10 good reasons to include porn in RSE

Including pornography in sex education SRE

10 good reasons to include porn in RSE ;

  1. Over half of 11-13 year olds have seen pornographic material before starting secondary education[1] and 94% have seen it by 14[2].
  2. 74% of 11-18 year olds say that porn should be discussed in sex education[3].
  3. Safety Net research says that pornography has a detrimental impact, including premature sexualisationnegative body image and unhealthy notions about relationships[4]
  4. Porn often depicts sex in ways that are threatening, misogynistic, violent and without boundaries[5].
  5. From the age of 7 girls feel the impact of daily sexist images in the media, online and around them[6].
  6. On first viewing pornography, young people were most likely to report that they felt curious (41%), shocked (27%), confused (24%) or disgusted (23%)[7].
  7. More than a third of teens rely on getting advice about sex from pornography[8].  
  8. The majority say they believe that the porn they watch is more educational than the SRE they receive in school[9].
  9. 53% of boys and 39% of girls consider porn a realistic depiction of sex[10]
  10. 42% of 15-16 year olds say pornography has given them ideas of sexual practices that they would like to emulate.[11]



[1]YoungMinds, January 2014

[2]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36527681

[3]NSPCC Sex education survey 2013

[4]http://www.safetynet.org.uk/thefacts.php#sthash.fMxj1GY9.dpuf  

[8]YouGov (2011)

[9]Author research based on date from 100 young people aged 11-19 asked independently as part of the research for ‘We need to talk about pornography’.