into the study. In the study 86% of students said that they had accessed pornography at one time and some had looked at violent or hardcore pornography; they had a response rate to the questionnaire of 86%. Melby (2010) began his article by stating that a rough estimate of the number of sites providing porn to teenagers was seen at about 400 million. The article also stated that both boys and girls are looking at porn and that this behavior begins by about eleven years old. Often, teens are looking at several sites before they talk to their parents about what they have seen, and some may never talk to their parents about it. Also, Melby’s article gives information on other researchers who are studying the fact that pornography is becoming more popular among teens. On study in Melby’s article stated that children said they could tell the difference between fantasy play and actual sexual experience. This seemed to be a bit far fetched and in my opinion, this would depend on the individual’s developmental level, their experience with sex prior to looking at pornography and whether they had parents who talked to them about sex or not. References Flood, M. (2009). The harms of pornography exposure among children and young adults. Child Abuse Review, 18, 384-400. doi: 10.1002/car/1092 Freeman-Longo, R.E. (2000). Children, teens, and sex on the Internet. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 7 (1/2) 75-90. Retrieved from Academic Premier database. Häggström-Nordin, E., Tydén, T.,, T, and Larsson, M. (2009). Experience of and attitudes towards pornography among a group of Swedish high school students. European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care. 14 (4), 277-284. doi: 10.1080/13625180903028171 Melby, T. (2010). Teens, porn and the digital age. (cover story). Contemporary Sexuality, 44 (9), 1-5. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Read More