Share
28th February 2019
05:20pm GMT
"One of the main concerns about porn is that it sets unrealistic standards for sex. But even though many people have these worries we continue to avoid talking about porn because, lets face it, it can be an uncomfortable topic – so we continue to worry about it, but don’t do anything to challenge these unrealistic representations. "Discussions about porn tend to be negative, and this idea can stop children from seeking help or support if they have an upsetting experience from watching porn". "Our programme aims to give young people information about real world sex, the porn industry and the different experiences of porn engagement so that people can make their own minds up about the sexual experiences that they want to have. And so they don’t feel like they have to do certain sexual things to be “good in bed” or to have satisfying sexual experiences".Data collected by NUI shows that 60 percent of Irish people will see porn for the first time before age 13 and that 50 percent of Irish students have used porn to learn about sex. The problem with this, according to Kate, is that porn is not designed to educate teenagers about sex.
"Porn can mislead some people on what they think is expected during sex".
Kate says that if students do not receive a good standard of sexual education, including porn literacy, they may struggle to understand the differences between sex in porn and sex in real life relationships.
Kate and her team have developed a programme for schools to break the stigma and shame of talking about sex and to teach older children about porn literacy. The first phase of the programme is intended for teenagers aged 15 and the team at NUI aim to further develop the intervention for different age groups, ensuring that the content is age -appropriate for each various stage.
Citing studies on the effectiveness of programmes like this, Kate says porn literacy helps to challenge ideas around the roles of men and women in sexual situations, such as the idea that men should be dominant while women are submissive.
There is evidence that in countries with comprehensive, non-biased sex education, people tend to have sex later than in countries with poor sex education. The average age people first have penetrative sex in Ireland is 17.
Kate is calling for teachers and parents to be provided with more support to talk to children about sex.
"We can’t expect people who may have had no sex education growing up to become comfortable talking about sex overnight. Teachers need good quality training on how to deliver sex education and parents need evidence-based resources that give practical information to help them in starting these conversations".Kate is keen to dispel the idea that a programme of this type encourages children to watch porn.
"The difference between developing a porn literacy intervention and a porn “education” intervention is that porn literacy will help people to develop critical thinking skills so that they can make decisions about their lives that coincide with their own values, where as “porn education” is simply about telling people how they should feel about porn. "It’s important to know that just because we start talking to people at a young age about sex and porn, does not mean that they will be encouraged to watch it. We talk openly about sex and challenge people’s understanding of the central issues; how porn portrays sexual communication and consent, body image, sexual functioning, pleasure and also sexual experiences that are specific to LGBT+ persons".While Kate empathises with parents who struggle with these conversations, she says we need to be realistic.
"I understand that it is a difficult topic but we cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope that children and young teenagers won’t see porn because that is not the reality of the world we live in".
Explore more on these topics:
