Youth exposure to pornography and violent web sites

Ybarra, Michele. (2008).  Youth exposure to pornography and violent web sites. Presented at the Internet Safety Technical Taskforce 2nd Meeting, Washington, DC.

Summary:

This presentation explores youth exposure to x-rated material, including examination of unwanted and wanted exposure and comparisons of online and offline exposure. Also explored is exposure to violence online including hate sites, death sites, sites depicting scenes of war, death, terrorism, and cartoon sites.

Findings for exposure to x-rated material include:

- Older youth and boys are more likely to report looking at x-rated material. Children are not likely to look at porn(<1%).

- The Internet is not the most common access point for x-rated material.

- Youth reporting exposure to x-rated material are more likely to also report a myriad of other concurrent psychosocial problems. It is possible that x-rated material is a marker for concern for some youth whereas in other cases it is a marker for developmentally normative sexual curiosity.

Findings for exposure to violent web sites include:

- Older youth are more likely to seek out violent web sites, but there are no apparent differences between boys and girls.

- The 1-year prevalence rates of exposure to death sites and hate sites are low: 2-4%.

- In addition to exposure to violent web sites, these youth are significantly more likely to have other challenges going on in their lives.

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