Becoming a teenager means that there are a lot of changes your child will experience. First, school will become increasingly difficult, which can cause more stress and anxiety than before.
Second, your teen will have to learn how to forge friendships and relationships with his or her peers. As kids, it was a lot easier to schedule play dates and strike up a bond with anyone around the same age. As a teen, however, it’s a lot more challenging.
Finally, hormones are also coming into play. The teenage years can be a mix of different emotions, and it’s when your child will start to learn more about his or her sexuality. Unfortunately, a side effect of that can be watching porn.
Teens and Porn – The Numbers
Although getting precise data about the viewing habits of teenagers is difficult, there are a few studies that can help shed light on the subject.
- In one study, 42% of boys in grades four through 11 had watched pornography and reported that they seek it out regularly.
- Another study suggests that up to 90% of boys and 60% of girls are exposed to porn by the time they reach 18.
- 66% of teens and children say that they weren’t searching for porn, but came across it by accident.
While we can’t say for sure what the numbers are, these statistics paint a troubling picture. Also, as technology becomes more prolific, it’s never been easier for children and teenagers to access explicit material. When you can search for anything on your phone, it’s almost impossible to avoid porn online.
The Effects of Porn on Teens
Porn addiction is slowly becoming recognized more and more as a genuine affliction (like drug or alcohol abuse), but the fact is that watching porn can do some hefty damage to your teenager. Let’s break down the ways that pornography can hurt your teen.
Avoiding Schoolwork
Now that homework and classes are getting harder, your teen is going to be much less motivated to succeed. Even if you try and stimulate your child, that doesn’t guarantee any action on his or her part.
The problem lies with instant gratification. Doing well in school and getting good grades is going to pay off in the long term, but it can be difficult to feel that when you’re in class. Unless your teenager is strongly motivated to do well, he or she may not see the immediate benefit.
Porn, on the other hand, offers an instant escape and reward. The arousal that it stimulates is powerful and can hijack your teen’s emotions. Simply put, your child will be much more interested in watching porn than working on math problems.
When you also throw puberty into the mix, things can get dangerous. Your teenager is experiencing a lot of hormonal changes, and arousal is one of them. No matter how focused your teen can be on a topic, anything related to sex can override his or her ability to think clearly.
Overall, easy access to porn coupled with the intense (but empty) satisfaction it provides can spell disaster for your teen’s interest in school, and subsequently his or her grades.
Forming Relationships
Another side effect of watching porn at an early age is that it can warp your teen’s ideas of what it’s like to be in a relationship. Because porn makes it all about sex and instant gratification, your child may think that that’s how it should be.
On top of that, watching porn can make it harder to be intimate with a person when the time comes. While we aren’t saying that your teen should be having sex at this point, the foundations that come from these viewing habits can have devastating results later in life.
What Can You Do?
Unfortunately, pornography is everywhere, and it’s easily accessible. However, that doesn’t mean that you’re powerless to stop its effects from taking hostage of your teen’s life and behaviors. Here are some options that can help.
Talk to Your Teenager
Yes, it may seem awkward to talk to your kids about sex and porn, but the fact is that not doing this is the same as condoning the behavior. Also, it’s going to be much harder to convince to your teen to avoid these habits if he or she is already engaging in them, so the sooner you can do it, the better.
When talking to your teen, you want to provide a positive support network. You want to outline your concerns and discuss potential ways of avoiding the problems that porn watching can have. It’s also crucial that you listen to your child, rather than coming down with a blanket restriction. If your teen can’t come to you with problems, then he or she will go elsewhere.
Help Out With School Work
If your teenager is struggling with a particular subject, then you should be the one to support them. Does that mean that you have to be an expert in chemistry or history? Absolutely not. You can find ways to help your teenager learn the subject matter and make the experience less challenging.
When you make school a positive experience, your child is much more likely to see the benefit and avoid putting it off.
Bottom Line
Porn habits can take hold at an early age, and the longer it persists, the harder it is to break. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your teenager doesn’t become another victim of pornography. Be proactive about it, and you will see results.
