This document discusses research on the effects of pornography on male adolescents. It explores how pornography exposure influences adolescent male socialization, attitudes, and perceptions of sexuality. While pornography may help some explore their interests, it also provides unrealistic depictions that could hinder real-life experiences. Effects depend on factors like amount of use and how individuals perceive the content.

1. Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY ON MALE ADOLESCENTS 1
Integration Research Paper
The Effects of Pornography
Lindsay Albert-Endicott
Integration of Knowledge in Social Science
300-A02-HR
Trevor Corless
May 4th, 2015

2. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 2
Puberty is a time when many adolescents are introduced to and test their curiosity of sex.
Pornography is a common way this is exhibited (Hardy, 2004). Pornography is defined in this
paper as any visual material containing explicit display of sexual organs or activity, for the
purpose of stimulating erotic emotions. Pornography could be used as a sex manual, presenting
new ideas such as positions and role-play (Hardy, 2004). Women are more likely to have
negative perceptions of pornography, due to the fact that they are typically the main subject of its
representation (Sharp & Joslyn, 2001). How may accessible pornography affect young men’s
perception of women and overall sexual psychological health? How is this established during the
process of socialization?
Sociology
Socialization is the process by which the member of a certain society learns and adapts to
the norms, customs and cultures necessary in order to successfully integrate into their society.
Violent pornography is defined as “sexually explicit material that portrays sexually violent or
sexually coercive acts” (Fisher & Grenier, 1994).
The first occurrences of porn use are usually accidental and done only for the purpose of
curiosity and not for sexual arousal. Men watch pornography much more regularly than women
(Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). Pornography contributes to the enculturation of young men into
sexual subjectivity. In a group of men, pornographic magazines can be the subject used to
desensitize the younger men into the sexist culture (Hardy, 2004). Males are more exposed to
pornography as they are socialized, and are more likely to actively seek pornography than
females are (Bryant, 2010). According to Brant (2010), 73% of males compared to 11% of
females will watch X-rated videos. It was further found that 84% of males compared to 60% of
females will be inadvertently exposed to online pornography, and 38% of males compared with

3. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 3
2% of females will deliberately access pornography online. Other foundations for sexual
socialization includes the media, family, peers, culture and society, and may either amplify or
moderate the effects of pornography exposure (Bryant, 2010).
Within the last few decades, pornography has clearly become easier for young people to
access with the expansion of online pornography, along with increased ability to access (Beaver
& Paul, 2011; Garlick, 2011). Between 1998 and 2007, pornography websites increased from
28,000 to over four million. Pornography gives users the idea that men are super masculine, and
that women are compliant and experience many orgasms. It is possible that higher levels of
pornography use can broaden users' knowledge of sex and specific types of sexual activities.
(Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014).
Men believe that males need pornography, whereas women do not commonly share the
same belief. Women tend to see pornography use as an immature male trait. The majority of
women and feminists critiques the sexually explicit material and finds it to be offensive to
themselves and degrading to women in general (Garlick, 2010) due to the lack of realistic
representation of female sexuality. (Hardy, 2004)
It is noticeable that pornography generally describes the woman’s appearance, being
based around what she is doing and what she looks like. This stimulus makes it more difficult to
reverse the ideas (Hardy, 2004). Most pornography is geared towards the male population, and
thus women will have a harder time relating to it because of the angles in which it is filmed and
the attention on the female lead. A sample showed that 69% of full-screen genitalia exposures
were of women, and only 31% were of men (Peter, 2007).When the viewer is able to put
themselves in the setting of the erotic story, it is easily more enjoyable (Hardy, 2004; Carvalho et
al., 2013).

4. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 4
An ongoing debate argues that pornography can contribute to rape (Sharp & Joslyn,
2001). Women are more likely than men to perceive pornography negatively and attribute it with
contributing rape culture. This gender difference could be explained by the gap in sexual
socialization and exposure to erotic materials. Age, education, ideology and other factors can
affect the perception of rape. For example, individuals at a younger age, with a higher education,
less religious ideologies and more liberated political ideologies are usually less likely to have
negative views about rape effects of pornography. Also, those who have recently viewed
pornography can have less negative perceptions about the relation to rape effects (Sharp &
Joslyn, 2001), probably because being a user themselves, they are unlikely to perceive their own
behavior as negative. It is commonly believed that violent pornography can negatively affect
men’s attitudes and behaviors towards women, and that it can encourage men to poorly treat
women (Fisher & Grenier, 1994). Individuals typically make assumptions about a subject
(pornography specifically) based on their conceptions and expectations about the certain subject
under analysis. Attitudes, predispositions and personal experience with the issue are usual
predictors of individuals who will relate pornography with rape (Sharp & Joslyn, 2001).
Psychology
Adolescence refers to a physical and psychological transitional stage of human
development from child to adult which generally occurs during the period of puberty. The
transition from curious us into sexual use of pornography usually happens during adolescence
(Hardy, 2004). The majority of young adults have been exposed to pornography (Lundin Kvalem
et al., 2014). By the age of fifteen, more than 80% of males engage in masturbation, but only
20% of females (Hardy, 2004).

5. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 5
Part of the joy of pornography use is a power complex. Teenage boys will feel in a
position of power by being able to look at a nude woman (Hardy, 2004). They may feel that what
they are doing is not consensual and is unwanted by the women in the stimuli. This gives them
the feel of the "Peeping Tom". A positive effect is that a variety of women viewed in
pornography is good way for young boys to explore their sexuality and find their “type” (Hardy,
2004). Preferred hair color and type, race, and eye color on a woman shown in porn can help
teen boys discover their likes and dislikes, and get them comfortable in their sexuality.
Erotic material can be used by teen males to imagine what real sex would/will be like.
Pornography provides a contribution to the construction of young men’s internal working model
of female sexuality, which includes expectations. Erotic material demonstrates female pleasure
through the lens of masculine sexual fantasies, making the depiction distorted from reality
(Morrison et al., 2004). The obvious negative effect of this is that by the time they encounter
their first real-life sexual experience, their only comparison to it would be to the way actors
portrayed how sex should be. An average person with personal sexual experiences similar to that
in the material is psychologically able to recognize that a large chunk of sexually explicit content
is fictional displays of reality (Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). An adolescent boy cannot make
these connections due to lack of experience and can therefore take it to be reality (Bryant, 2010;
Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). Young men can interpret pornography as telling them that women
like to be dominated by a male figure and that they are much easily satisfied during sex than
what is true. These ideas can cause resentment of the male towards porn after recognizing that it
is not realistic. When young men have their first sexual encounter, they are often surprised at the
difference between what they’ve seen in magazines or on videos, and what real sex is like
(Hardy, 2004). In this way, porn can damage the teen’s sexual experiences and sexuality by

6. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 6
being an inadequate resource for real life (Hardy, 2004; Bryant, 2010). An average pornography
user who has had similar sexual experiences as those seen in pornographic films is
psychologically capable of recognizing that a large chunk of sexually explicit content is fictional
representations of reality (Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). Adolescents do not have the capacity or
experience to acknowledge and be aware of the messages meant to be subtle (Bryant, 2010).
Therefore the effects of pornography are stronger on adolescents than on experienced adults.
Adolescents are being exposed to pornography, which is a cause for concern because this
exposure may transform sexual attitudes and behaviors and ultimately change sexuality and
relationships.
Due to the inconsistency of evidence found for the effects of violent pornography,
exposure to violent pornography is not a reliable contributor of rape and rape acceptance (Fisher
& Grenier, 1994). Hours of pornography viewing has been disproved to indicate attitudes toward
women. Although, male adolescents who unintentionally view online pornography anonymously
are more likely to later gain sexist attitudes towards women than are those who have not
accidentally viewed online pornography (Jae Woong & Paul, 2014). This can be caused by the
fact that when individuals are under the impression that nobody is watching, they are less self-
aware and therefore less considerate of others. Anonymous pornography offers instant
psychological rewards, which causes an increased chance of young male viewers behaving in
ways that are considered socially deviant and antisocial. Viewers who feel they are watching
pornography anonymously are more willing to view hardcore porn than those who do not feel
anonymous. This can be explained by the fact that individuals who are secluded do not need to
pay attention to social norms such as the association of sexual media with negative meaning, and
after unplanned contact with pornography they become more responsive to the given stimuli.

7. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 7
Social comparison to the actors depicted within pornography may alter one's body image
and self-esteem. Someone who notices the similarities between themselves and the actors and
take a positive perception of the images may develop a more positive body satisfaction and self-
esteem, whereas someone with more self-doubts and a higher self-consciousness may cause
lower self-esteem (Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). The link between male genitals in pornography
and self consciousness of young men is dependent on the degree of variability of genitals
portrayed within. The lack of variability in male genitals in traditional pornography has been
linked to the self-consciousness of many men due to their believed to be small penis size (Lundin
Kvalem et al., 2014; Morrison et al., 2004), whereas the variability of genitals on the internet
may have a positive influence on the sexual self-esteem of young males. Users with a higher
consumption of internet pornography are more likely to report a more positive self perception of
their own sexuality (Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014).
Conclusion
This paper discussed pornography use and its effect on the psychology of young males.
Pornographic magazines are an important transitional stage of enculturation for young males to
become adjusted in a highly sexualized society (Hardy, 2004). Pornography gives an inaccurate
description of real life sex such as how women are portrayed as exaggeratedly submissive and
compliant whilst men are described as excessively masculine and dominating (Lundin Kvalem et
al., 2014). Regardless of the ongoing debate on whether or not pornography (Sharp & Joslyn,
2001) (especially of the violent type) (Fisher & Grenier, 1994) can be dangerous or not, it has
actually not been proven to have any correlation to rape (Fisher & Grenier, 1994). The rape
effects with regards to pornography are less likely to be viewed by males than females (Sharp &
Joslyn, 2001). Self esteem and body image can either be affected positively or negatively,

8. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 8
depending on the viewer's perception of pornography (Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). Young
males enjoy the power that they feel when looking at pornography. They can explore different
"types" of women and get comfortable with their sexuality (Hardy, 2004).
The disciplines of sociology and psychology disciplines really complement each other
within this topic. The sociological aspect of pornography is interesting in that it explains how the
opinions of pornography differ between the genders of male and female. The psychological
aspect of pornography explains the reasons why people use pornography in relation to the
psychological benefits it may provide to them. It also lists some negative effects that
pornography can have on one's perception of women and sex life in general.
The use of pornography has not been found to directly be a factor in negatively
influencing teen male's views of women. Although, if the user is inadvertently exposed to
internet pornography anonymously, they may develop negative attitudes towards women later on
because being alone causes an individual to have less self-awareness and less consideration for
others (Jae Woong & Paul, 2014). Young males typically enjoy the feeling of power that
pornography gives them. Although this can be worrying, it is not likely to be harmful. They are
simply exploring their sexuality. Pornography gives young males a head start in narrowing down
their preferences to their "type" (Hardy, 2004). Sexually explicit material is generally quite
unrealistic as to what sex is in real life (Hardy, 2004; Morrison et al., 2004). This can potentially
hinder the future sexuality of a young male because they will not be prepared for reality.
Pornography use can either help or hinder the body image and self-esteem of its viewers,
depending on how the viewer perceives the material (Lundin Kvalem et al., 2014). It is possible
that higher levels of pornography use can broaden users' knowledge of sex and specific types of
sexual activities.

9. The Effects of Pornography on Male Adolescents 9
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