Parenting Teens: Teenagers & Porn

Today I would like to talk to you about how to talk to your teenage sons and daughters after you find that they have watched pornography because it is likely that you will at some point find that they have been curious enough to look at porn. My first suggestion is that you don’t embarrass them about their curiosity. My second suggestion is that you make it clear that you don’t think that it is a good idea for them to make a habit of watching porn. My concern is that porn sets up unrealistic expectations of sexuality and does not address the body-heart connection.

Most importantly, as we know, pornography does not always portray men and women treating each other in the most tender fashion to say the least. And, we do want our teens to think about intimate relationships in a loving and tender manner, correct?

Abel described the appeal of Internet porn, “I think to an extent it’s actually being physically turned on by the rapid deviance, by sort of the addictive progressive perversity of being able to click from one climactic scene to another.” Wolf said that pornography consumption can diminish men’s ability to climax and become aroused with their real-life partners, and Johnson pointed out that the ubiquity of porn creates a sexual standard that impacts women just as much as it does men. “It creates certain expectations about what women will be willing to do, what women like. It informs how women think they have to behave in sexual situations,” she said.