New Zealand releases new ad educating teenagers about porn

Big educational energy.

A new campaign ad aimed at teaching children and teenagers about porn has gone viral - and not just because it uses seemingly nude porn actors, but because it's fairly clever, actually. The ad, released by the New Zealand government, shows two porn actors Sue and Derek show up to a woman's home to inform her that her son has been watching them online - but that what they're doing is not reflective of real life sex. “We usually perform for adults, but your son is just a kid," explains Sue in the ad. "He might not know how relationships actually work.” The pair say that they don't usually discuss consent before having sex on camera, but just "get straight to it." Derek added: “I’d never act like that in real life.” The ad then cuts to the young boy, who drops his bowl of cereal when he spots Sue and Derek chatting away casually to his mother at the front door. A narrator concludes the ad by saying: "Many young Kiwis are using porn to learn about sex. Keep it real online.” The informative, clever, and really quite genius ad comes as part of the New Zealand government's 'Keep It Real Online' series, a campaign aimed towards children and young adults who are inevitably going to spend a sufficient amount of time frequenting the web. A recent report found that most New Zealand teenagers are learning about sex online, with many using porn sites are their prime method of sex education. The stats aren't much more encouraging here in Ireland, with many young people reporting porn to be a "useful" means of sex ed. A 2018 report from Youth Work Ireland showed that 20 percent of young people found pornography to be a useful tool of education, while only nine percent felt that their behaviour was in any way influenced by teachers. The report also found that Irish boys were five times more likely (14 percent) to be influenced by pornography than girls (three percent). Just 26 percent of those surveyed said they were comfortable talking about sex with their parents.

Hilary Ngan Kee from Motion Sickness, the agency behind New Zealand's ad campaign, said that while parents shouldn't be expected to teach their children everything, they should have the necessary tools to protect them.

“Parents should feel confident when dealing with these issues," she said. "At the end of the day, they’re the best person to keep their child safe.

“You don’t need to have all the answers, but supporting your child and giving that ‘adult’ guidance as they navigate the choppy waters of the online world will really make a difference."

The ever growing numbers of young people using pornography as their prime education tool when it comes to sex isn't just concerning because of the inaccuracies in the act itself, but because of the total lack of discussion around consent. Porn operates as a sexual stimulant, not a how-to guide. And yet, it's hardly surprisingly the numbers of teenagers who are using it as such when their own sex education is so poor. While a lot of teenagers will opt to watch porn online, it is paramount that they understand that what they are watching is not accurate, relevant to their own sexual experiences, or reflective of how consenting adults have sex. As porn actor Derek says in the ad: "I'd never act like that in real life." You can check out the New Zealand government's full ad campaign here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94mINLDSWlk