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Pornography in the Bedroom in a Digital Age
Saturday April 2, 2011
by Daniel Weiss
Not Under the Mattress
Not too long ago, parents may have been shocked to find a Playboy magazine stuffed under the mattress in a teen’s bedroom. While that may still occur, chances are greater that teens today are accessing pornography on any number of media devices.
Further, research shows that significant numbers of youth have access to these devices in the privacy of their bedrooms, away from the supervision of parents.
Among 8- to 18-year-olds, percent with each item in their bedroom 1
|
|
2009 |
2004 |
1999 |
|
Radio |
75% |
84% |
86% |
|
TV |
71 |
68 |
65 |
|
CD player |
68 |
86 |
88 |
|
DVD/VCR |
57 |
54 |
36 |
|
Cable/satellite TV |
49 |
37 |
29 |
|
Computer |
36 |
31 |
21 |
|
Internet access |
33 |
20 |
10 |
|
Video game console |
50 |
49 |
45 |
|
Premium channels |
24 |
20 |
15 |
|
TiVo/other TV recording device |
13 |
10 |
N/A |
TV – Parents may not realize how sexualized even broadcast television has become.
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Among the top 20 most-watched shows by teens, 70 percent include of sexual content, and nearly half (45%) include sexual behavior. 2
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The proportion of prime-time broadcast shows with sexual content has also increased: 77 percent in 2005, compared with 67 percent in 1998.3
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98 percent of the sexual incidents involving underage female characters occurred outside of a committed relationship. 4
DVD/VCR – Parents may not realize that many films popular with teens are rated R for sexual content and that many of them are released on DVD as unrated in order to add nudity and sexualized scenes that weren’t shown in the theater. Also, most libraries do not restrict younger teens from borrowing R-rated and unrated DVDs.
Cable/satellite – Basic cable TV now includes nudity and highly sexual and adult-themed shows. Further, late-night commercials often promote graphic sex-themed videos.
Premium channels – Networks like Showtime, HBO, BRAVO, Starz and others routinely feature films and series that include graphic sexuality and full-frontal nudity.
TiVo/other TV recording devices – Obviously, if any of the programs on broadcast TV, basic or premium cable are available in a household, they can also be recorded for later viewing in a teen’s bedroom.
Computer –Even without Internet access, youth can view images or movies that a friend has downloaded to a CD, DVD or thumb drive.
Internet – Many homes with children still do not have filters on the Internet. Even among those homes that do have limits, children can still bypass most filters. Internet access in the bedroom is a recipe for disaster.
Video game consoles – Most of these systems are designed to connect to the Internet for multi-player games, but they can also browse the Internet just like any computer. Newer hand-held and portable game players also can connect to the Internet.
Cellphones – Smart-phones can access the Internet, making many youth vulnerable to pornography exposure. Parents might not realize that these phones can be outfitted with Internet filtering.
iPods/iPads – Apple sells many racy applications (“apps”) for iPods, iPhones and iPads. These devices also have significant video and photo storage capacity, where youths could store harmful content.
Youth with the highest rates of pornography exposure also report the fewest media rules
Youth reporting online pornography exposure in 2005 5
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|
Unwanted |
Wanted |
Total |
|
Age |
Boys |
Girls |
Boys |
Girls |
Boys |
Girls |
|
10-11 |
17% |
16% |
1% |
2% |
18% |
18% |
|
12-13 |
22 |
24 |
11 |
3 |
33 |
27 |
|
14-15 |
26 |
37 |
26 |
5 |
52 |
42 |
|
16-17 |
30 |
38 |
38 |
8 |
68 |
46 |
Research shows that parental supervision, at least regarding media rules, decreases significantly in the later teen years. Only 3 percent of 8- to 10-year-olds report having no media rules compared with nearly one in three 15- to 18-year-olds. It is likely that high rates of pornography exposure are related to lax media rules in the home.
Percent who say they have rules (by age)[vi]
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|
8-10 |
11-14 |
15-18 |
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What allowed to do on computer |
64% |
60% |
36% |
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What allowed to watch on TV |
66 |
51 |
26 |
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Percent who say they have: |
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|
|
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Any rules, enforced most of the time |
38 |
29 |
16 |
|
Any rules, enforced sometimes or less |
43 |
43 |
33 |
|
No rules |
3 |
11 |
30 |
Conclusion
Given the potential lifelong impact of pornography exposure, and the high rates of media use in the bedroom among teens, parents may want to undertake a total media review for their children, including setting commonsense boundaries, conducting media education and installing filtering tools on devices with Internet access.
Daniel Weiss is ROCK's director of research and national outreach.
Endnotes
1 Victoria J. Rideout, Ulla G. Foehr, and Donald F. Roberts, “ GENERATION M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds,” The Kaiser Family Foundation, January 2010, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf
2 Dale Kunkel, Keren Eyal, Keli Finnerty, Erica Biely, & Ed ward Donnerstein, “Sex on TV 4,” Kaiser Family Foundation, November 2005, http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/Sex-on-TV-4-Full-Report.pdf
3 “Sex on TV 4,” November 2005.
4 “Tinseltown’s New Target: A study of Teen Female Sexualization on Primetime TV,” December 15, 2010.
5 Wolak, Mitchell, Finkelhor, “Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users,” PEDIATRICS, February 2007.
6 “ GENERATION M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds,” The Kaiser Family Foundation, January 2010.
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