Youth Viewing Sexually Explicit Material Online: Addressing the Elephant on the Screen

Existing research demonstrates adolescents are increasingly using the Internet to learn about sex. This includes viewing sexually explicit material. Minimal scholarly work addresses the role of sexually explicit material in the lives of adolescents in the USA. This article reports findings drawn from open-ended semi-structured interviews with 51 young adults about their use of the Internet to learn about sex. Specifically discussed are the motivations for viewing sexually explicit material and participants’ responses to the material they viewed. Participants’ motivations for viewing sexually explicit content included curiosity about sex, curiosity about sexually explicit material, with romantic partners, in groups, or for individual sexual pleasure. Participants viewing of sexually explicit material as adolescents ranged from a minimal number of times to frequent and consistent viewing. Participants’ positive assessments of viewing sexually explicit material as adolescents included that some content portrayed a more realistic range of people and bodies than sexual content in mainstream media and that it was a safe means of exploring and learning about sexuality. Participants’ negative assessments of viewing sexually explicit material as adolescents included encountering upsetting content and feeling that it portrayed unrealistic sexual behaviors and interactions. Many participants described incorporating ideas gleaned from sexually explicit material into their sexual experiences. Participants with skills and resources to critically view sexually explicit material were most likely to assess it positively. Based on these findings, initial suggestions could be derived for how online sexual information as well as sexually explicit material might be responsibly addressed in formal sexual education settings.